The film follows three chimpanzees who go into space to an alien planet. 20th Century Fox theatrically released the film on July 18, 2008, and received mostly negative reviews by critics. The film grossed $64.8 million on a $37 million budget. It received an Artios Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Animation Feature. A video game based on the film was also released in July 2008.
In outer space, an uncrewed, intelligent life-searching NASAspace probe, Infinity, is dragged into an intergalactic wormhole and crash-lands on the other side of the galaxy. It lands on the Earth-like alien planet named Malgor, populated by colorful alien beings. Zartog (Jeff Daniels), an evil-minded inhabitant, accidentally discovers how to take manual control of the onboard machinery and uses it to enslave the population. Faced with the possible extinction of Infinity and their budget, the scientists hire multiple chimpanzees as astronauts to regain contact with the probe and retrieve it: technical genius Comet (Zack Shada), lieutenant Luna (Cheryl Hines) and commander Titan (Patrick Warburton). For media attention, the Senator (Stanley Tucci) adds to the team Ham III (Andy Samberg), grandson of Ham, the first chimpanzee in space, who works as a cannonball at a circus in company of Houston (Carlos Alazraqui), a chimpanzee and friend of Ham III's grandfather. Ham III is uninterested in the mission, but despite his best attempts to escape, he is launched into space with Titan and Luna.
Ham, Luna and Titan enter the wormhole, where the latter two pass out from the pressure, leaving Ham with the task of getting the ship out and landing it. The ship and Titan are taken by Zartog's henchmen, and Titan, unaware of Zartog's agenda, teaches him about the probe's features. Ham and Luna journey to Zartog's palace. Ham reveals that he believes Space Chimps is a joke which makes Luna angry at him. They receive guidance from inhabitant Kilowatt (Kristin Chenoweth). They go into a valley of the aliens' food where they meet some globhoppers, and then they go into the cave of the Flesh-Devouring Beast. Kilowatt volunteers to distract the beast so Luna and Ham can escape, and was devoured in the process. They then go inside the Dark Cloud of Id in which they fall out of. Once at the palace, they rescue Titan and plan to leave. However, Ham, Luna and Titan alter their course of action after noticing Zartog torturing the inhabitants who are being frozen in a pool of freznar, feeling they owe it to Kilowatt to stop Zartog. They abandon the ship, which returns home on autopilot.
Zartog attacks the chimpanzees with the probe and threatens to freeze them all, but Titan tricks him into activating the probe's ejection mechanism, which launches Zartog into a pool of freznar and freezes him. Kilowatt, who has survived, frees the chimps. The chimps re-establish contact with Houston and Comet to discuss their prospects on leaving. By Ham's suggestion and with help from Malgor's inhabitants, they manage to engineer a ship from the probe's constituents, launching it through a volcanic eruption while using Zartog as their nose cone.
Before they re-enter the wormhole, Titan hands the controls over to Ham. Though Ham becomes skeptical once more, he is reassured by a vision of his grandfather and steers it out of the wormhole. Comet advises to decrease the ship's entry angle, and the ship starts spinning out, though Luna recovers in time to aid Ham. The repurposed mechanical arms soon fail, and the Zartog nosecone detaches in the atmosphere, damaging one of the ship's fins while Comet and Houston appropriate one HEMTT to prepare for the ship's arrival. Since Ham needs to fly and Titan is still out, Luna climbs out to repair it. She succeeds and Ham regains control as it passes a media conference, but loses grip and is presumably killed. Ham nearly crashes the ship and one of the arms break off, but he manages to successfully land it on the HEMTT. He leaves the ship and finds Luna merely knocked out. Moments later, Houston, Comet and Titan catch up with them. Attracted by the commotion, the scientist, Senator and media discover the ship and the chimps. Under pressure from the press, the Senator decides to instead dramatically increase the space program's funding. Subsequently, the scientists celebrate their return.
In a post-credits scene, Zartog is revealed to have landed in front of a suburban residence. Alive but helpless, he could only watch as a Dachshund urinates on him.
Cast
Andy Samberg as Ham III, Ham I's grandson and a circus chimpanzee who loves cannon acts and crashing.
Cheryl Hines as Luna, Titan's lieutenant who is fearless and intelligent and Ham’s love interest.
Patrick Warburton as Titan, the flamboyant commander of the expedition. He has a great love of chimpanzee puns.
Jeff Daniels as Zartog, an alien tyrant who enslaves the planet Malgor.
Kristin Chenoweth as Kilowalawhizasahooza (Kilowatt for short), a young alien who befriends Ham and Luna.
Kenan Thompson as The Ringmaster, the owner of a circus where Ham III works.
In 2002, Kirk DeMicco conceived a film premise of anthropomorphic chimpanzees on a spaceship from viewing The Right Stuff (1983), a fictional depiction of the Mercury Seven program. It included the line, "Does a monkey know he's sitting on top of a rocket that might explode?" which made him wonder what happened if the monkey knew. Shortly after the lightbulb moment, he saw the famous space chimpanzee Ham on the cover of a 1961 issue of Life magazine; the chimpanzee's smug expression gave him the idea of a self-centered protagonist going on a dangerous space mission.[4] Using the Life magazine issue with him, DeMicco pitched his ideas to John H. Williams, comparing the plot to that of Tommy Boy (1995). Williams was instantly hooked and began working with him from there.[4] They later decided on "a great sci-fi adventure" for children that was also a mocking of science fiction media in the same way the Shrek films, which Williams also produced, parodied fairy tales.[4] De Micco wanted the planet to have the vibe of the Mos Eisleycantina of the Star Wars series.[4]
The project and its name, Space Chimps, were first publicized in a Variety article on June 7, 2004, announcing it was next in Vanguard's production line after Valiant (2005).[5] The film was produced in two years by Williams' Vanguard Animation studio with a team of around 170, a $37 million budget, and DeMicco as director.[4] For the film, a new pipeline was created, as well as a studio constructed in Vancouver.[4]Chris Bacon was chosen as composer, who was recommended to DeMicco by James Newton Howard. The limited budget meant creative choices had to be made for the music to sound interesting; according to DeMicco, beds were occasionally used alongside the orchestra, and the Blue Man Group played PVC pipes.[4]
Space Chimps was originally set to be released on May 2, 2008, but on December 19, 2007, the movie's release date was changed to July 18, 2008. This was mainly because of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike.[7]
Reception
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 33% of professional critics gave positive reviews based on 92 reviews. The consensus states: "Space Chimps' cheap animation and overabundance of monkey puns feels especially dated in a post WALL-E world."[8] On Metacritic, the film holds a 36/100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[10]
Roger Ebert gave a positive review of three stars and said in his review that "Space Chimps is delightful from beginning to end."[11]Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times said that Space Chimps was "hilarious".[12] Lael Loewenstein of Variety called it "fairly fatuous but enjoyably slim family entertainment".[13]
Box office
The film has grossed $30.1 million in the United States, and $34.7 million in other countries, totalling $64.8 million worldwide.[14] The film was released in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2008, and opened on #7, grossing £563,543.[15]
On its opening weekend, Space Chimps was number seven with a gross of $7.1 million in 2,511 theatres, with an $2,860 average;[2] it was a poor opening for the film, debuting on (at the time) the highest-grossing box office weekend ever in the United States.[16]
A video game based on the film was released in July 2008, published by Brash Entertainment and developed by Redtribe, Wicked Witch Software and WayForward Technologies.
The sequel was released in May 2010 to cinemas in the United Kingdom, and premiered direct to video in October 2010 in the United States. It was universally panned by critics, and grossed just over $4 million during its theatrical run.
