Curious George (film)

Curious George
International theatrical release poster
Directed by	Matthew O'Callaghan
Screenplay by	Ken Kaufman
Story by	Ken Kaufman Mike Werb
Based on	Curious George by H. A. Rey Margret Rey Alan J. Shalleck
Produced by	Ron Howard David Kirschner Jon Shapiro
Starring	Will Ferrell Drew Barrymore David Cross Eugene Levy Joan Plowright Dick Van Dyke
Edited by	Julie Rogers
Music by	Heitor Pereira
Production companies	Imagine Entertainment[1] Universal Animation Studios[2]
Distributed by	Universal Pictures[2]
Release dates	February 10, 2006 (2006-02-10) (United States) May 25, 2006 (2006-05-25) (Germany)
Running time	87 minutes[3]
Countries	United States[2] Germany[2]
Language	English
Budget	$50 million[3]
Box office	$69.9 million[3]

Curious George is a 2006 animated adventure film^[1] based on the book series written by H. A. Rey and Margret Rey. It was directed by Matthew O'Callaghan (in his theatrical feature directorial debut), written by Ken Kaufman and produced by Ron Howard, David Kirschner, and Jon Shapiro. Featuring the voices of Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, David Cross, Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright, and Dick Van Dyke, it tells the story of how the Man with the Yellow Hat, a tour guide at a museum, first befriended a curious monkey named George and started going on adventures with him around the city while attempting to save the museum from closure.

It is the first theatrically-released animated film from Universal Pictures since 1995's Balto, the first theatrical animated film from Universal Animation Studios (making this Universal's first in-house theatrical animated film), and the first animated film from Imagine Entertainment.^[4] The film had languished in development hell at Imagine Entertainment since at least 1992, but it is possible that it was conceived years before. The film employs a notable blend of traditional animation and CGI scenery and objects that make up 20% of its environment. The soundtrack was composed by Heitor Pereira and features several songs by musician Jack Johnson.

Curious George was released in the United States by Universal Pictures on February 10, 2006. It was met with generally positive reviews, but only grossed $70 million worldwide against a budget of $50 million. Despite being a box office bomb, Curious George made $48 million in DVD sales in the home market. It received five sequels, although all but one of them were released as direct-to-video films.