Evan Almighty

I loved this movie. I'm pretty sure this makes me a HUGE dork because it was mostly a cute flick with lots of corny jokes. It's everything that you would expect, but I mostly want to make two points - Steve Carell is the new Adam Sandler and all movies should have personified animals.
Anyone out there remember when Adam Sandler was churning out funny movies like crazy? Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy, etc. They were hilariously ridiculous movies with a cute kind of moral. Steve Carell offers us 40-year Old Virgin, Evan Almighty, etc. Seems to follow the same career progression. I do hope that Steve Carell will avoid the Adam Sandler mistake of making repetitive movies. The other strong similarity is that both seem to be great about making movies consistent in their ridiculous corniness. In Billy Madison, or example, the dancing penguin is throughout and it seems very consistent in the world of the babble at dinner, the 20 something in kindergarten, and the creepy classmate with the kill list. In Evan Almighty, the homages to Carell's days on the Daily Show, the reference to 40-year Old Virgin, the bird poop, and witty comments from Rita (Wanda Sykes) all keep this movie well into the family humor genre.
Secondly, can EVERY movie please find a way to integrate in cute animals? (Spoiler warning), when those monkeys were drinking out of glasses, I like almost lost it they were so cute. There are SO many scenes where these incredibly cuddly animals act like people, and every time it makes me wish I could have one as a pet/roommate that would watch movies with me, sit around in the sun chatting about books, etc. I know, I know, none of the animals spoke, but they helped to build an ark, they fetched refreshing beverages and they literally shat on a republican - its not unreasonable to think they could learn to talk.