Space Chimps (2008)

Director:

Kirk De Micco

Writers:

Kirk De Micco (screenplay) and
Robert Moreland (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

18 July 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Romance | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Ham III, the grandson of the first chimp astronaut, is blasted off into space by an opportunity-seeking senator...

Plot Keywords:

Planet | Senator | Surprise After End Credits | Computer Animation | Circus

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Andy Samberg	...	Ham III (voice)
Cheryl Hines	...	Luna (voice)
Jeff Daniels	...	Zartog (voice)
Patrick Warburton	...	Titan (voice)
Kristin Chenoweth	...	Kilowatt (voice)
Kenan Thompson	...	Ringmaster (voice)
Carlos Alazraqui	...	Houston (voice)
Zack Shada	...	Comet (voice)
Omid Abtahi	...	Dr. Jagu (voice)
Patrick Breen	...	Dr. Bob (voice)
Jane Lynch	...	Dr. Poole (voice)
Kath Soucie	...	Dr. Smothers (voice)
Stanley Tucci	...	Senator (voice)
Wally Wingert	...	Splork / Infinity Probe / Pappy Ham (voice)
Jessica Gee	...	Ship Voice / Infinity Probe / Additional Voices (voice)
Tom Kenny	...	Newsreel (voice)
Jason Harris	...	Guard (voice)
Jay Keiser	...	Cloud of Id (voice)
Tom Jacomb	...	Reporter #1 (voice)
Curtis Augspurger	...	Reporter #2 (voice)
Jess Harnell	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Ellie Harvie	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Caitlin McKenna-Wilkinson	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Directed by
Kirk De Micco		(as Kirk DeMicco)

Writing credits
Kirk De Micco		(screenplay) (as Kirk DeMicco) and
Robert Moreland		(screenplay) (as Rob Moreland)
Kirk De Micco		(story) (as Kirk DeMicco)

Produced by
Curtis Augspurger	....	co-producer
Jerry Davis	....	executive producer
Louise Goodsill	....	executive producer
John W. Hyde	....	executive producer
Tom Jacomb	....	associate producer
Ralph Kamp	....	executive producer
Barry Sonnenfeld	....	producer
John H. Williams	....	producer

Original Music by
Chris Bacon		(as Chris P. Bacon)

Cinematography by
Jericca Cleland

Film Editing by
Debbie Berman

Casting by
Matthew Jon Beck

Production Design by
Bo Welch

Art Direction by
Matthias Lechner

Production Management
Clare Howell	....	production manager
Brynne Orloski	....	production manager
Liz Roberts	....	production manager

Art Department
Manuel Arenas	....	set designer
Peter Chan	....	concept artist
James Gambino	....	typesetting
Alex Hill	....	storyboard artist (as Alex Hillkurtz)
Sylvie Lacroix	....	visual development
Suzanne MacLennan	....	art department coordinator
Tom Morgan	....	storyboard artist (as Thomas Morgan)
Vitaly Shafirov	....	storyboard artist
Cosku Turhan	....	assistant art director
Young Min Yoon	....	set designer

