Monkeying Around at the Movies
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens this weekend. Thanks to motion capture technology and the talents of the actors, the apes are amazingly realistic. Especially when compared to the primates that captured Charlton Heston’s character in the 1968 movie Planet of the Apes.
After being exposed to a drug treatment meant to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, these lab animals escaped and took over the city of San Francisco, driving the surviving humans into hiding.
However not every one in your family may be ready for gorillas with guns. If you need a more family friendly primate to bring home, check out one of these options.
For the very youngest family members the animated movie Curious George is a gentle and sweet adaptation of the book by H.A. Rey. The movie introduces the inquisitive little primate and the Man in the Yellow Hat who cares for him.
The 1967 animated movie The Jungle Book is another adaptation of a book, this one by Rudyard Kipling. In this story a young boy named Mowgli is lost in the jungle. Luckily he is rescued and raised by a pack of wolves. However a group of monkeys capture Mowgli so he can teach them to make fire.
MVP Most Valuable Primate stars Jack, a primate who sleeps in a bed, eats cereal from a bowl and knows how to make coffee. But his real talent comes to light when he befriends a pair of siblings who have just moved to a new town. Jack become a sign language buddy for the daughter and a star player on her brother’s hockey team.
A trio of chimps is sent into space to retrieve a lost probe in the animated movie Space Chimps. Unfortunately the threesome crashes on an alien planet and discover their missing space vehicle is in the hands of the inhabitants.
A new night guard at the American Musuem of Natural History gets more than he bargained for in the movie Night at the Museum. It seems that once the sun sets the exhibits come to life—including a mischievous Capuchin monkey who steals the guard’s keys.
Finally, the documentary Chimpanzee follows a little chimp named Oscar who lives in the wilds of Africa. After his mother is killed, this little primate is adopted and raised by one of the others in the group in an unusual depiction of love.
