Ever since the dawn of digital animation all those aeons ago, movies featuring cutesy animals/aliens/mythical creatures in a comedy setting have been as regular as clockwork. Some recent offerings, such as the Shrek series, have been nothing short of brilliant, mixing eye-popping animation with truly original scripts. Others, meanwhile – and we need look no further than last year's abysmal Over the Hedge - fall seriously short of such expectations. Warner Bros latest foray into this saturated market sadly falls into the latter camp. The idea of sending three monkeys into space to look for a lost NASA probe should have been ripe with comic possibilities and yet the filmmakers have opted for an off-the-shelf plot where the audience is always at least 15 minutes ahead of the action. Never a good sign. Sure, it looks great and it will keep the kids quiet for a couple of hours but even the youngest cinema-goers deserve more than this kind of quick box office cash-in….roll on Shrek 4.

See this if you liked: Madagascar (2005) Flushed Away (2006) Finding Nemo (2003)
AVAILABLE: July 18
DIRECTOR: Kirk De Micco
STARRING: Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines, Stanley Tucci