Most adults like to think there's still a little 6-year-old inside them. Well, mine isn't talking to me anymore, not since I took him to "Space Chimps." It's not that there aren't moments of banana-peel-worthy levity in this chimpoverished Fox product (yes, it's very big on the ape puns). But in the evolution of this summer's animated comedies, "Chimps" is the missing link no one was looking for. Kids sense when a movie is being noisy and frantic just to keep them distracted; these apes are overcaffeinated. Kids also need jokes that are aimed at approximately knee level: When our hairy hero, Ham III, encounters hostile aliens bellowing, "Death to strangers!" and Ham quips, "Great name for a band," it's kind of funny. But to a 6-year-old?

"Space Chimps" is a G-rated cartoon for grownups, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But who reeeeally wanted to see the movie? That's right. And now he's ticked off.

Ham III (voice of Andy Samberg of "Saturday Night Live") is the grandson of the original Ham, who became NASA's first chimp in space. Ham III is drafted into a PR-heavy government mission, in which a crew of space apes must track down a $5 billion, intergalactic probe that has disappeared into a wormhole.

Ham is teamed with Luna (Cheryl Hines of "Curb Your Enthusiasm") and Titan (Patrick Warburton, the knuckle-dragging Puddy on "Seinfeld"). Ham immediately alienates Titan, whom Warburton manages to make the funniest aspect of the film.

They land on the planet Malgor, where the power-mad Zartog (Jeff Daniels, who's very funny) has grabbed the sought-after Infinity space probe and is using its movable claws to subjugate his planet-mates -- dipping the more argumentative specimens into a pool of liquid Freznar, which flash-freezes them. When Titan is taken prisoner, he uses Zartog's hunger for rule against him. This might not be the movie's only moral, but it's certainly the most pointed.

-- John Anderson (July 18, 2008)

Contains nothing objectionable.