Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey!

Plot

The movie starts with George swinging around town, and he picks up the newspaper. He reads it when he gets home and finds out that the great magician Piccadilly is holding an act with an elephant called Kayla. It sounds interesting to George so he wakes up Ted, and he tries to show Ted the news, but Ted is late for a meeting with Mr. Bloomsberry.

When Ted gets to the museum he prepares reasons as to why he would be a good candidate to take over the museum for Mr. Bloomsberry who is retiring. Mr. Bloomsberry however, says that Ted is the only candidate because he couldn't imagine leaving not even Junior (the main antagonist from the first film) to own the museum (he is now a cashier at a parking lot). The only stipulation is Ted has to write a presentation on what his vision of what the museum would look like; to be delivered in one week, to the Board of Directors. However, Ted is scared of the Board of Directors.

As Ted is in his office writing his charts, Maggie tells him that his loved needs more attention: her, George, etc. George comes in and tries to show Ted the poster with Kayla (indicating Piccadilly's act). Ted says he understands what Maggie is saying and decided to take George to the magic show. During one of Piccadilly's magic tricks, Kayla disappears, and George goes looking for her. He finds Kayla in the basement of the theatre, starts playing with her and they stumble upon the exit for the building.

Piccadilly comes in and can't find Kayla so he calls for security, the head of which is Danno Wolfe (this film's main antagonist) who is assisted by Mrs. Fisher. Danno questions Ted and gets suspicious about him and George. Meanwhile, George and Kayla make their way to Ted's apartment where they see news coverage of Kayla's original home in California with her brother Tonga and her sister Layla.

Ted returns home to find George and Kayla in their apartment. He decides to return to the theatre with George and Kayla but along the way loses them when George sees a train advertisement for the "California Express". Ted reaches them at the train, but can't get them out of the boxcar before it leaves the station. They are headed west and Ted gets nervous when the train doesn't even stop in St. Louis and his cell phone's battery has died. Meanwhile, a cryptic message from a monkey Danno thinks speaks Chinese leads him to believe that George and Ted have kidnapped the elephant. He begins attempting to find them.

Back on the train, George opens the door of the boxcar but Ted falls out while trying to catch the wind-blown pages of his presentation. Ted makes his way to a small train station with a stationmaster who offers to charge the cell phone (which broke when he fell). Ted uses what little change he has to call Piccadilly, but doesn't manage to complete the call which makes Danno even more certain that Ted and George have kidnapped Kayla. Ted uses the stationmaster's motorcycle to catch up with George and Kayla and reboards the train. He leaves his cell phone in Humbleton with the stationmaster who tries to use the phone to tell Piccadilly that Kayla is okay but the phone breaks. Mrs. Fisher traced the call which allowed Danno to find his way the Humbleton station.

Ted, George, and Kayla continue on the train for the next stop in Grand Junction with Danno on their heels. The movement of Kayla, however, causes the boxcar to separate from the rest of the train, and they head away from the rest of the train. It finally stops, and they get off in search of a road to find help. A man in a flatbed truck stops and picks them up. Ted thinks they are going east, but they continue to travel west once again. Meanwhile, Piccadilly is interviewed by Hark Hanson, and he reveals pictures of George and Ted as the kidnappers of Kayla. Ted wakes up after a night's sleep in the back of the truck and realizes they have been heading the wrong way. He gets them off the truck and attempts to head back east again.

They come across a farmer named Dan and his child named Anna, with whom they spend the night. The next morning, Ted picks up the newspaper and finds out New York thinks they're kidnappers. He also reads about Kayla's family. Ted wants to return Kayla to Piccadilly, but George and Anna disagree. Ted changes his mind the next morning but before they leave for Kayla's home, Danno shows up in a helicopter. After the pig throws Danno into a rain barrel, Kayla scares the pilot into flying away.

While they are thus distracted, George and company escape using a hollowed out school bus and finally make their way to the park where Tango and Layla are happy to see her. Danno shows up again and arrests George and Ted and captures Kayla. They fly back to the city, but after George gets the handcuff keys from Danno, they all escape by jumping out of the plane. They make it back to Piccadilly and everything is fine, except that Danno has followed them once again. Kayla subdues him and throws him onto the stage's trapdoor which Piccadilly opens, dropping Danno onto the mattress below.

George and Maggie watch Ted give his report to the Board of Directors. He is initially flustered because the past week's adventures prevented him from preparing his presentation. Once George comes in the room, Ted improvises a speech saying that friends are more important than work and proposes several ideas for the museum based on that idea (Father/Son Day for example). The Board is impressed and approves his appointment.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features the hit "California Sun" performed by Brian Wilson as well as all new songs by Carbon Leaf, a special title track recorded by 429 Records' artist Jackie Greene, and an original score by Heitor Pereira. The soundtrack was released on March 2, 2010.

Track listing

1. "Life Less Ordinary" – Carbon Leaf
2. "The Friendship" – Carbon Leaf
3. "California Sun" – Brian Wilson
4. "On A Roll" – Carbon Leaf
5. "Heart Of The Day" – Carbon Leaf
6. "Let Your Troubles Roll By" – Carbon Leaf
7. "Walking In The Sun" – Carbon Leaf
8. "Follow That Monkey" – Jackie Greene
9. "Moon Man" – Heitor Pereira
10. "Going East" – Heitor Pereira
11. "Giving A Hand" – Heitor Pereira
12. "Zoo" – Heitor Pereira
13. "Friendship" – Heitor Pereira

Voice cast

Release

The film was released in the United States on March 2, 2010 as a direct to DVD release. The film was broadcast on PBS, as a special for a few days, around Thanksgiving 2011.

Sequel

A sequel, titled Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle, was released directly to DVD on June 23, 2015.