When Kirk DeMicco ’91, a former Thematic Options student who majored in economics and political science, read the book The Right Stuff, a comment by test pilot Chuck Yeager stuck in his mind.

Yeager, talking about the simians used in early space flights, said the monkeys don’t know they are sitting on top of a rocket.

That comment got DeMicco thinking.

In 2001, he began writing an animated feature film about the fictional descendent of Ham the Chimp, the first hominid launched into outer space in 1961. DeMicco’s musings turned into the film Space Chimps, which he co-wrote and directed.

The Vanguard Animation and 20th Century Fox project featuring the voices of Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels and Stanley Tucci has been launched with appropriate international hoopla, including advertising on 100 million Dole bananas.

DeMicco recently was back on campus for the first time since graduation, where he talked about his circuitous route to the creation of animated features. His junior year was spent in Kent, England, and after graduation, he moved to Rome, where over three years he interviewed producers, distributors and Italian filmmakers for an Italian film publication.

Then it was on to New York, where he won a hard-fought position in the legendary William Morris mailroom. He worked his way up to an agent’s assistant, only to end up back in the mailroom when his agent was fired.

After he was transferred to the Los Angeles William Morris mailroom, things started happening.

He sold a spec script for a thriller. Director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) became a mentor. He began writing and producing various films and videos for the youth market, such as Quest for Camelot and Underdog.

“Writing for animation is very much beat by beat,” he said, “and you are always a bit of a producer, editor and director as you work.”

Currenty, he is co-writing a film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits with John Cleese of Monty Python fame. Crood Awakening, an animated DreamWorks comedy about the prehistoric era set for release in 2011, was their first collaboration.

DeMicco types their scripts on a laptop, keeping track of scenes and characters with note cards, and Cleese make notes on a large posterboard. While throwing out ideas, “it’s always good to hear him laugh,” DeMicco said.

DeMicco, who grew up as the oldest of three in Franklin Lakes, N.J., said his immersion in storytelling began early. “My mom read to us a lot.”

She also took her children to Broadway musicals. Some theatrical knowledge may have seeped into his consciousness sitting in the audience, DeMicco said, but he didn’t appreciate it at the time.

“My sister went home singing and I went home screaming,” he joked.

In retrospect, he remembers a USC College comparative literature class on adapting novels to film that held his interest much more than the musicals. The professor, Nancy J. Vickers, went on to become president of Bryn Mawr College.

For Space Chimps, DeMicco spent 16 months in Vancouver, overseeing a crew of 300.

“There are a million decisions a day,” he said. “All 300 people were artists, each with a special skill set. It was all in one big building, so you can literally see the movie taking shape along a pipeline.”

Directing, he said, “took all of my diplomacy skills.”