![]() The film runs into trouble the moment it introduces the chief of the rival group as “Scar.” From that point, repeated references to “Scar and his gang” or “his mob” suggest that there are such things as good and evil chimpanzee clans, with nasty predators like Scar’s crew (tellingly never seen with young offspring or identifiable females) preying upon nice groups such as Freddy’s, whose worst transgression is a raid into some high trees against some colobus monkeys, one of which ends up as a (virtually unseen) meal. Oscar’s mother Isha, who is meant to nurse him until he’s about five, instructs her son in the finer points of selecting berries and nuts, the latter being highly coveted by a rival chimp tribe. The storyline the filmmakers stitched together from incidents that took place during the shoot follows the survival and education of Oscar, definitely a cute little bugger, as he learns to fit in with an extended family of about 36 chimps led by grand old man Freddy. ![]() Points, too, for the exceptionally observant and graceful camerawork of Martyn Colbeck and Bill Wallauer (Warwick Sloss did additional shooting), which brings the viewer in close and looks beautiful in the bargain. So high marks to Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, who also directed Earth together (Fothergill also codirected African Cats) for finding a way to comprehensively cover a particular group of chimps in the Ivory Coast’s isolated Tai Forest for a period of time long enough for young chimp Oscar to grow and learn a few survival tricks. Catching them on home turf in Africa is not easy, as they generally live in dense jungle, are not keen to be surrounded by camera crew and can easily scamper off faster than they can be followed through the bush. The close-together forward-looking eyes, warm child rearing, manipulation of tools, omnivore habits, communal spirit and general intelligence are undeniably relatable, even if humans generally see the animals only in the relative isolation of captivity. African Cats dropped to $21 million, a figure perhaps more in the range of what this one will do.Įveryone loves chimps for the simple reason that to regard them is, but for a slight biological rearrangement, to look at ourselves. The division’s first release, in 2007, Earth, pulled in an impressive $108 million worldwide in and its follow-up, Oceans, earned $82 million. ![]() With the sophistication and scientific information provided on TV nature docs steadily increasing, this sort of throwback aimed squarely at little kids feels very old school. This fourth documentary from the Disneynature label shares with last year’s African Cats the fault of talking down and sugarcoating to coddle the tyke audience, a shame given the rarity of the intimate portrait provided of chimp life in rarely visited remote regions. Some privileged nature footage from the African rain forest is dishonored by deeply silly narration in Chimpanzee.
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