Monkey Movies & TV!

This comedy concerns Maya Doolittle, a veterinarian with an over-the-top skill for dealing with animals. Maya gets a call from the president himself, hoping to enlist her help in preventing a pet problem from becoming a canine catastrophe. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide

A clumsy panda bear becomes an unlikely kung fu hero when a treacherous enemy spreads chaos throughout the countryside in this animated martial arts adventure featuring the voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, and Jackie Chan. On the surface, Po (voice of Black) may look like just another portly panda bear, but beneath his fur he bears the mark of the chosen one. By day, Po works faithfully in his family's noodle shop, but by night he dreams of becoming a true master of the martial arts. Now an ancient prophecy has come to pass, and Po realizes that he is the only one who can save his people from certain destruction. With time running short and malevolent snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane ) closing in, Furious Five legends Tigress (Jolie), Crane (David Cross ), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Chan), and their wise sensei, Master Shifu (Hoffman), all draw on their vast knowledge of fighting skills in order to transform a lumbering panda bear into a lethal fighting machine. Now, if the noble Po can master the martial arts and somehow transform his greatest weaknesses into his greatest strengths, he will fulfill his destiny as the hero who saved his people during their darkest hour. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, Cheryl Hines, and Andy Samberg lend their voices to this computer-animated comedy following the descendants of the first chimps in space as they blast off for fun and adventure on a far-away planet. Ham III (Samberg) is the grandson of Ham, the first-ever chimp astronaut. This ne'er-do-well chimp may not be the most qualified ape for the job, but a scheming senator (Tucci) has recruited him for a most dangerous mission. It seems that a powerful tyrant (Daniels) has overtaken an alien world, and now it's up to Ham III and his trusty simian crew (Hines and Patrick Warburton) to help overthrow the deep-space despot. Perhaps with some training from Ham III's mentor (Kenan Thompson) and the help of a friendly alien (Kristin Chenoweth) this fearless group of anthropoids can make the universe a safer place for aliens and humans alike. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Six American graduate students studying apes in the African jungle discover a new species of killer chimpanzees that could prove to be the most formidable threat ever known to humankind. Upon first spotting this bizarre new breed, Greg, Dani, Amy, Josh, Sydney, and Seth were all assured by their highly-esteemed professor (F. Murray Abraham) that they have all been part of a discovery that could change the very face of science. Survival instinct soon takes over, however, when a typical study in animal behavior becomes a brutal struggle to escape a relentless predator with unparalleled strength and speed. As the serenity of the wilderness is suddenly shattered by the blood-curdling screams of man, Mother Nature proves just how little we truly understand about the savagery of the jungle. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Can the world's oldest adolescent maintain his cool while living with his grandmother? Alex (Allen Covert) is a 35-year-old video-game fanatic who gave up a career in accounting to take a job testing games for Brainasium, the company behind the wildly popular game "Eternal Death Slayer." While Alex took a big pay cut to land his dream job, he's happy with his work and is making ends meet -- until he discovers that his roommate hasn't paid the rent for the last six months, using the money to finance repeated visits to a local massage parlor. After running out of friends who will let him sleep on their couch, Alex swallows his pride and moves in with his grandma Lily (Doris Roberts), who loves Alex and is happy to give him a place to stay in exchange for doing chores around the house. Lily shares her home with two friends, perpetually confused Bea (Shirley Knight) and sexually adventurous Grace (Shirley Jones), and between the three of them, there's always work to be done, keeping Alex busy nearly every night. While Alex tells his co-workers he's living with three attractive women who are running him ragged, they don't know the real story; in the meantime, Alex is trying to charm Brainasium's beautiful new executive, Samantha (Linda Cardellini), while butting heads with the firm's space-case CEO Cheezle (Kevin Nealon) and J.P. (Joel David Moore), a teenage game designer who is no longer in touch with reality. Grandma's Boy was the first feature film from director Nicholaus Goossen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

