Writer: Loong Wai Ting

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Watch this if you liked: "Open Season", "The Incredibles", "Valiant"

To summarise the 90-minute movie into seven sentences, it ended as quickly as it started. The cinema seats may be comfy but the movie isn't as comfy as it should be, compared to other animations by the big studio players like DreamWorks and Pixar.

Don't expect too much from "Space Chimps." The storyline for one isn't as smooth as one would expect. With failing character development, it is as though the picture was made under a super tight budget. The punch lines were simply not coming.

Apart from that, parts of the subplots are left hanging, leaving audiences to guess, for example, what really happened to the evil Zartog after falling from a space shuttle. The chimps however, don't really look like the one we normally sees at the zoo. They have human-like faces, fondly (but strangely) reminding me of Michael Jackson!

The techno songs and the shuffles may get kids quite excited but once the scene changes, you may find that it doesn't really fit. Also, the colouration is a little dull and very basic. It's the usual pink, orange, greenish, bluish and very purplish, making it very much less appealing altogether. If stronger colours were used, it might have perhaps helped to boost its box office.

There's already news that "Space Chimps 2" is in the making. Well, let's just cross our fingers and hope that it can outdo its mediocre predecessor. For now, watching "Space Chimps" is like a chore, for the sake of making your little sister happy.

Cinema Online, 12 December 2008