As the film begins, Ted is an employee of a musty private museum, “who’s never been an adventurer or world traveler,” according to O’Callaghan. With dwindling attendance about to shutter the museum, he impulsively volunteers to journey to Africa in search of a fabled idol that will bring the crowds back. On his trip he meets George, who follows him back to civilization and ultimately teaches him how to loosen up. “At end of movie, he’s The Man with the Yellow Hat we know and love, but we gave him somewhere to start to get to that position.”

The basic story structure was in place when O’Callaghan took over — but it needed work. “We didn’t completely re-invent the whole concept of the movie,” he explained. “The idea was the same, and we were still using the city sets and the jungle backgrounds that had already been created.”

O’Callaghan found that too much of the film was devoted to Ted’s mission to save the museum. He and screenwriter Ken Kaufman also replaced the multiplevillains with the museum owner’s son, Bloomsberry, Jr.

Together with Muppets from Space and The Missing screenwriter, Ken Kaufman, O’Callaghan, “totally redid the story and simplified the characters. Ted’s beats were similar: he started out in the city, went to the jungle and came back with George, but too much of the film was devoted to his saving the museum, dealing with lawyers, fundraisers, bankers — villains of that caliber. We replaced them with a single villain — the museum owner’s son. We had to rewrite everything, and the dialog they recorded previously no longer applied. The character designs they drew didn’t apply either. Some of the elements were similar, but it was basically a clean slate. We essentially started over.

“Once we had a story in place, we were able to add moments everyone remembers, where he floats away with the balloons or collapses the dinosaur skeleton. There’s a rocket ship scene and we designed the zoo to look exactly like book. When he paints a jungle inside an apartment, the images on the walls are the same as in the book. If you didn’t know you’d watch the film and enjoy it anyway. It’s for the diehard Curious George people who’ll go ‘yeah.’”

High-profile voice talent is a given in animated features these days, but O’Callaghan felt top-billed Will Ferrell wasn’t being used to his full advantage. “The movie didn’t represent Will’s comic sensibilities. The Man in the Yellow Hat was all flat. He didn’t feel like Will could do anything with him. Will needed someone he could relate to, provide his comic sensibility to.

O’Callaghan felt Will Ferrell wasn’t used to his full advantage as Ted. The director retooled Ted as an awkward teacher who’s uneasy with kids.

“We made Ted a little awkward. That was a big part of his personality in the film; he was trying to be a teacher but couldn’t relate to kids. As soon they asked questions he froze. Will was good at that sort of frustrated, flustered attitude without sounding mean. He always sounds likeable even when he’s raising his voice.”

In spite of O’Callaghan’s desire to stay as true to the books as possible, a big-screen redesign of George was impossible to avoid — most noticeably, the monkey’s black-dot eyes have been replaced with large expressive peepers complete with irises, pupils and shining highlights. “We’re taking George from a small illustration to a 20-foot tall image on the screen,” O’Callaghan explains. Noting that George is a mute character, he adds, “It was a challenge because the lead of the movie doesn’t speak. We have to be able to understand what he’s thinking — we had to give him eyes that we could manipulate to emote feelings.” (Songs from popular musician Jack Johnson, together with Frank Welker’s simian vocalizations also helped broaden George’s emotional palette.)

“We kept the character designs accurate to the book in respect to George and Ted’s proportions, but we had to give them eyes, pupils, teeth, whatever so Ted could enunciate dialog or to create strong expressions with George. When you see the movie, hopefully you won’t think it’s a different monkey; you’ll accept it as the way it should be.”