Animated / TV / Children
2006-2022 / 24 min x 198 episodes
Rating: 8/10
Curious George is a monkey – or is he? As I learned from Larry the Cucumber in an educational Veggietale Silly Song:
“If it doesn’t have a tail it’s not a monkey, even if it has a monkey kind of shape …If it doesn’t have a tail it’s not a monkey, it’s an ape.”
George does not have a tail, so, despite everything you might have thought you’ve known all your life, George is not, in fact, a monkey, but an ape. Mind blown, right?
Regardless, George is curious, and his energetic investigativeness gets him bounding out into the world, making friends, seeing sights, and just generally making the most of every day. His curiosity can also get him into some trouble, but George is a good-hearted little monkey ape, so if he makes a mess, he’ll do his very best to clean it up. And he also has a best friend/owner – the fellow mysteriously known only as “the Man in the Yellow Hat” – who is always looking out for him too.
This is a decidedly pleasant show that models attitudes we’d love our kids to imitate, which isn’t always true in children’s fare. Everyone here is just so good-humored, happy, and maybe above all, innocent, whether it’s George himself, or his friend Bill, a country kid who thinks George is a “city kid.” This is a world in which bullies and means girls don’t exist which is just fine for its preschool audience.
It’s also not dumb. Some kid’s stuff is so dull or repetitious that dad will be able to feel his brain cells dying off if he has to sit through more than 5 minutes of the stuff. But you can watch an episode, or two or three, of George, with nary a brain cell protesting. It is kid stuff, but clever enough to keep an adult mildly entertained as well.
Cautions
Our family has watched dozens and dozens of these, and aside from a single episode that I vaguely recall as being a little too “green agenda” for my liking (and it wasn’t a big thing), I can’t recall anything worth a caution. I rewatched the first three episodes, each of which included two stories, and found it just as fun and innocent as I remembered.
One caution would concern the original book series this is based on, where George’s adventures are often a result of George flatly disobeying what his friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat, just told him. But that’s not so in the show – George just has stuff kind of happen to him. His mischief is of a very innocent sort.
That said, some of these TV episodes include an interlude with children telling us that “George is a monkey and he can do things that you can’t.” That’s a thought worth sharing with the young viewing audience.
Conclusion
If you’ve loved the TV show, there is also a film series, which, so far as I’ve seen, is quite good. Check out my reviews of Curious George, Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle, and Curious George: Royal Monkey.
Of course, that last one should say Royal Ape, but hey, if Bill can confuse George with being a kid, I guess we can be fine with the producers mistaking George for a monkey. Either way, this is a barrel of fun!
