Review by Matt Finley
Because apparently I needed another
reason not to go to the zoo with Tim Allen, Disneynature has made
CHIMPANZEE, a beautifully shot, strikingly candid, and
obnoxiously narrated film detailing the early life of a wild baby
chimp, and the ongoing triumphs and struggles of his chimp kith.
First, let me just the say that the footage captured by co-directors
Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield (EARTH) is sensational –
lush jungle, sky-rending thunderstorms, bee hives, ant herds, fungal
marvels of bioluminescence, and, of course, a thrilling and deeply
moving series of scenes revealing the sublime reality of a chimp’s
everyday. But accompanying the tenderness, unforeseen violence, and
the striking epiphany that, to nature, all of these twining miracles
of triumph and tragedy are purely mundane, is an over-bearing
voiceover that makes Bob Saget riffing on an overweight step-dad
taking a Louisville Slugger to the Milk Duds sound like Ken
Burns’ Baseball.
I fully recognize that this is a kids' movie. In fact, that’s specifically why Allen’s heavyweight ego and ham-and-egger jokes irritated me so much. Through concerted anthropomorphy and the gross imposition of human morality upon the blood-wet physics of instinct, the film cedes to a tragic, if familiar, notion: The more nature can be shown to mimic the choreographed banalities of civilization, the more interesting and entertaining it is. It's one thing when it's Porky Pig buttoning up his nautical frippery... But, for Gaia's sake, this is a documentary.
I fully recognize that this is a kids' movie. In fact, that’s specifically why Allen’s heavyweight ego and ham-and-egger jokes irritated me so much. Through concerted anthropomorphy and the gross imposition of human morality upon the blood-wet physics of instinct, the film cedes to a tragic, if familiar, notion: The more nature can be shown to mimic the choreographed banalities of civilization, the more interesting and entertaining it is. It's one thing when it's Porky Pig buttoning up his nautical frippery... But, for Gaia's sake, this is a documentary.
