Although on strictly entertainment value, it’s infinitely preferable to another animals in space children’s film due out this summer (the review of which will be forthcoming), Space Chimps pales in comparison to the more polished Pixar offering WALL-E (incidentally also involving the solar system) as well as my two favorite children’s films this year so far, Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who and Kung Fu Panda. Despite this, younger kids will find Space Chimps’ skies far friendlier than the darkness of WALL-E, even if adults may find themselves looking at their watch several times throughout.

Refreshingly, keeping in mind the adults who must tow along the children in their lives, Chimps does make a genuine effort to insert clever intellect and mature humor such as a terrific sequence wherein Ham finds himself in a Freudian conflict between his Superego and Id, while chatting with Luna upon the cloud of Id as she continually asks, “How does that make you feel?” In addition references are made to David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album, modern technology in the form of “banana-berries” as well as sky-travel classics such as Airplane, as one character notes that he’s picked the wrong day to quit eating bananas as a salute to the iconic Lloyd Bridges character.

Harmless and light — although it’s certain to vanish in the wake of The Dark Knight in its opening weekend — the lackluster but mildly entertaining interstellar Chimps will be sure to garner a bigger family friendly audience when it arrives in the DVD galaxy and can be savored in living rooms where toddlers can dance along whenever the chimps feel the obligatory need to turn the beat around.