Curious George (sometimes called Curious George: George Goes to the Zoo) is a 1984 short stop-motion animated children's film, and is based on H. A. Rey's 1941 book of the same name. The film is directed by John Matthews and was produced by Churchill Films. The company also produced Curious George Goes to the Hospital two years prior in 1982. The two films are often paired together and collectively called The Adventures of Curious George.^[1][2][3][4]

Plot

The story opens with George, a little brown monkey, in the jungle of Africa. An unnamed man in a large yellow straw hat observes him through his binoculars and decides to bring the monkey home with him. He puts his hat on the ground and hides behind a tree. George, ever curious, comes down from the tree "to look at the large yellow hat." He puts the hat on but it is so large that he could not see and this gives the man in the yellow hat the chance to capture him and put him in a bag. The Man takes George in a rowboat to a ship where he gets him out of the bag and then tells George that he is taking him to a zoo in a big city and that he will like it there. He then gives George the run of the ship and tells him not to get into trouble. On deck, George sees some seagulls, tries to fly with them, and falls overboard. Luckily, the crew notices that George is missing, and spot him in the Atlantic Ocean. They throw him a lifesaver and pull him aboard.

When they arrive in America, George is taken to the Man's house, has a meal, smokes a pipe, then goes to bed. The next day, after watching the Man make a telephone call to the zoo before leaving, George wanted to use the telephone too. So he plays with the telephone until he inadvertently calls the fire station. When the firefighters hear the call, they rush to the telephone and hear no answer. Then they look at the map that shows them where the telephone call had come from. They are unaware that it is George and think it is a real fire. Then they get on their fire trucks quickly. But when they rush to the house, all they find is no fire but a monkey (which is George). A skinny firefighter caught one arm and the fat one caught the other. They tell George that since he fooled the fire department, they will have to shut him up where he cannot do any more harm. They took him away and shut him in a prison.

George wanted to get out so he climbed up to the window to try the bars. At that moment, a watchman comes in and climbs on a wooden bed to catch George. The watchman however is heavy that the bed tips over and pins him against the wall. This stalls him and buys George enough time to run out the open door. After escaping by using the telephone wires to get over the guard, he spots a balloon vendor and tries to grab a balloon, but ends up grabbing the entire bunch and flying off into the air. Down below, the houses and people looked like toy houses and dolls, respectively. George is carried by the breeze until it stops, leaving George on top of a traffic signal, making the traffic mixed up. The Man finds him there, buys all the balloons from the street vendor, and finally takes George to his new home at the zoo, where each animal gets its own balloon.

Credits

• H. A. Rey - Co-writer of Curious George books
• John Matthews - Director, Principal Animation, Original Themes, Puppets
• Robert Churchill - Executive Producer
• George McQuilken - Executive Producer
• Margret Rey - Story Consultant
• S. S. Wilson - Principal Animation
• Justin Segal - Other Animation, Props
• Anthony Alderson - Other Animation
• Gail Anderson - Other Animation, Props
• Richard Barkus - Other Animation
• Michael Convertino - Music
• David Newman - Music
• June Foray - Narration
• Corey Burton - Character Voices
• Jim Rice - Sound Effects
• Lisa Brenneis - Sound Effects
• Niki Matthews - Puppets
• Christine Mitchell - Props
• Ans Ellis - Props
• Anthony Alderson - Props
• Escott Norton - Props
• Jason Cardwell - Props
• Nan Lillith - Props

Reference:^[1]

See also

• Curious George (character)
• Curious George (1941 book)
• Churchill Films
• H. A. Rey
• Corey Burton

References