George misses commentary

Curious George is a good little monkey, but sometimes, he forgets. And sadly, it looks as though the creators of the "Curious George" DVD also forgot something important, at least to me. They forgot to include a director's commentary.\nNow I understand that its a kid's movie, and kids do not care about director commontaries. But I also know that I used to have a stuffed Curious George. Although I am not sure the current whereabouts of my stuffed friend, I am intrigued by how they turned a classic character into a fun and entertaining movie.\nAnd really, just because the kids might not be interested is no excuse to skimp on commentary.\nEspecially when I bring up my other complaint about the DVD: advertisements. Pop in the DVD and a browser window opens to the Curious George Movie page. True, there are fun games to play, but leave your stinkin' paws off my browser -- oh, wrong monkey movie. I finally get to the root menu of the DVD and click on extras -- only to find a Volkswagen commercial and an ad for Shea Homes -- because they care about the kids, right?\nBeyond those complaints, it is a good DVD. There are a number of games and activities -- I learned some new words, got to paint and learned how to draw George. My drawing almost looked like it might possibly be similar to a drawing of the cute little monkey.\nThere are a few shorter interviews on the DVD that discuss various aspects of the movie, the most interesting of which happens to be the one sponsored by Volkswagen in which they explain the use of rounded edges and bright colors. For the overhead street scenes, when George is playing in the back of the truck, not only is the truck "monkey-friendly," meaning no sharp edges, but the truck is red so that it will stand out from the other vehicles. It sounds like an educational psychologist was asked how children maintain focus, so two thumbs up for the attention to detail.\nThe variety of games will bring me back to play them again, especially the "Where is George?" game because I still can not figure out where the little monkey is hiding.\nTwo thumbs up for the movie, I made sure to see it on opening night and enjoyed it enough to buy the DVD.\nThe DVD is successful, but of course it could be better. The kid in me is satisfied with the number of activities, but the academic in me always wants to know more.