Chimpanzee (2012)

Just what I expected

As Good As It Gets

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This is the second nature documentary from Disney that I've seen, and like the other one I saw, it's a mixed bag. On the positive side, it is very well photographed, with some spectacular shots (especially on Blu- ray). It's also not boring, and there are some interesting revelations on the lives of chimpanzees and what they have to go through.Unfortunately, at the same time this documentary has some serious flaws. Most obvious is the narration by Tim Allen, which is often very annoying and jokey. I realize that they were trying to attract kids, but I think Disney could have found a narrator that would appeal to both kids and their parents (and written better things to say.) Also, the events that we get to see sometimes come across like they were concocted in the editing room. It was not a surprise when I read other user comments here after watching the movie that gave evidence that this documentary wasn't always telling the truth as to what actually happened.There is some good stuff here, but adults will probably have some issues with "Chimpanzee" all the same. So it's best to show it to your kids while you are out of the room doing something else.

The only thing keeping this movie up is the subject matter. No matter what watching this you will enjoy the up close relationship that is developed throughout between the Chimpanzees and the audience. The downfall of the documentary is in the narration. Unfortunately, Tim Allen was a complete flop. If you love nature docs and love David Attenborough and other natural world docs that feature a narrator that is able to tune in to the documentary and thereby have the audience fully enticed and watching with awe and excitement. Instead of this, you are left feeling is this a joke? The side narration 'giving the chimps a voice' was at first, intriguing... I wanted to see how Allen would go with it. Sadly... He didn't - Instead he sounded like he didn't want to be reading out the script he had been given. Which leaves the viewer not buying it. I just can't believe no one listened through and thought it didn't sound right! Anybody could have sounded better than that! Allen had no enthusiasm except possibly when he was talking about tools.BUT the subject matter is the key. If you have children then I'm sure it will be a nice close up look at nature for them. However, because it is aimed at children it has seemingly been dumbed down. This is an unfortunate inevitability when producing documentaries for children. I would not recommend paying to see this in the cinema. Instead watch some David Attenborough, or wait for 'Chimpanzee' to come on TV.

The most striking feature I noticed while watching this film was the resemblance of these creatures to my neighbors. It's incredible how similar to us they are!Granted, Doña Carmen and Don José don't go as far as to deflea each other while carrying on a casual conversation on a sidewalk, but the similarities in body gestures and specially when persistently looking at the camera lens (it happened several times, whether intentionally or not) and we could see overwhelmingly human eyes looking at us, can be quite disturbing.Impeccable photography with so many close ups that one wonders constantly at how they had managed to take those shots without disturbing the animals. I'm sure Disney has the most sophisticated equipment in the World in order to present such splendipherous depth of lenses and superb sharpness all the time, even from long distances, but even so, chimpanzees have a very sensitive sense of smell and I'm sure they could detect human presence from afar, but apparently it left them unconcerned and they proceeded naturally with their daily chores.The forest, breathtaking, specially from the air, and the lushness of all that green carpet we see below seems to go forever on behind those far away mountains; when the camera goes down to ground level it's disconcerting to notice how very little sunlight reaches these animals.Since it was a Disney film, obviously thought out for children, the notorious lack of restrain among monkeys and chimps when it comes to bodily functions, including everything related to sex, which is so habitual to see in zoos in broad daylight, here there is no trace whatsoever of it, like in those old Doris Day films, where everything was squeaky clean. A good film for Eco-friendly fans. P.S.: I gave it a 9 because of the titanic efforts of the whole crew and the tenacity they put into the project, working under such harsh and probably dangerous conditions.

ChimpanzeeThe wild can be a dangerous place for a chimpanzee. Mostly because tire swings in their natural form are attached to speeding vehicles.Fortunately, there are no SUVs for the primates in this documentary to be pinned under.When his mother is killed in a territorial skirmish with a rival tribe lead by the cruel Scar, a young chimp named Oscar must learn to survive on his own.Lonely and emaciated, Oscar struggles to retain the survival lessons that his mother instilled in him, but to no avail.Luckily, an unpredictable bachelor in the tribe does something completely unexpected and adopts the orphaned ape as his own.Narrated by Tim Allen, this Disney nature documentary features fantastic up-close footage of life amongst our relatives, paying particularly close attention to how their empathy apes our own.However, in cases like this, I always thought that guardianship went to the monkey's uncle. (Yellow Light)vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca