Plot
Ted Shackleford is a tour guide at the Bloomsberry Museum, where he gives weekly presentations to schoolteacher Maggie Dunlop and her students. Ted's boss, Mr. Bloomsberry, informs him that the museum will have to close due to dwindling funds. Bloomsberry's son, Junior, intends to have the museum demolished and replaced with a multistorey car park. Ted impulsively volunteers to find the Lost Shrine of Zagawa, a forty-foot tall statue that could attract new visitors. Jealous of Mr. Bloomsberry's constant praise of Ted, Junior sabotages the expedition by burning half of the map. Ted is outfitted with a bright yellow suit and hat from a clothing store before departing on a cargo ship, the H. A. Rey.
Once in the African jungle, Ted follows the sabotaged map to the shrine. However, he finds that the statue is only three inches tall. He sends a photograph of it to the museum, but the picture's angle leads Mr. Bloomsberry to believe that the idol is even larger than expected. Before departing, Ted befriends a curious monkey who stows away on the ship and follows him back to his apartment building. The monkey vandalizes the penthouse apartment of opera singer Miss Plushbottom's with paint and Ted is evicted per the building's strict no-pet policy by the doorman, Ivan.
Back at the museum, Ted reveals the idol's actual size to Mr. Bloomsberry and is kicked out by Junior when the monkey accidentally destroys an Apatosaurus skeleton. After a failed call to animal control, Ted and the monkey are forced to sleep outside in a park, where they start to bond. The next morning, Ted follows the monkey to a nearby zoo where they encounter Maggie and her students. Ted names the monkey George after a nearby statue of George Washington and saves him after he floats away due to holding too many balloons.
At the home of Clovis, an inventor, George discovers that an overhead projector can make objects appear huge and Ted realizes they can use it on the small idol he found to save the exhibit. Ted and George show the projector to Mr. Bloomsberry, but Junior sabotages the plan with his latte, destroying the projector while framing George. Defeated, Ted informs the public outside the museum that it is going to close. He then allows animal control to capture George, who place him on the H. A. Rey in order to return him to Africa.
A regretful Ted speaks with Maggie who encourages him to rescue George. Later that night, Ted sneaks onto the ship and reunites with George in the cargo hold. George notices that the idol reveals a pictogram when light shines through it and Ted realizes that it is a map leading to the real idol. When they arrive in Africa, they find the true 40 feet tall idol.
The idol is displayed in the museum along with new interactive exhibits, which generate enough public interest to save the museum. Junior begins working as a valet for museum guests and is happy when he finally receives praise from his father. Ted is invited to move back in to his apartment by Ivan when the latter is visiting the museum. Ted and Maggie share a romantic moment that is interrupted when George accidentally activates a rocket, resulting in Ted and George launching into space.
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