Monkey Kingdom Walt Disney Pictures (Disneynature Series) Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: A- Directors: Mark Linfield, co-director Alastair Fothergill Screenwriter: Mark Linfield Photographer: Martyn Colbeck, Gavin Thurston Cast: Narrated by Tina Fey Screened at: Regal E-Walk, NYC, 4/13/15 Opens: April 17, 2015 I’d like a dollar for every time a biology teacher someone in the U.S. told a high school class that “if you want to understand human behavior, just watch the animals in the jungle. Animals (other than we) behave in the same way that people do.” If you want to document this, you don’t have to spend $8,000 for a safari (excluding [ Read More ]
The post Monkey Kingdom Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Monkey Kingdom Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 4/17/2015
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
★★★☆☆ In the ever-watchable Chimpanzee (2012), Blue Planet producers Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield transport us to the Ivorian rainforests of Taï National Park, where we are introduced to three-month-old Oscar - a cheeky ape who gains an unexpected ally when he's faced with more than his fair share of troubles from a rival group of chimps. As is to be expected from a Disney Nature-backed documentary, the tone is light throughout as we witness the daily trials and tribulations of life below the canopy. The level is set (and kept) at 'pleasingly chirpy', with a heavy injection of anthropomorphism given to the travailing troop.
American actor Tim Allen's merry, if at times rather corny narration keeps this rather short, feature-length tale chortling along, referring to the oldest chimpanzee as 'Grandpa' and crowbarring in jokes seemingly swiped from his 1990s TV show Home Improvement. At times, this approach results in...
American actor Tim Allen's merry, if at times rather corny narration keeps this rather short, feature-length tale chortling along, referring to the oldest chimpanzee as 'Grandpa' and crowbarring in jokes seemingly swiped from his 1990s TV show Home Improvement. At times, this approach results in...
- 5/5/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
When his mother died, he was adopted by tough Freddy, to the astonishment of watching scientists
The death of a mother chimpanzee usually proves fatal for her babies. Rarely do other female chimps step in to adopt orphans, and adult males are too busy trying to establish their supremacy within the group.
So when "Oscar", the tiny star of a major new film about chimpanzees, was orphaned two years into a three-year shoot in an African rainforest, dismayed film-makers feared that he faced certain death. Then in stepped "Freddy", the group's dominant male, with a display of tenderness never before captured on camera, astonishing the leading scientists and the largely British film crew making a Disney film to be released in the UK on 3 May.
Chimpanzee is delighting scientists because such an adoption is so rare. To become the alpha male within his group of 37 chimpanzees, Freddy had displayed great...
The death of a mother chimpanzee usually proves fatal for her babies. Rarely do other female chimps step in to adopt orphans, and adult males are too busy trying to establish their supremacy within the group.
So when "Oscar", the tiny star of a major new film about chimpanzees, was orphaned two years into a three-year shoot in an African rainforest, dismayed film-makers feared that he faced certain death. Then in stepped "Freddy", the group's dominant male, with a display of tenderness never before captured on camera, astonishing the leading scientists and the largely British film crew making a Disney film to be released in the UK on 3 May.
Chimpanzee is delighting scientists because such an adoption is so rare. To become the alpha male within his group of 37 chimpanzees, Freddy had displayed great...
- 4/22/2013
- by Dalya Alberge
- The Guardian - Film News
Chicago – It’s Earth Day this weekend, and following on the heels of “Earth” and “African Cats,” previous releases from Walt Disney Studios and Disneynature, there is “Chimpanzee.” Tim Allen narrates the story of Oscar, Isha, Freddy and Scar, and the film is co-produced by the Jane Goodall Institute, which preserves the chimpanzee natural habitats in Africa.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
This is part of the remarkable and traditional Disney True Life Adventures, and with technology getting so much better and smaller for recording the action, the audience is the fly-on-the-animal for the story of the chimpanzees in their natural home. Tim Allen narrates the film in his own inimitable style, and the result is a breezy and eye-opening nature film for kids and adults alike. Studying the faces and the habits of the animal stars, we can’t help but notice how close the species are to humanity, even in the application of emotional intuition.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
This is part of the remarkable and traditional Disney True Life Adventures, and with technology getting so much better and smaller for recording the action, the audience is the fly-on-the-animal for the story of the chimpanzees in their natural home. Tim Allen narrates the film in his own inimitable style, and the result is a breezy and eye-opening nature film for kids and adults alike. Studying the faces and the habits of the animal stars, we can’t help but notice how close the species are to humanity, even in the application of emotional intuition.
