Chimpanzee

I saw “Earth” when it came out and I was impressed. “Oceans” had a lack of story and therefore appealed to me less. I am sorry to say that I missed “African Cats” and so “Chimpanzee” is the best Disneynature film I have seen yet. It is a little better than “Oceans” in my opinion. The use of cinematography was impressive and the four-year sacrifice of these documentary filmmakers just to make one film is honorable.

My favorite part of the movie is the narration. At the very start, I couldn’t tell exactly who was speaking so I began to imagine my favorite Disney characters as a way of finding out. Once Buzz Lightyear came to my mind, I didn’t have to guess anymore. The great thing about Tim Allen’s work on this movie is that he is funny but not “Home Improvement” funny. He allows the chimps to have the center stage and as a result, his voice takes on a different persona that we are not used to hearing from Allen. The moment tools were mentioned in the film, I got excited. I was waiting for the “Tim Taylor grunt” and when the power tools joke came, I got what I wanted. That was a great moment. The cinematography was really good in “Chimpanzee”. Some examples include establishing shots of the jungle and the use of high speed and slow motion. The rain falling in slow motion on the leaves was pretty cool.

When I watch something in a movie theater or on TV, I want a good story. Even if the focus of the film is on the characters, the story has to do its part to make the characters appealing such as on “The Muppets” or “The Simpsons Movie”. “Chimpanzee” had a story that did a great job in highlighting characters such as Oscar, Scar and Freddy. I liked the cinematography and the narration by Tim Allen very much.

3.5 Stars