Writing Curious George

Prepare yourself for a monkey called Curious George, the next big animated superstar. But, explains Robert W. Welkos in the LA Times, his progress from book to screen was not exactly straightforward.

...once you try to take him off the page, a couple of potential problems come into bold relief: George doesn't speak, so other characters have to do it for him by reacting to his antics. And his stories, in the parlance, have no arc.

Legions of imaginations over the years struggled to make a movie that could blossom within those constraints. According to the Writers Guild of America, West, the list includes Brad Bird ("The Incredibles"), William Goldman ("The Princess Bride"), Pat Proft ("Police Academy"), Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz ("A League of Their Own"), Joe Stillman (the two "Shrek" features), and Daniel Gerson and Rob Baird ("Monsters, Inc."). The number who tried was enormous, even by contemporary Hollywood standards.

(IMDB lists 11 writing credits, and that doesn't include all of the above.)