This documentary offering from the DisneyNature label resurrects some of the worst traits of the studio’s True-Life Adventures series of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, dubiously shaping some amazing footage with cornball narration that relentlessly anthropomorphizes its simian subjects.
Sounding like George Clooney with a head cold, Tim Allen basically trivializes the plight of a young chimp named Oscar whose mother is fatally wounded in a (mostly off-screen) confrontation with a “gang” led by a villain whose name is unfortunately borrowed from “The Lion King.”
Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield’s footage of animals in an Ivory Coast rain forest is often remarkable, captivating and thoroughly accessible. There was no need to edit it in overly slick ways that often make the story line seem contrived, accompanied by gag-laden narration that frequently made me want to gag.