Sound Department
James Ashwill	....	foley mixer
David W. Barr	....	dialogue recording engineer
Beau Borders	....	sound re-recording mixer
Hennie Britton	....	adr recordist
Chris Egert	....	adr recordist
Sean Garnhart	....	sound effects editor
Sean Garnhart	....	sound re-recording mixer
Ryan Heiferman	....	dialogue recordist
Keith Hodne	....	sound recordist
Eric Lewis	....	dialogue recording engineer
Kevin O'Connell	....	sound re-recording mixer
James Wright	....	sound consultant: dolby (as Jim Wright)
Joel H. Newport	....	dialog recordist (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Christopher Ahrens	....	lighting artist
Cheryl Bainum	....	executive producer: HATCH
Marco Barbati	....	lead character technical director
Jenny Basen	....	software and lighting coordinator
Tim Belsher	....	lighting artist
Tim Belsher	....	pipeline architect
Troy Brooks	....	pipeline supervisor
Cyril Frederick Chu	....	lighting artist
Cyril Frederick Chu	....	texture artist
Andrew Coates	....	digital compositor
Glenn Curry	....	digital effects artist
Steven Elford	....	head of layout
Steven Elford	....	head of visual effects
Adam Estey	....	compositor
Deak Ferrand	....	concept artist: HATCH
Erik Gronfeldt	....	character shading lead
Erik Gronfeldt	....	digital compositor
David Hall	....	compositor
Lawrence Huang	....	lead lighter
C. Jin Im	....	lighting lead
Colin Jenken	....	digital compositor
Colin Jenken	....	visual effects technical director
Gregory John Jowle	....	environments & look development supervisor
Gyuri Kiss	....	effects lead
Sara Jane Kramer	....	texture & shading artist
Danny Lee	....	digital compositor
Key Hyung Lee	....	lighting technical director
Michael Lemon	....	visual effects artist
Daniel Lowenberg	....	digital effects artist
Russell Lum	....	digital compositor
Scott MacKay	....	digital compositor
Will McCrate	....	lighting lead
Paul Mica	....	texture artist
Saybian Morgan	....	character look development supervisor
Tony Pelle	....	pipeline architect
Edwin Poon	....	lighting artist
Matt Pursley	....	technical director
Alan Rogers	....	lead animator
Michelle Rosenthal	....	junior lighting technical director
Ran Sariel	....	lighting technical director
Andrew Schwartz	....	film finisher
Alex Segal	....	tools development
Heekyung Shin	....	lighting technical director
John Silander	....	character modeler
John Silander	....	character sculptor
Vicki Silva	....	digital compositor
Angie Young-Ji Sohn	....	lighting & compositing
George Taylor	....	compositor
Jenn Taylor	....	animator
Kieran Tether	....	lighting and compositing artist
Jeff Tetzlaff	....	environment modeler
Jeff Tetzlaff	....	lighting artist
Rolph Thomas	....	lead compositor
Graeme Tung	....	lighting artist
Ruslan Vasylev	....	character modeler
Bernie Wempe	....	lead character modeler
Daniel Wexler	....	script programmer
Chris Winters	....	lead lighter: Vanguard Animation

Camera and Electrical Department
Meghan O'Brien	....	assistant lighting coordinator

Animation Department
Patricia Binga	....	animator
Jacques Daigle	....	animator
Aaron P. Davis	....	animator
Anthony Di Ninno	....	animator
Jerome Fournier	....	visual development artist
Nick Fredin	....	animator
Roger Gimenez	....	animator
Francis Glebas	....	story artist
Gary Hendry	....	layout artist
Allen Holbrook	....	animator
Colleen Jenkinson	....	animation coordinator
Eric Kingston	....	animator
Seng Lau	....	animator
Christopher Dennis Lindsay	....	animator
Michael Lum	....	animator
José Martinez	....	background designer
Ho Moon	....	animator
Tom Morgan	....	story artist (as Thomas Morgan)
Andrew Ogawa	....	animator
Fernando Pazos	....	animator
Claus Pedersen	....	supervising animator
Morgan Ratsoy	....	lead character animator
Brian Robinson	....	animator
Toby Schwarz	....	animator (as Tobias Schwarz)
Ideet Sharon-Martin	....	animator
Harald Siepermann	....	character designer
Graham Silva	....	supervising animator
Bart Skorupski	....	animator
Nicholas Smolyn	....	layout artist
Benjamin Su	....	character animator
Keith Patrick Turner	....	animator
Roland Vallet	....	animator
Jordan Vanderzalm	....	layout artist
Adam Wood	....	animation director
Ed Wou	....	animator
Eddie Yang	....	character designer

Casting Department
Micah Dahlberg	....	casting associate
Caitlin McKenna-Wilkinson	....	adr voice casting

Editorial Department
Tom Finan	....	supervising editor
David Hall	....	editorial assistant
Paul Klassen	....	additional editor
Tiffany L. Kurtz	....	additional editor (as Tiffany Hillkurtz)
Eric Lake	....	managing director of editorial
Bret Marnell	....	additional editor
Carl S.G. Moore	....	digital intermediate producer
Nathan Schauf	....	first assistant editor
Tony Dean Smith	....	additional editor

Music Department
Pete Anthony	....	orchestrator
Jeff Atmajian	....	orchestrator
Blue Man Group	....	composer: additional music
Jim Honeyman	....	orchestrator
Joel Iwataki	....	music scoring mixer
Kevin Kliesch	....	orchestrator
Jon Kull	....	orchestrator
Larry Mah	....	digital score recordist
Julia Newmann	....	additional orchestrator
Matt Novack	....	technical score advisor
Mike Nowak	....	conductor
Peter Rotter	....	orchestra contractor
Pieter A. Schlosser	....	composer: additional music
Andrew Shulman	....	cello soloist
Joel Sill	....	music supervisor
Steven L. Smith	....	music preparation
Curt Sobel	....	music supervisor
Curt Sobel	....	supervising music editor
Gad Emile Zeitune	....	composer: additional music

