"Space Chimps": It has all the right stuff

"Space Chimps" may be just a computer-animated comedy, but — don't laugh — it cleverly resonates with arguments favoring increased stature for chimpanzees (and all apes) with whom humans share a near-identical genetic blueprint.

However one feels about that, the film's witty, smart story reminds us that chimps (even if they're not being shot into space anymore) are still involuntarily on the dangerous, painful front lines of research.

"Saturday Night Live's" Andy Samberg, sans his usual irony, provides the delightful voice of wisecracking Ham III, a circus simian who delights in being shot out of a cannon. The grandson of a renowned primate who made history orbiting the Earth for NASA, Ham is yanked into service as an unwilling crew member sent into a galaxy-crossing wormhole.

Accompanied by another pair of chimps, the pompous Titan (Patrick Warburton) and the alluring — at least to Ham — Luna (Cheryl Hines), Ham ends up on a distant, Seussian-looking planet controlled by the power-mad but gullible Zartog (Jeff Daniels).

The easygoing "Space Chimps" borrows with carefree audacity from "The Right Stuff" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (the latter already respectfully plundered by this summer's Pixar hit "WALL• E"). There's a scene, too, in which a sweet little character named Kilowatt (Kristin Chenowith) pulls a self-sacrificing, Jeff Goldblum move out of "Jurassic Park" by distracting a monster.

But the film's comic engine is supplied by Ham's running banter, Titan's passion for protocol, Zartog's delusions of grandeur, an opportunistic senator (Stanley Tucci) and a trio of space-agency brainiacs whose partying hearts beat beneath pocket protectors.

Animation-feature writer Kirk De Micco ("Racing Stripes") makes his directorial debut on "Space Chimps," overseeing wildly contrasting art direction between Earth scenes (kind of grotty) and those on Kilowatt's world (in explosions of color).

His penchant for quick flashes of humor (blink and you'll miss Ham, Titan and Luna in a classic three-chimps pose) and puns galore will keep parents and older kids happy along with the little ones.

Tom Keogh: tomwkeogh@yahoo.com