Adam Lyon is a normal human being. He likes food, and TV, and
stuff like that, but one day his name is mispelled at school - Lion,
instead of Lyon - and he is then taken out of school and re-enrolled at
a new school, the all-animal Charles Darwin Middle School. A typical
day for Adam involves learning to stalk, eating bug soup for lunch and
hanging out with giraffes, monkeys, toucans, seals, elephants and
even sharks.
But Adam doesn't mind it, particularly as his best mate is Jake, a spider monkey with a hilarious laugh and long arms.
This
collection of episodes from the Cartoon Network series is quite a lark,
and runs for about 150 minutes - enough time to keep the little
whipper-snappers entertained while you compile code or try to decipher
hyeroglyphics.
But when it comes to reviewing kids shows, such as this cartoon - entitled My Gym Partner's a Monkey
- one has to be aware that the target audience is not the 25-40 year
old demographic. Indeed, I watched a few of the six episodes contained
on the DVD in the privacy of own home, with no one else around and
found the series to be mildly entertaining at best. It's no Ren & Stimpy or Futurama.
Perhaps
I set the bar too high, but I will admit the sound effects were very
amusing, with some great screeching monkey samples used liberally and
to good effect.
But when I took the DVD over to a friend's house
with two kids - one four-year-old and another seven-year-old - the
atmosphere was quite different. We all ended up having a great time,
because as the kids starting laughing, so did the adults in the room,
and though I knew most of the stories and whatnot, it was an altogether
more enjoyable experience.
There is a bit of Ren & Stimpy
rubbing off on this Cartoon Network production - such as the odd
hand-illustrated (and sometimes gross) close up shot - but it's not
quite as obtuse and tends to feature easy-to-understand and follow plot
lines.
With an original - dare I say unique? - premise, My Gym Partner's a Monkey
makes for a somewhat refreshing change from super heroes and mutants,
and the cut-out animation style is captivating, though far from novel.
It's not the most impressive cartoon show I've ever seen, but it's
quite cute and fairly amusing - even for the older primates among us. DVD
Extras As this is "Volume 1" there is very little on offer here aside from a slew of episodes. Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: N/A 
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