Other crew
Jeremy Anderson	....	systems administrator
Tohru Patrick Awa	....	concept designer
Mic Berends	....	chief color scientist
Lilian Bravo	....	production coordinator
Suzanne Clements-Smith	....	assistant accountant (as Suzanne Clements)
Barb Dawson	....	director of staffing
Venecia Duran	....	creative executive
Steven Elford	....	head of layout
Laura Garcia	....	executive assistant
Matthew Hampton	....	international distribution consultant
Anne Jacobsen	....	production controller
Ryan Letourneau	....	systems administrator
Laura Lopez	....	studio manager: Inc.
Russell Lum	....	production coordinator
Matt Pursley	....	systems administrator
James Rose	....	systems administrator
Bill Stevens	....	production accountant

Production Companies

• Vanguard Animation
• Odyssey Entertainment
• Starz Animation
• Starz Media
• Studiopolis

Distributors

• Emperor Motion Pictures (2008) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• Entertainment Film Distributors (2008) (UK) (theatrical)
• Golden Village Entertainment (2008) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Independent Films (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Pyramid (2008) (Russia) (theatrical)
• Showtime (2008) (South Korea) (theatrical)
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Lark Films Distribution (2008) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Scanbox Entertainment (2008) (Finland) (all media)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2009) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Warner Home Video (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2009) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-ray)

Special Effects

• Hatch Production (conceptual art)

Other Companies

• Technicolor Digital Intermediates  digital intermediate

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

South Korea:All | Hong Kong:I | UK:U | Australia:PG | Canada:G (British Columbia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Ireland:G | USA:G (certificate #44279) | Australia:G (re-rating on appeal) | Singapore:G | Sweden:Btl | Finland:K-7 | Chile:TE | Netherlands:6 | New Zealand:G | Malaysia:U | Argentina:Atp | Peru:PT

Company:

Vanguard Animation

Trivia:

Fittingly, the teaser ad for this movie premiered on June 20th 2008 during a Fox broadcast of another 'Monkey in Space' movie - 2001's remake of "Planet of the Apes".

Goofs:

Factual errors: The chimpanzees are all small, even Houston, who is much older than the others. Fully grown chimpanzees are roughly the same size as humans.

Quotes:

Ham III: [after finding out the space ship doesn't really work] We're nothing more than guinea pigs.
Titan: Actually the guinea pigs are on the Mar's mission.
[cut to the guinea pigs on Mars, running in wheels]

Movie Connections:

References Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

Soundtrack:

Axel F

Nothing special, nothing memorable, but it's cute for the kids

When I saw the trailer for Space Chimps, I honestly thought it looked cute and fun, also they mentioned that it was made by the same folks who did Shrek, so I figured that it was going to be gold. I was first off a little surprised that it didn't do so hot at the box office, not only that, but it has a pretty low rating here on IMDb. I was thinking how this movie was probably awful, but how could it be? It's an animation film, so I still wanted to see it, I checked it out today and honestly, it's not a 4.4 rating movie, I think people are being a little too harsh on it. I agree that it's nothing special, but it's a cute movie that had it's moments. Opening the same weekend as The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia, we needed a good hearted film for the family as well, and Space Chimps does deliver on that.

Ham is a chimp who is the grandson of a famous chimp astronaut who was the first chimp in space. When there is possible life found on another planet, three scientists decide to experiment and instead of risking human life, the send out the chimps including Ham to space to find the alien life form. Ham, Luna, and Titon are sent out into space, but Ham isn't taking it seriously, constantly joking around, hitting on Luna, Titon constantly taking credit for everything. When they do land on the planet, they meet some interesting creatures and have to save the planet since one alien, Zartog, wants to take over.

Space Chimps isn't a bad movie, it's just nothing special, I'd recommend waiting for the rental. It's a cute movie thought for the little ones. But I did enjoy a few scenes, I loved the line Titon says to Ham "Are you David Bowie?"... you'll have to see what I mean, but there are some cute and fun moments. The animation is so-so, the voices are decent, except some moments seemed a little stereotypical and cliché. But as a family kid movie, I would say that this is a go, just don't expect anything like Shrek.

6/10