- 4/20/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Come next month, just in time for Earth Day, the polar bears will go against the chimpanzees on the big screen, figuratively speaking. While Warner Bros. has the polar bear documentary To the Arctic set to arrive in theaters on April 20, Disneynature.s Chimpanzee, will also release that weekend. Those of us prone to tears at the sight of adorable things may have caught a case of the sniffles when watching the trailer for Chimpanzee, which introduces us to Oscar, a baby chimp whose life takes an unexpected turn. The documentary is described as .a remarkable story of family bonds and individual triumph.. The trailer gives us an idea of the story that.s set to be told in the film, as does the video below, which features directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, as well as Dr. Jane Goodall, Martyn Colbeck (Principal Photography) as they talk about the film,...
- 3/12/2012
- cinemablend.com
An upcoming documentary from Disney will give audiences the chance to not only see chimpanzees, but also save them.
"Chimpanzee," opening in theaters on April 20, tells the story of an orphan and the selfless alpha male chimp who raised him.
Before the extraordinary primate adoption, filmmakers were uncertain of the young chimp's fate. Director Alastair Fothergill said, "We thought the film was over, we were planning to ring up Disney and say, 'guys we haven't got a movie'" until the star was adopted by another chimp, which was "never before filmed in the wild."
Filmmakers were soon amazed by the care that the orphaned chimp was given by his surrogate father. Martyn Colbeck, Principal Photography, said, "This is pure altruism. This is selfless looking after an orphan when he doesn't have an agenda."
For the film, Disneynature has partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute to help protect wild chimpanzees. The "See 'Chimpanzee,...
"Chimpanzee," opening in theaters on April 20, tells the story of an orphan and the selfless alpha male chimp who raised him.
Before the extraordinary primate adoption, filmmakers were uncertain of the young chimp's fate. Director Alastair Fothergill said, "We thought the film was over, we were planning to ring up Disney and say, 'guys we haven't got a movie'" until the star was adopted by another chimp, which was "never before filmed in the wild."
Filmmakers were soon amazed by the care that the orphaned chimp was given by his surrogate father. Martyn Colbeck, Principal Photography, said, "This is pure altruism. This is selfless looking after an orphan when he doesn't have an agenda."
For the film, Disneynature has partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute to help protect wild chimpanzees. The "See 'Chimpanzee,...
- 2/24/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
San Sebastian International Film Festival
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- Alistair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, two veterans of the BBC school of natural history docus (Deep Blue, about life under the waves, and the BAFTA-nominated Life of Mammals), tell the story of global warming with state-of-the-art high def cameras and spell-binding photography yet spare us a storm of statistics. Earth does not relate anything not already known about how the globe is heating up, but the ingenuity of the filmmaking should connect with global audiences.
Earth goes through a year on the planet, examining how global warming affects the migration patterns of humpback whales, the hunting abilities of polar bears, the migration of cranes over the Himalayas and the long march the elephants across a parched Africa to reach a seasonal flood in the south.
Fothergill and Linfield follow the stories of a family of polar bears, a mother humpback whale and her offspring and an elephant and her calf. If the krill that feed the humpback die off, so will the whales. If the Polar Bear has no ice to hunt upon, it will die too. Even the great white shark is important at the top of the feeding chain yet, according to the filmmakers, merciless hunting has their numbers in "freefall".
