CURIOUS GEORGE (2006)

Modest, physically pleasing hand-drawn animated feature, based on stories from the famous children’s book series, is harmless fun and often quite delightful to look at, though somewhat padded to reach a theater-worthy length. George seems to have had a humanizing make-over on his way to the big screen, but still registers while the human characters tend toward blandly likeable (or unlikeable) types. Only a crazy opera singing dowager demonstrates some real screen filling potential, but her episode is largely expendable. Voicing by Will Ferell as the man in the big yellow outfit becomes monotonous, but the lack of overkill is a relief amid the current animation scene.