Chimpanzee sticks to the trusty Disneynature formula of excruciating schmaltz delivered in exquisite high-definition. As with other Mouse House offerings this deeply manipulative wildlife documentary has been made to entertain rather than serve as a lecture on conservation issues.
The movie, directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, constructs a simple tale based on an orphan’s search for a new parent, the story having taken a predictable turn for the Bambi. A subplot is introduced, also, in which a gang of rival chimps desire control of a supposedly peace-love-dope clan’s patch of nut groves.
If you believed our closest cousins to be veggie peaceniks who exclusively feast on deliciously gooey honey and ripe berries, then you’re dead wrong. One discreet sequence sees the supposedly placid group sneakily attack some unfortunate colobus monkeys. Meat is definitely on the menu. The gory details, however, are left to the imagination.
‘Oscar’ is the star of the show and the centre of the camera’s attention. All alone in an uncaring society, how will he survive? What the film-makers captured is a great insight into ape behaviour and their capacity for altruistic acts.
Shot in Ivory Coast (though a Uganda unit is also credited) the footage is remarkable and vivid. Forest floors are illuminated like grand cathedrals by piercing rays of sunlight. Raindrops smash like bombs against plants and fungus in slow motion. Time-lapse photography demonstrates how flora blooms, creeps and spreads, often conquering and suffocating other species of plant. Verdant canopies and mountains are enveloped in great swathes of spectral mist. It is all tremendously cinematic.
Of major hindrance to Chimpanzee is the voiceover narration from actor Tim Allen. The script, naturally, sticks to the Disney staple of anthropomorphising wild animals. It also turns their lives into a cavalcade of comedy routines accompanied by trite descriptions of harsh, and very often violent, realities.
Luckily the visual splendour is so staggeringly strong that not even Allen and his bozo delivery of execrable observations, including a lame reference to his own 1990s comedy show, Home Improvement, can derail proceedings entirely. Oscar’s story has all the twists and turns of a classic children’s adventure story with a standard-issue happy ending.
Martyn has awarded Chimpanzee three Torches of Truth
