CURIOUS GEORGE
Charming adventures with a worldview worth weighing at home.
Should You Watch It?
Curious George has a wonderful opening and several funny sequences as George gets into trouble. The drawings and story have a simple charm, and the movie celebrates exploration, adventure, curiosity, wonder, and companionship.
The concern is the worldview underneath that charm. The film presents human evolution through museum lectures and prehistoric references, treats a pagan idol as an object of scientific curiosity, and builds toward a Romantic idea of “Mother Nature’s song.” The story does include some moral elements, especially the realization that facts and figures alone can make life dry and dull. Still, it does not fully reject its humanist approach.
For your family, this is best watched at home, where you can discuss those ideas together.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESGeorge is an inquisitive chimpanzee living in the jungle, where he tries to play with his animal friends. In the city, Ted, the young curator of the Bloomsbury Museum, learns that the museum may close unless it brings in more income.
Ted travels to Africa to search for the Lost Idol of Zankara, a large ape statue once worshipped by an ancient civilization. He meets George there, and the chimpanzee later stows away on Ted’s ship, bringing one problem after another.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a pleasant, moderately entertaining animated movie with clear limitations. The drawings and story have a simple charm, while George’s misadventures are often fun and funny. The upbeat jungle opening is especially wonderful.
The plot becomes less engaging when it focuses on the museum, the idol, and Ted’s efforts to explain what he has found. The film remains gentle and watchable, but its humanist, pro-evolutionary ideas keep it from being stronger.
The Worldview
The movie celebrates science, exploration, adventure, curiosity, wonder, and companionship. It also suggests that life cannot be reduced to facts and figures, and that compassion and a sense of adventure matter. Those are worthwhile insights.
The film’s humanist approach, however, is its main weakness. It includes implied pro-evolution references involving prehistoric humanity, though the word “evolution” is not used. It also presents a pagan idol as something to be discovered and displayed, while treating nature through a Romantic lens. A song about sharing love and “singing Mother Nature’s song” reinforces that approach. The movie includes some moral elements, but it does not move fully toward a God-centered worldview or stronger biblical moral values.
The film’s longing for wonder and companionship points beyond human curiosity alone. Scripture says, “Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Light humanist worldview with implied pro-evolution elements that revises human history in a Darwinistic manner (though the actual word evolution is not mentioned) and that takes a scientific, Romantic approach to nature, life and the universe including chimpanzee's eventual owner talks about a "hominid" race of human beings that is, in reality, just an extinct species of ape, owner also jokes about "Neanderthal Man" and "Cro-Magnon Man" but so-called Neanderthal Man may never have even existed and Cro-Magnon Man is just a pseudo-scientific term for an ancient race of homo sapiens descended from Adam and perhaps Noah, Romantic song talks several times about sharing love and singing "Mother Nature's song" and fits in with movie's premise supporting an insatiable curiosity that leads to wonderful adventures, plus museum searches for lost pagan idol but museum and its leaders take a scientific curiosity in it even though there is at least one acknowledgement that natives once worshipped the pagan idol, some pro-capitalist elements about museum trying to make money and avoid being turned into just a parking lot and about inventor who helps museum, and some moral elements mixed with the movie's Romantic notions where human protagonist eventually realizes that a purely humanist scientific approach of facts and figures to life is rather dry and dull and lacks compassion and a sense of adventure (but he doesn't really seem to reject humanism completely), moral element includes one possible reference to "Lord" in a song; no foul language; light comic violence such as doorman trying to catch chimpanzee gets hit by wooden doors, chimpanzee causes near traffic accidents, and man chases chimpanzee on high roofs and ledges; no sex, but there is a kiss; no nudity; no alcohol; no smoking; and, human protagonist and his boss try to stretch the truth but they don't get away with it.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The movie celebrates curiosity and adventure. How can curiosity help us learn about God’s world without replacing God Himself?
Psalm 111:2 · Proverbs 1:7The story treats science as more than facts and figures. How can knowledge become dry or unloving, and how should Christians pursue wisdom?
1 Corinthians 8:1 · James 3:17The movie includes a pagan idol treated as an object of scientific curiosity. How should we respond to idols and competing ideas about worship?
Exodus 20:3–5 · Acts 17:22–31Ted and his boss try to stretch the truth. Why does truthfulness matter even when the goal seems useful?
Proverbs 12:22 · Ephesians 4:25The Final Word
Curious George is charming, funny, and gentle, but its humanist and implied pro-evolution worldview is better discussed at home. Families seeking a clearly God-centered movie may want another choice. Our answer is WAIT FOR HOME.
