STUDIO: Fox
RELEASE DATE: November 25, 2008
STARRING: Andy Samberg, Stanley Tucci, Cheryl Hines, Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Daniels, and Patrick Warburton
WRITTEN BY: Kirk Demicco & Robert Moreland
DIRECTED BY: Kirk Demicco
FEATURES: Fox Movie Channel Present Casting Session
Still Gallery
TV Spots

While other movies were making billions of dollars worldwide or completely bombing, there were a few summer 2008 movies that fell through the cracks as modest hits. Believe it or not, Space Chimps was one. No one expected Space Chimps to make Shrek or Pixar money, but the fact that the Fox animated flick crossed $60 million worldwide with little advertising and no stars should make everyone involved in its production proud. It made nearly twice its budget before the home market. That's a modest hit. But is it any good? Oh God no. But I wanted to write about the positives before I got back to ripping on another Fox movie. (The studio has had the worst year I can ever remember for a major company. Check this out - 27 Dresses, Meet the Spartans, Jumper, Shutter, What Happens in Vegas, Deception, The Happening, The Rocker, Meet Dave, Space Chimps, The X Files 2, Mirrors, Babylon A.D., City of Ember, Max Payne, and Australia - all in one year. Ouch.) The BD presentation of Space Chimps continues the lackluster production and presentation pattern that Fox has been releasing lately. Even they seem bored by their own movies. If there's any studio that needs a comeback in 2009, it's Fox (and with Wolverine, Avatar, and Night at the Museum 2, they might get it.)

Andy Samberg voices a chimp who happens to be the grandson of a legendary astronaut. He's recruited for a space mission and teams up with Lieutenant Luna and Titan to save the universe. Their ship crash-lands on a strange planet and they need to work together to survive. All of it is peppered with WAY too many monkey jokes and physical shtick. What's most disappointing about Space Chimps is how lackluster it is visually. I know it's not a far comparison but they do both take place in space and comparing the aesthetic of Wall-E to this is like comparing classic art to something your kid brother drew on his napkin at Applebee's. I hated the "look" of Space Chimps - the character design, the flat backgrounds, the awful matching of the voice work - that it distracted me to the point that I actually lost track of the plot every once in a while.

To be completely fair, Space Chimps isn't awful. It's got decent voice work by Samberg, Tucci, and the king of animation vocals, Patrick Warburton. The problem is that it's completely unoriginal. We've seen this material done better on TV, much less in a big-budget CGI extravaganza. Remember when every CGI animated film was an event? Space Chimps is perhaps most remarkable as proof that they no longer all are. Some can just be forgettable. And so is the BD with a better-than-average (for Fox) visual presentation but lackluster audio and a nearly bare-bones collection of special features. Blu-Ray is the wave of the future. Can't it be used to hold more than a casting session, still gallery and TV spots? Everyone at Fox from theatrical to BD needs to take a look at what they're selling to the masses. We deserve better than what they've put out in 2008.