Fothergill and Linfield make an unabashed appeal to audience weakness for cute animals. They delight at watching duck chicks launch their maiden flights in slow motion or baboons churlishly crossing a marsh in Africa. The birds of paradise in New Guinea preen better than any Hollywood star on the red carpet.
Patrick Stewart in an informative but friendly tone provides the narration. The statistics involved in the filmmaking are mind-boggling: 4,500 days of shooting with 30 camera teams in more than 200 locations around the world at a budget of $47 million.
EARTH
Lionsgate
Greenlight Media AG, BBC Worldwide
Credits:
Director: Alistair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Writers: Lelsie Megahey, Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Producers: Alix Tidmarsh, Sophokles Tasiouslis
Directors of photography: Andrew Anderson, Doug Anderson, Doug Allan, Paul Atkins, Barrie Britton, Richard Burton, Simon Carroll, Rod Clarke, Martyn Colbeck, Justin Evans, Wade Fairley, Ted Giffords, Mike Holding, Mike Kelem, Simon King, Toshihiro Muta, Justin Maguire, Didier Noiret, Andrew Penniket, Rick Rosenthal, Adam Ravetch, Tim Shepherd, Andrew Shillabeer, Peter Scoones, Warwick Sloss, Paul Stewart, Gavin Thurston, Jeff Turner, Nick Turner, Jon Waters
Voiceover: Patrick Stewart
Music: George Fenton
Editing: Mark Elsbury
Running time -- 99 minutes
No MPAA rating...
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- Alistair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, two veterans of the BBC school of natural history docus (Deep Blue, about life under the waves, and the BAFTA-nominated Life of Mammals), tell the story of global warming with state-of-the-art high def cameras and spell-binding photography yet spare us a storm of statistics. Earth does not relate anything not already known about how the globe is heating up, but the ingenuity of the filmmaking should connect with global audiences.
Earth goes through a year on the planet, examining how global warming affects the migration patterns of humpback whales, the hunting abilities of polar bears, the migration of cranes over the Himalayas and the long march the elephants across a parched Africa to reach a seasonal flood in the south.
Fothergill and Linfield follow the stories of a family of polar bears, a mother humpback whale and her offspring and an elephant and her calf. If the krill that feed the humpback die off, so will the whales. If the Polar Bear has no ice to hunt upon, it will die too. Even the great white shark is important at the top of the feeding chain yet, according to the filmmakers, merciless hunting has their numbers in "freefall".
Fothergill and Linfield make an unabashed appeal to audience weakness for cute animals. They delight at watching duck chicks launch their maiden flights in slow motion or baboons churlishly crossing a marsh in Africa. The birds of paradise in New Guinea preen better than any Hollywood star on the red carpet.
Patrick Stewart in an informative but friendly tone provides the narration. The statistics involved in the filmmaking are mind-boggling: 4,500 days of shooting with 30 camera teams in more than 200 locations around the world at a budget of $47 million.
EARTH
Lionsgate
Greenlight Media AG, BBC Worldwide
Credits:
Director: Alistair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Writers: Lelsie Megahey, Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Producers: Alix Tidmarsh, Sophokles Tasiouslis
Directors of photography: Andrew Anderson, Doug Anderson, Doug Allan, Paul Atkins, Barrie Britton, Richard Burton, Simon Carroll, Rod Clarke, Martyn Colbeck, Justin Evans, Wade Fairley, Ted Giffords, Mike Holding, Mike Kelem, Simon King, Toshihiro Muta, Justin Maguire, Didier Noiret, Andrew Penniket, Rick Rosenthal, Adam Ravetch, Tim Shepherd, Andrew Shillabeer, Peter Scoones, Warwick Sloss, Paul Stewart, Gavin Thurston, Jeff Turner, Nick Turner, Jon Waters
Voiceover: Patrick Stewart
Music: George Fenton
Editing: Mark Elsbury
Running time -- 99 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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