On Tuesday night, my son and I had the pleasure of going to an advance movie screening for the new Disneynature documentary Chimpanzee. The film tells the story of a baby chimp who the film crew nicknamed Oscar and Oscar's family who all reside in the jungles of the Ivory Coast and Uganda in Africa.
Oscar lives with the many generations of his family and the film takes the audience into their day to day lives as they struggle to survive. After Oscar's family is attacked by another band of chimps, he finds himself orphaned until a very unexpected ally takes him in.
This film is a must see due to the wonderful way the story of Oscar is shown to the audience through beautiful cinematography. Not since I first saw "Out of Africa" back in 1985 have I been so taken with the scenery of a movie. There are breathtaking aerial shots of the jungle and fascinating time lapsed videography of moving ant colonies, spinning spiderwebs and rain soaked mushroom patches. Everyone is the audience was just spellbound by the beauty of nature that was shown in this movie.
The story of Oscar is heartwarming from the loving interaction shown between Oscar and his mom, to the hilarious sequences of how chimps break open nuts and eat fire ants without the fire ants eating them, to the heartbreaking scenes showing Oscar left all alone to fend for himself after the death of his mother.
Since this movie will be seen by lots of small children, I think Disney handled some very difficult nature related issues very well by not showing any animal deaths in the film, but instead implying with strong music and abrupt cutaways that a necessary part of the "circle of life" was happening.
Chimpanzee is a wonderful movie that is perfect for everyone to see as part of the celebration of Earth Day and it opens in theaters on Earth Day, Friday, April 20, 2012.
Make sure you stay to the very end of the movie so you can see scenes of some of the difficult situations with which the camera and film crews that made this movie had to deal. It will make you appreciate the film even more.
For every moviegoer who sees Chimpanzee during the film’s opening week (April 20-26, 2012), Disneynature will make a donation to the Jane Goodall Institute through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund in order to protect chimpanzees and their habitats.
Disneynature has put together some great learning material for kids to teach them about Chimpanzees. Just click here to download the FREE 19 page Chimpanzee Kids Activity Guide.
Click here if Chimpanzee movie clip is not shown
Enjoy!
Disclosure: I received media passes to attend the advance screening of Chimpanzee. All opinions are my own. Check out my Pinterest board inspired by the movie.
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