Disney's 2012 movie offering for Earth Day is a gorgeous and technically dazzling look inside the world of chimpanzees -- their use of tools, their nurturing instincts, their means of organization during fights and hunts for smaller monkeys, which they sometimes eat.

 

But "Chimpanzee" is also a throwback, a documentary that follows a baby chimp named Oscar as he struggles to learn the ways of his tribe and to survive in the dense rain forests of Africa's Ivory Coast. It's moving and entertaining as well as informative.

 

As Tim Allen narrates and the chimps provide moments of low comedy and high pathos, you might be reminded of the studio's popular "True Life Adventures" nature docs of the last century -- films that humanized, sometimes to the point of being cloying, their wild and untamed subjects.

 

In a vast, fog-enshrouded jungle, we meet baby Oscar, his mom, Isha, and Freddy, the alpha-male chimp in charge of this tribe; he is tasked with keeping order and keeping other chimp packs from invading and taking over the grove of nut trees that keeps Oscar's extended family fed. Still, a vast army of enemy chimps led by one-eyed Scar (of course, he's named Scar) is threatening to chase Oscar, Freddy and company to the hinterlands, where the food will be more scarce.

 

Allen's narration helps keep things kid-friendly, though the script tends to underscore what the images on the screen make obvious. "Yum yum" at mealtime, and the like.

 

But that doesn't spoil what is a lovely film, all extreme close-ups of chimps grooming, eating (with their mouths open), working out which rocks or sticks are good for cracking nuts and which aren't. Watching the chimps hunt tiny monkeys (nothing remotely graphic is shown) for food is a lesson in role-playing, teamwork and elementary tactics.

 

Nature itself makes a glorious set as we're treated to stunning shots of fluorescent mushrooms and dazzling little-known waterfalls. After the omnibus documentary "Earth" and the broader "African Cats" (by the same filmmakers), Disney may have hit on just the right mix of information and entertainment with "Chimpanzee." It's the best Disneynature film yet.

 

 

freep.com

 

 

 

 

 

Chimpanzee (2012)

 

Genre - Documentary  

 

A 3-year-old chimpanzee is separated from his troop and is then adopted by a fully-grown male.

 

Directors: Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield

 

Stars:Tim Allen

 

Release date: April 20, 2012