What makes the film transcend its limitations is Carell, whose square, "Father Knows Best" demeanor belies a supreme comic self-confidence and whose implacability in the face of the movie's CGI-intensive animal antics can be marvelous to behold.

The message is so good-hearted, so inarguable, so dull.

Carell is getting quite good as these everyman characters but lacks the audacity of, say, a Carrey or a Robin Williams. He is making comedy out of dullness.

It's mildly diverting for kids and families in a way that would be perfectly fine as an ABC Family cable project.

Amusing in pieces but, taken as a whole, it offers little, and the morality lesson is galling.