Well, I never claimed to be one of the Two Thumbs Up guys, but Zookeeper definitely deserves both thumbs in the air.
Kevin James portrayal of a soft-spoken zookeeper being aided by his animal friends to find a mate will certainly make the noise as it opens today in theaters nationwide. I admit, I watched the pre-screening with very low expectations. While the star studded cast of voice-overs was impressive, the whole talking-to-animals skit was really played out (and badly) by Eddie Murphy already.
Kevin James was backed up by the lovely Rosario Dawson who unwittingly helps James get the girl, all while falling in love with him.
About The Effects
Careful camera angles and multiple takes allowed producers to gain most of the film necessary for the animal voice overs, however several of the costumed effects such as the gorilla were equally well done. I found it difficult at times to recognize this was a guy in a fur suit. No joke. Really well done.
For the Kids
I took our son Connor (age 6) to the film and he usually gets itchy about 30 minutes into a full feature film like Zookeeper. He stayed animated, laughing and engaged the whole time. The romantic scenes were few and of course peppered with James’ uncanny humor. So, if you want to take the kids to a movie this summer that is not over the top or over-violent… choose Zookeeper. Just a fun time.
