My Movie Review on Zookeeper (2011) · 7:23pm Feb 1st, 2021

Yo, what's up, Kemosabes?

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for the first installment of this year's "February Festivity", I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Zookeeper". The 2011 film starring Kevin James to be precise.

Here's the rundown of it:

Griffin Keyes is a zookeeper who is very passionate about his job and loves the animals. However, when an old girlfriend that broke up with him five years ago, Stephanie, arrives back into his life and expresses interest in dating him again, Griffin can't help but wonder how he'd win her back.

In the midst of his dilemma, though, Griffin gets help from a very unusual source: the zoo animals. And, they can talk!

With the help of his friends, can Griffin prove to Stephanie that he's the guy for her? Or will he forever live the life of a bachelor working at a zoo?

I remember seeing this movie once when I was a little boy, really. Even seeing commercials promoting it on TV. I don't recall what I thought of the movie back then, obviously because it didn't leave much of an impact on me.

Around last year, though, my Mom and I saw it again while it was available on Netflix, and my brain started working like clockwork for a review of it.

Having been fully aware of its negative reception, I'd like to start off with the things about it that I wasn't a fan of:

To start off, I wasn't fond of the character of Venom, the guy running the reptile house that was played by Ken Jeong. He was extremely creepy, and every moment with him wasn't what I'd call the most...flattering, per se. There were even times where it seemed like he was freakishly predatory and bisexual, meaning that he was attracted to both men and women.

That, and I have mixed opinions on the vocal performances and voice direction. In this case, I enjoyed many of the voice performances, but others...not so much.

For example, there were several moments where the portrayal of Judd Apatow as Barry the Elephant was hard to understand, and the performances of Maya Rudolph as Mollie the Giraffe and Adam Sandler as Donald the Capuchin Monkey sounded...kinda annoying. The performances of Sylvester Stallone as Joe the Lion, Nick Nolte as Bernie the Gorilla, Cher as Janet the Lioness, Jon Favreau as Jerome the Grizzly Bear, and Faizon Love as Bruce the Kodiak Bear on the other hand...they were awesome.

Despite these elements, though...I actually enjoyed this movie much more than I anticipated.

For instance, the performances of the rest of the human-visible cast members, the characters, and the character development were deeply enjoyable.

The performance of Kevin James as Griffin was the one that stood out to me the most, because it looked like he was literally giving his all and having a great time. He had all of the best comedic-timings, and he gave his character a vast amount of emotion and personality that made Griffin instantly lovable. Plus, I was surprised by the gigantic amount of growth Griffin had throughout the movie as a character, and I deeply sympathized for him because of all that he was going through.

The direction by Frank Coraci, the story by Jay Scherick and David Ronn, and the screenplay by Scherick, Ronn, James, Nick Bakay, and Rock Reuben were likewise nicely done.

I hardly expected it to be funny, but the jokes throughout the movie were ones that I found to be surprisingly innocent and excellently-executed, particularly the gags revolving around Griffin. The funniest moment, in my opinion, was when the bears were trying to teach Griffin how to woe Stephanie. Plus, there was an emotional resonance and heart in the movie that was strong enough to tug at the heartstrings, and a great moral about being yourself and doing what you love instead of becoming someone you're not.

In conclusion, "Zookeeper" certainly isn't one of the best movies ever made, but, it's actually not as terrible as its reputation makes it out to be either. In short, the movie's another guilty pleasure of mine, and it's what I found to unexpectedly be one of Kevin James's best films.

So, I rate "Zookeeper" four out of five stars.