Disneynature's Chimpanzee

[Beate]

Blergh. Went to this this morning. Wrong choice. There were under 40 people but we still managed to get the morons next to us who talked and laughed at everything. No it wasn't hilarious. The voiceover tried to make it that way (for example when Oscar tries in vain to crack a nut) but it wasn't. The voiceover was actually pretty terrible, I hated how it tried to manipulate the story - there wasn't a story anyway, just lots of filmed chimpanzees in the jungle and someone TRYING to make a story out of it. Heavily edited, I am sure. Yes the little chimp was cute but that alone doesn't make me want to watch something.
OH was falling asleep and I was fighting sleep too so we scarpered after a little over half an hour. We are now watching the marathon which is ten times as exciting.

4/10

[stuartboy]

Well - did anyone spot me in this? I was the big one, second from the left in most scenes! Didn't have a speaking part though.

[RAZORBACK]

Thought that this was okay, not really my sort of thing to be honest but it passed the time.

I will say that I was far more interested in shots of the scenery and other wild life rather than the chimpanzees themselves and did find it impossible to follow what was happening during the fights between the two rival chimpanzee 'clans'.

Overall, I wouldn't go out my way to see this again but still think it did just enough to warrant a 6/10...

[newdot]

I thought that I was going to hate this. I am very much a fan of the david attenborough style of narration, ie sparse & not overly anthropomorphic.

However, taken as a piece of pure entertainment & story telling, this really hits the mark. Do we learn anything new? no. Would it inspire an interested child to learn more ? yes.

Found myself smiling throughout & occasional guilty giggle.

Beautiful images & good story, I was won over.

8/10.

[mathew1971]

Saw today at Ashton - pretty average fare, even the kids were a little bored. Ok for a freebie but you would be pretty cheesed off if you pa*d full price to go to see this - 4/10.

[newdot]

A question just occurred to me, after reading the other comments here....

How can this have taken 4 years to film, if it is the story of Oscar & all the events of the story occur in a few months of his life ? Certainly Oscar does not age more than a few months.

Confused. I would be rather disappointed if the whole "story" was cobbled together in the editing room.

...wikipedia confirms 4 years to shoot. Oh dear.

[McG]

Well - did anyone spot me in this? I was the big one, second from the left in most scenes! Didn't have a speaking part though.

Did you have a banana?

[alythonian]

This wasn't as bad as I thought it might be (being non-BBC and American). The story and the names were a bit naff, but it was interesting enough and very well filmed. Edinburgh was surprisingly busy this morning.

[yogi]

Saw this today in Manchester, thanks to akh43 and The Fox for the ticket... and a big thank you to akh43 for the chocolate

The film was very pleasant, ideal for a Sunday morning. The scenery and chimps looked splendid up on the big screen and made be yearn to go back to Africa... until I saw the making of at the end! Far too many bugs!
The story seemed less contrived than some other nature programmes I've seen and I found the stuff with chimps and the rocks/logs quite amusing.

It is all pitched very young, no blood on display here, but the children in the screening seemed to be engaged and laughing etc in the right places. Even the child close by who talked constantly through the film was at least talking/asking questions about the film.

Overall a thumbs up from me

[wavell]

Ideal Disney film for kids. A bit disappointing for we older generation brought up on BBC and David Attenborough. Perhaps expecting more of a documentary. Documentary it certainly ain't. The film was carefully edited (contrived?) to reflect various story lines, with a voiceover particularly grating to British ears. Disappointing monkey hunt and battle scenes so toned down (for the kids U certificate?), so not very convincing. Would have liked to see more of the (nocturnal) threats posed by leopards. Wouldn't it be nice if Disney handed over the footage to the BBC nature unit who could make a fantastic documentary out of it. But if it introduces kids to the realities of life in the wild, away from their sanitised lives and animated films and games, then maybe it's not so bad.

Rather oddly, we were given 3D glasses as we went in, yet the film was actually shown in 2D. Very strange. Is there a 3D version?