This is like giving your children a wooden jigsaw to play with instead of a computer game. It's a gentle, unhurried, largely hand-drawn children's cartoon with a nice simple storyline and no nods and winks to the grown-ups. For those who've never read the books, George is a cheerfully mischievous monkey with a neat line in physical comedy. Will Ferrell's soft-hearted explorer brings George back from Africa (instead of a lost relic he was hoping to save his museum with) and, let loose in New York, he creates all manner of chaos.

Curiously, Ferrell and George's relationship follows the arc of a romantic comedy, which leaves Ferrell's love interest (Drew Barrymore) feeling rather frustrated, but it all comes good in the end. It's not a movie for unaccompanied adults, but this is appealingly voiced and animated, with a hopeful message for human-simian relations.