The obvious inspiration of this extraordinary film is the "Monkey Trouble" meme from 8gog. Watching this amazing work of art growing up, I learned about maymays at an early age. It starts out with some dude make a 4chin, and as the movie progresses, the 8gog merges with the 4chin, making the "Mankay Trabbu" maymay. I am disappointed that this amazing film didn't receive any Oscars, as it truly deserved it for it's use of original maymay™.During a rough time in my life, this movie inspired me to create the "umadbro" maymay. During that time, I was so poor I had to live off mayonaise. May is really addicting, and that is why I had no money. It was really a hard time, and through the support of 8gog, my life took a turn for the better with the "u silly mankey" meme. 420 blaze it

This is probably the best "kids movie" I know of. I don't know why this film hasn't garnered a higher "star" rating...maybe because it isn't "edgy" or cynical enough to fit current sensibilities of the darker society we are becoming. I've noticed many I've presented it to in classrooms or Sunday school groups dismiss it at first blush due to its cover and subject matter, but I haven't found an audience yet, from primary school kids to jaded teens, who have not become totally captured by the story it presents. Not one scene seems superfluous. There is not one minute in this film that does not keep everyone's attention. Thora Birch is perfect in her role. The light and jaunty musical score also receives a lot of credit in my mind as to how everything moves along so well. The music alone brightens my day! And how many movies in this genre have had the animal play his/her part so well? AND ... How many films out there that do as well as this one in conveying to children how serious or complicated things can become when we try to hide things from those we should trust?

The plot for this family feature is pretty negligible (an eminently insufferable should-be lovable'n'huggable little girl adopts a cuddly capuchin who's been trained to steal things as a pet and hides the little bugger from her disapproving parents), but fortunately this film does have one tremendous ace up its otherwise empty sleeve: the chimp's evil, sinister, glowering gypsy organ-grinder owner is played by none other than a hilariously miscast Harvey Keitel! Sporting a mouth full of gleaming gold teeth, long, greasy, unwashed hair, an awful wardrobe of blindingly gaudy gypsy rags, gold chains hanging around his chest, a feeble attempt at a dense European accent that's betrayed by Harve's unmistakable Brooklyn rumble, and the same crazed'n'creepy aura that he brought to his sleazy street corner pimp role in "Taxi Driver," the ever-manic Keitel acts with a savage intensity and gritty authenticity which seems alarmingly out of place in an alleged kiddie pic. One simply hasn't lived until witnessing the hair-raising moment in which Harvey blames the monkey for the recent loss of his latest girlfriend: "She even took my freakin' food!," Keitel roars at the poor, cowering creature. "She hated you and your stinkin' mess!" Alas, at no point in the film does Harvey curse out the monkey at the top of his lungs while furiously masturbating. Moreover, this flick's cast and crew should send the mind of any devout trash cinema aficionado reeling: Ridley Scott (!) was the executive producer, cinematographer Luciano Tovoli also shot Dario Argento's landmark giallo "Tenebre," "Bad Georgia Road" director John Broderick co-produced, and the cast includes such "what the hell are they doing here?" notables as Mimi Rogers, Christopher McDonald, and dependably gruff Abel Ferrara movie mainstay Victor Argo in one of his customary mob capo parts. And one last remark before I conclude this particular comment: I bet dollars-to-donuts that there's a whole generation of hopelessly messed-up six year old tykes who are currently experiencing marrow-freezing nightmares because of Harvey Keitel's frightening, fire-breathing, full-throttle histrionics in this film.

I remember this film as being a just-OK kids film but on watching it for a second or third time I realized that it's a darn good movie. Avoids all the problems of "Alaska" (another movie Thora Birch starred in) like lame lines and not-so-good acting. The acting in this movie was very believable and the lines were well-written. SPOILERS I actually thought that the weakest part of the movie was Harvey Keitel's character, just seemed out of place or slightly annoying or something. The Mafia sequence probably could have been avoided as I felt it didn't add much to the movie. That time could have been better spent exploring Thora's character's life or something. I would say this is a top film for its genre.