Everything here seems to be pretty positive about the movie. Coming from the other side, I have to say it lulled me to sleep more than once. There was nothing there that could keep my attention.
I enjoyed it. If I am channel surfing and I come across it, I will stop and watch it again.
Actually, it’s a rather charming kids movie, and nothing about Robin William’s acting particularly raises the hackles on my neck. It’s good fun, mindless entertainment, about on the level of the Mummy, I would think. Jaw (or drawers) dropping, it’s not. I’d no more trust Lissener’s judgement on this one that I’d trust an audiophile’s judgement on my new iHome clock radio’s sound. It’s not intended for that audience and that audience has lost the ability to appreciate it.
I think you’re right there. I think he plays the stiff, man grown-on-his-own, thinking his dad didn’t love him, emotionally stunted character, very well.
It’s cute, and the first time I saw it the twist at the end caught me off guard.
The effects do not stand up well over time, but there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours.
All this discussion about whether or not to rent a movie. Cool. 
I saw it once in the theater (I was around 16 at the time), and I don’t really remember much about it. I remember thinking it could have been a lot better, and I remember thinking the special effects looked a little cheap.
I’d say it’s a pretty decent family movie, definitely worth a rent. The special effects are fun even if they are a bit dated, the actors all turned in competent performances, it’s funny without being frenetic (always a danger with Robin Williams), and there’s naughty monkeys. The movie doesn’t exist that couldn’t be improved by the addition of some naughty monkeys.
My son got it for Christmas. They’d rented it from Netflix and felt it was worth watching again. I watched parts of it this time. Special effects haven’t stood up against time (I remember them being pretty good when the movie was made), the kids aren’t horribly annoying. Its an action movie for kids - lots of action and suspense, nothing goes horribly wrong, some humor. Zathura is a better movie, but pretty much the same movie - sans Robin Williams and with a space theme.
By the way, Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses may not be a classic of its time, but is far better than some of the other little girl claptrap being released. It lacks production values for a computer animated film, and the voice acting is stilted, but neither makes it unwatchable, which so many other of these films are.
I liked it a lot. I disagree about it having bad effects. I don’t think they were supposed to look realistic. At least, that’s how I took it.
It’s true that th creatures were supposed to look somewhat unreal, following the ‘toy’ look that’s portrayed in the book. But even beyond that, they were a bit dodgy, with some crappy compositing, bad animation, and the fur on the monkeys somewhat disappointing (this was one of the earliest experiments with digital fur).
Contrary to most people, I think most of the effects hold up pretty well, though the monkeys are clearly dated.