A coproduction of the Jane Goodall Institute, this should further burnish the reputation of Disneynature as a distributor of high-quality documentaries. (The two directors also worked on Earth, the first film distributed by Disneynature.) With stunning footage shot in jungles in Uganda and Ivory Coast, it follows a year or so in the life of a young chimp who is called Oscar, along with a few other members of the group he lives in. The “plot” mostly centers around food and the troupe’s efforts to find
it, move it, open it (in the case of nuts), and defend it from a
neighboring group. The characters consist of Oscar, his mother, the group leader, and a couple of other chimps who are specifically identified. There is drama, pathos, and light comedy, as with Oscar’s inept
attempt to crack open a walnut. For this the chimps use large stones, a learned behavior that takes a long time to master.
Though it will appeal to adults, the documentary is clearly aimed at a family audience. The narration, read by Tim Allen*, is styled like it might accompany one of Disney’s traditional animated features. Oscar is referred to as “our little guy” and the like. The leaves one chimp munches on become a “side salad,” and so on. Still, it’s actually good storytelling that should be quite riveting even for kids used to animals that talk. Adults will be amazed at the painstaking effort that must have gone into capturing the apes as they hunt, prey, shiver in the rain, groom each other, and, of course, eat. They might also notice that not a word is said about mating; the chimps’ promiscuous ways would presumably be less family friendly than the pair bonding of, say, emperor penguins. The camera also cuts away from the most viscous scenes of predation.
Even with the anthropomorphic narration and child-friendly editing, the success the filmmakers have had recording the lives of these difficult-to-document animals makes this well worth watching for anyone with even a mild interest in the subject. Some beautiful time-lapse photography is
a bonus.
*I’d never noticed before how much his voice sounds like that of Brad Pitt
viewed at Franklin Institute 12:00 N 5/27/12
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