One of the greatest adventure stories in Hollywood history gets a new interpretation in this action drama from Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson. In the early 1930's, Carl Denham (Jack Black) is a daring filmmaker and adventurer who has gained a reputation for his pictures documenting wildlife in remote and dangerous jungle lands; despite the objections of his backers, Denham plans to film his next project aboard an ocean vessel en route to Skull Island, an uncharted island he discovered on a rare map. Correctly assuming his cast and crew would be wary of such a journey, Denham has told them they're traveling to Singapore, but before they set sail, his leading lady drops out of the project. Needing a beautiful actress willing to take a risk, Denham finds Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), a beautiful but down-on-her-luck vaudeville performer and offers her the role; cautious but eager to work, Darrow takes the role, and onboard the ship she strikes up a romance with Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody), a respected playwright hired by Denham to write the script for his latest epic. When Denham and Company arrive on Skull Island, the natives react with savage violence, but they happen to be the least of their worries. Skull Island is a sanctuary for prehistoric life, and lording it over the dinosaurs and other giant beasts is Kong, a twenty-five-foot-tall gorilla who can outfight any creature on Earth. The natives kidnap Darrow, giving her to Kong as an offering to appease the giant beast; Denham and his men set out to find her, with Driscoll bravely determined to save the woman he loves. Eventually, Driscoll finds Darrow and Denham outwits Kong, intending to take the giant ape back to New York for display. But Kong has bonded with Darrow, and his attraction to her proves to be his undoing. Andy Sirkis, who provided the body movements for Gollum in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings pictures, performed similar duties on King Kong, studying gorillas so he could mimic their actions, which were then used as the basis for the special effects crew's digital animation of the great ape. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Explore the making of the event movie of 2005 from the first day to final shot in this release that offers all fifty-four original production diaries showcasing the making of Peter Jackson's King Kong. In addition to detailed making-of segments that highlight all aspects of the eight-month production, this release also offers a full-color, fifty-two page production memoir and four exclusive production art prints commissioned by the world-class artists who worked on the film. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An aspiring novelist looking for a quiet place to finish his breakthrough novel finds that inspiration can come from the most unlikely of sources in the directorial debut of actor-turned-filmmaker James Franco. All Harry Walker (Franco) needs to escape his unfulfilling job and his ho-hum home life is one unqualified hit: one best-selling novel to kick-start his rocket to stardom. In order to write, though, Harry needs privacy. When Harry gets the idea to rent an apartment so that he can focus on his writing, it seems that he may have found a means of beating his writer's block -- until a talking gorilla in a gaudy Hawaiian shirt shows up. At first viewing his pushy primate pal as little more than yet another in a long line of creatively stifling distractions, Harry soon discovers that "The Ape," can help him realize his dreams of becoming a truly great writer -- but will the toll that his newfound friend takes on Harry's sanity be worth the price of a Pulitzer Prize? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Narrated by Martin Sheen, this installment of the Emmy award-winning PBS series Nature features the story of the famous gorilla named Koko. Collecting conversations -- in which Koko "spoke" via sign language -- from a decades-long dialogue with the ape, this program details the wants and needs expressed by Koko and her complexity and creativity. To truly highlight the emotional similarity of the ape to humans, the documentary also chronicles Koko's saddened reaction to learning that her pet kitten had died, and explores the close friendship she developed with her human teacher, Dr. Penny Patterson. ~ Dana Rowader, All Movie Guide

The third installment in the series of films that began with 2000's MVP: Most Valuable Primate finds the athletically inclined chimp Jack taking to the slopes. After hooking up with some kids in Colorado, the charming chimp is soon tearing up the mountainside on a snowboard. Starring Robby Benson, MXP: Most Xtreme Primate features an appearance pro-snowboarder Bjorn Leines. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

In the wacky Canadian family comedy Spymate, a superspy named Mike Muggins ($Chris Potter boasts a most unusual sidekick: a gun-toting chimp in a three-piece suit named Minkey, who operates as one of the country's best undercover agents. Mike and Minkey must team-up to foil the baddies when a sinister villain, Dr. Farley (Richard Kind) kidnaps Mike's twelve-year-old daughter Amelia (Emma Roberts), a scientific wunderkind. When Farley plans to use an expanded version of Amelia's invention -- a groundbreaking chemical drill -- to take over the world, only Mike and his furry companion can thwart Farley's fiendish plot. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Follow three brilliant animals as they flee from the laboratory in search of adventure, floating through the clouds in Siberia and wandering the shores of Easter Island as they learn important lessons in trust, friendship, and loyalty along the way. Eddie the monkey has always longed for the day he would travel the globe. Now with sassy cheetah and nervous parrot by his side, that day has finally come. Singing and dancing all along the way, these three friends go to some far away places and exotic destinations comfortable in the company of those they can trust. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide