Mistaken Identity
- Why is George referred to as a monkey when he is clearly a chimpanzee (and therefore an ape rather than a monkey)?
- On the Mandela Effect page, it states that chimps were monkeys when the books were published.
- Kids couldn't know the difference.
- Quite a few adults don't know either.
- In the animated series, it might seem confusing given that the Man in the Yellow Hat is a scientist...until you remember that he's a physicist, not a zoologist.
- In some episodes he is a zoologist. Remember when he was sent to Antarctica to study penguins?
- Maybe George is a monkey, but an amputee? Of course, that leaves the question of why his tail was amputated.
- I think that's unlikely, given that he was tailless from the start, even when he lived in the jungle. Unless he somehow lost his tail in the jungle.
- Could be, he was just born without one. It would provide a more eco-aware rationale for why he ended up being raised by humans than the Man just wanting an exotic pet: George may have been a rescue animal that could not have survived much longer in the wild. Especially plausible if he's a New World monkey and would need that prehensile tail to navigate the treetops. Lucky for him, finding the Man instead.
The Geography
- Why didn't this series begin in South America, and why wasn't George a South American monkey (for instance, a brown capuchin)? In the book Curious George Learns The Alphabet, when the man is teaching George the letters of the alphabet, he draws each letter with features added onto it to make it look like a person, animal, or object beginning with that letter. When he gets to the letter J, he makes the uppercase J to look like a jaguar and the lowercase j to look like George's jack-in-the-box. The text states that George, having once lived in the jungle, was familiar with jaguars. This would have been appropriate if the man had taken him from South America, and if George had therefore been a South American monkey, such as a capuchin (apes live only in tropical Africa and Asia). Capuchins are also one of the few types of monkeys to truly have prehensile tails.
- It’s a mistake. Maybe the Reys didn’t know that when publishing the book.
George's Weakness
- Also, why is he so weak? One episode had a medium sized dog dragging him around by a leash. George should be strong enough to crush that dog's skull with one paw, monkey or ape.
- Three reasons:
- George likely represents childhood innocence, curiosity, and naivety. If something weird happens, his first response is to go, "Welp, let's see where this ends up!" rather than attempting to resist the urge and think about the consequences of his actions.
- Baby apes may be strong enough to crush skulls with one paw, but this is a series aimed for small children. Showing George flat out murdering another character ala Mortal Kombat would be a good way to get the series banned forever. That, and since he was taken from the wild at a such a young age, he probably doesn't really know how to defend himself as he never had the chance to develop those skills through playtime with his fellow kin. Besides, as per the plot, George always eventually finds some creative way to get himself out of sticky situations.
- Kid's book logic.
- George probably wouldn't want to use his full strength to yank on the dog's leash, for fear of choking it with its collar. He's a nice guy.
- Three reasons:
George the Bad Influence?
- Why are Moral Guardians up in arms about George being a bad influence on children? Some claim that since he usually gets off easy or not punished at all, the books don't reflect good behavior or reality for children?
- That makes a little bit of sense, but from I remember, a lot of the mistakes George made were really not his fault or were easy to fix—in one episode, he goes to sail a kid's model sailboat and finds that it keeps sinking. When he shows it to him thinking he'll be mad, the boy instead realizes he left the boat's tiny portholes open, which was causing the water to leak in and sink it. So, perhaps a better way to look at it would be, "If you're facing a problem that might look pretty bad, just try exploring it from a new angle and see if a new means of fixing it presents itself."
- Another reason that George doesn't get punished is that sometimes the seemingly bad stuff that he does ends up having a net positive effect. For example, in one episode of the television series, he helps out at a candy stand and ends up giving away a bunch of candy, upsetting the shopkeeper. The next day, however, she's thrilled because she has a massive line thanks to the "free samples."
Not Revealing the Idol
- I realize it's probably not meant to be taken this seriously, but in the film, how would the museum have lines of people out the door waiting to see the idol, when they'd already spent tons of money marketing how they had it before, only to have to tell the public that it "didn't exist"? Without revealing the idol itself, how did they manage to gain their supporters back so quickly?
- My guess is that they did reveal the idol to some sort of official on the matter, for authentication or legal purposes, and they used his findings to back up the notion that it was for real this time.
Crazy Cops
- In the book, George calls the fire department and gets arrested for setting off a false alarm. But seriously, as if he should know better? He’s a monkey for crying out loud! It would be different if he were an adult human, but a monkey like George? He never even meant to cause any harm anyway. He just randomly dialed their number. And they arrest him for it. (I know they don't know that, but still.) Also, why do the firemen take him to jail? Isn’t that the policeman’s job?
- Like what’s noted above, it was probably different back then. It was mentioned as a comment in a video on the 1980s direct-to-stop-motion videos.
- Let's put aside the fact that George is a monkey for a moment. When I was growing up, I remember being taught that it's a bad idea to get the fire department called to your house when there isn't some sort of an emergency, because it causes them to waste their time and resources and get themselves all riled up over nothing. Would George be taken to jail even if he had been a human child instead of a monkey? No, probably not. But it teaches children that they shouldn't play around with phones if they don't know the serious things for which they're actually meant to be used for.
- "Arresting" George might merely have been a rationale for taking him into some sort of custody, until a determination of jurisdiction (cops or animal control?) and legal responsibility (George for doing it, or the Man With The Yellow Hat for leaving a monkey alone with an unsecured phone?) can be resolved. Plus, there are probably rules about what firemen should do with unattended pets in homes they've been called to.
Why the Long Face?
- In "Curious George Goes to the Hospital" (one of the books), the mayor's daughter Betsy, who is staying at the hospital, is sad, and George gets lauded for "making our sad little Betsy happy again". Why was she sad?
- Take your pick. She could have something seriously wrong with her that she's upset over, she could just be worried about the outcome of something that isn't so serious, or she just feels sullen and depressed over having to stay in a hospital. As someone who's had a lot of hospital stays, there are a lot of reasons why someone staying at one might need some cheering up.
Infected with Head-Scratching
- Several questions about the germ episodes ("Inside Story" and "Toot, Toot, Tootsie Goodbye"):
- These episodes pull off the Or Was It a Dream? ending both times. So, was it a dream? Because if it was, where was the music coming from at the end of "Inside Story"?
- How small is George's spaceship meant to be in "Toot, Toot, Tootsie Goodbye"? Because George is meant to be the size of a virus, yet Prof. Wiseman can feel him on her hand and see the ship.
- Germs can't be seen.
Steve and Betsy's parents
- Where are Steve and Betsy's parents? Why do they live with their aunt? Is Margaret an honorary aunt? She is an old friend of the kids' parents?
