Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators

We all are fans of Curious George. This documentary tells us how he came about. It's an important documentary and fun to watch because it combines archival footage with current animation, in tribute to Hans Rey. All of us who grew up with Curious George and read it as well to our children and grandchildren, are given the opportunity to get to know Margaret and H.A. Reys; their personal history, happy and traumatic. We get the privilege to know them as people. This documentary made me love the character of Curious George even more, knowing how he came to be. I also learned about the bravery and perseverance of the Reys.

By using an overlay of animation, old films and photographs, the producer brings to life the story of the Reys, as people in their lives narrate in interviews, the events surrounding their extraordinary journey to create Curious George. You will read the same Curious George books with renewed appreciation, with deeper understanding of how the Reys personalities and interaction with each other influenced the adventures of George.

The themes surrounding love, friendship, ingenuity, determination and a great amount of childlike curious and optimism touched our whole family at many points of the movie.

I enjoyed this movie tremendously and would highly recommend it.

While the story of Hans and Margaret Reyersbach and their creation, Curious George, is an interesting story, the best reason to watch this film is because it was made so incredibly well. This stylish documentary really impressed me--with lovely drawings done in Hans' style, great camera work, wonderful interviews as well as archival footage and the Reyersbach's original work all work together to present a never dull story. What I also appreciate is that it was, at times, no holds barred...meaning that while it celebrates their work, it also is truthful enough to acknowledge that Margaret was, in some ways, an awful person! Warts and all...a sign of an objective study of the individuals. Well worth seeing.

Some of the latter-day adaptations of Curious George (including the 2006 movie) haven't quite hit the mark but this biopic, saluting his creators Margaret and H. A. Rey, could hardly be improved on-- well, except maybe with some more work on the song at the end. The marriage of the Reys seems like what a marriage between Charlie Brown and Lucy would be like, if they both happened to be geniuses. Their story is repeatedly surprising, if only because the movie doesn't bother much with what happens between the surprises. I think that if you never picked up a Curious George book in your life, you'd still find these adventures well worth watching.

Anytime a piece of art is created that stands the test of time, there is always (lurking behind it) an interesting creation story. That is exactly what is told in "Monkey Business"...the creation of the Curious George character by Hans & Margret Rey.

This documentary examines the story of how the Rey's grew up, eventually found each other and married, escaped from pre-WWII Europe, and found their way to America where, after a time, the Curious George character entered into the cultural lexicon. The filmmakers really do a great job of making the Rey's story interesting, as well as adding in some wonderful animations/graphics of their own to make it visually appealing as well.

Another real staple of this doc is its ability to not "pull any punches" when it comes to discussing the Rey's, as they are examined warts and all. Margret is especially portrayed in a sometimes unfavorable light (in terms of overall personality), but that is something that is also echoed "across the board" from all the interviewees, so it feels authentic. It's not disrespectful at all, so I would rather have that than a rosy, saint-like portrayal of everyone involved.

As a child, I went through my own Curious George phase (hasn't everyone?!), so it was very interesting for me to now see, as an adult, the process it took for the character to be fully realized. This is a doc that can easily be enjoyed by the entire family as well. Documentary work nearly at its finest is on display throughout.