An all-new “Curious George” animated movie is coming to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service, along with the first nine seasons of the TV series, three films and two holiday specials from the beloved franchise.
Peacock original film “Curious George: Go West, Go Wild” will be available to users on the service’s free, ad-supported tier in addition to Peacock Premium subscribers. The movies, specials and Seasons 1-9 of the “Curious George” series will be available only to Premium customers.
The new movie will debut on the service Sept. 8. In the new movie, George and Ted (the Man With the Yellow Hat) travel to cousin Ginny’s farm for a relaxing weekend in the country. But their plans are upended when her farm animals escape — and with the help of friendly farmhand Emmett they have to round up the herd, encountering various gentle adventures along the way.
“Curious George: Go West, Go Wild” features the song “The Other Side” by global recording artist Yuna — marking the first film in the franchise with a song performed by a female vocalist. “Go West, Go Wild” also includes original songs written by Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom and score by Germaine Franco. The soundtrack also will be released Sept. 8 with the film release on Peacock.
In addition to the new movie, Peacock on Sept. 20 is releasing a trove of other Curious George content starring the monkey mischief-maker.
That includes seasons 1-9 of the preschooler-targeted “Curious George” series, which NBCU had previously licensed exclusively to Hulu (which will continue to carry those on a nonexclusive basis). Peacock currently is streaming seasons 10-12 of the show, along with five episodes from season 13, which debuted as Peacock Originals this summer.
In addition, Peacock on Sept. 20 will add three movies — “Curious George” (2006), “Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey!” (2009) and “Curious George 3: Back to the Jungle” (2015) — alongside a pair of TV specials, “Curious George: A Halloween Boo Fest” and “Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas.”
Peacock’s smorgasbord of “Curious George” programming coincides with the annual September celebration of Curiosity Month (originally Curiosity Day, in recognition of co-author H.A. Rey’s birthday).
The voice cast of “Curious George: Go West, Go Wild” includes Frank Welker (“Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?”) as the monkey himself; Jeff Bennett (“The Loud House”) as Ted; and Rino Romano (“Spaceballs: The Animated Series”) as the narrator.
The film, from Universal Pictures’ Universal 1440 Entertainment content production division, is directed by Michael LaBash and produced by Deirdre Brenner. The screenplay is by Jana Howington and Sherri Stoner, based on a story by Howington. Executive producers are Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, David Kirschner and Jon Shapiro.
First introduced in 1941, “Curious George” was created by Margret and H.A. Rey. The copyright on the “Curious George” characters is owned by Houghton Mifflin Company and used under license.
Peacock launched nationwide July 15, available in three tiers: free with ads; and Peacock Premium, which includes an expanded content selection, available with ads ($4.99/month) and no ads ($9.99/month). In addition, Comcast Xfinity X1 and Flex customers and Cox Contour subscribers have access to Peacock Premium with ads for no extra charge (or the ad-free tier for $5/month).
The streaming service is available on the web, Apple devices, Google platforms and devices, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and smart TVs from Vizio and LG. Peacock is currently unavailable on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, amid an ongoing dispute over distribution terms.