The Legacy That Is....Curious George

Whoever would have thought that a stuffed animal given to me by my folks when I was born would stand the test of time and re-surface years later, popularized the world over by books, toys, and now a major movie? Yes, I'm talking about Curious George. My Curious George, who is rather getting on in years, has been stuffed, re-stuffed, and has had to undergo various other cosmetic surgeries. Through all of life's ups and downs, he has been a constant companion throughout the years. When I was a child, my dad would go through mock fire drills, to ensure we knew what to do in case of a fire. He would say, "Ok now, if there's a fire, what's the first thing you should do?" Of course, the answer he was looking for was grab my sister and climb out the window, but I would always answer without fail: "Save Curious George". To this day, George is still top on my list in an emergency!

So, when I heard that they had released a major motion picture here in the U.S., I had mixed feelings -- I'm glad that the legacy of Curious George lives on and that children can still find joy and pleasure in reading about that curious little monkey and his adventures with The Man in the Yellow Hat, but I'm also sad that he's become rather 'mainstream'. Hopefully the movie will live up to the book, which in my opinion, cannot be beat.

On a different note, the soundtrack to the movie actually is pretty good: Jack Johnson did all of the songs/lyrics and it has a cool and hip sound, which is quite rare for a movie soundtrack!