Disneynature’s eighth theatrical release, “Monkey Kingdom,” opens with a breathtaking view of a fog enveloping the jungles of South Asia at sunrise.
Directed and produced by Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill, the movie premieres this spring and will join the ranks of Disney’s amusing and illuminative films about nature. Disneynature was created in 2008 and has produced many movies, such as “Oceans,” “African Cats” and “Earth.”
The voice of Tina Fey, known for her roles in “30 Rock” and “Mean Girls,” narrates an exciting story of a blonde-bobbed macaque named Maya.
Maya’s extended family occupies the ruins of an abandoned city which once belonged to the ancient royals. The monkeys share their home with various neighbors: a fussy bear family, an adverse mongoose and gluttonous squirrels.
Our furry heroine has to be very clever and inventive to survive in an extremely hierarchical society of macaques, ruled by the alpha male Raja and his three favored females. Monkey royals enjoy the upper branches of trees, where the sweeter fruits are, while lower classes shiver from cold on the lower branches and feed from scraps.
Maya’s place is under the tree, where she was born, just like her mother and her grandmother. This 8-year-old monkey comes from the lowest class and knows that in the closed-class society of macaques, she will never climb her way up to the higher branches.
The newcomer Kumar changes Maya’s life forever when he joins the pack. They fall in love and soon have a son, but Kumar is expelled from the kingdom by the envious Raja. Maya has to give the baby a leg up in the world on her own, surviving monsoon season and taking risky paths of finding food. Dangerous predators lie in wait for the young mother everywhere. But Kumar makes his legendary return and Maya and her friend continue their adventures.
The filmmakers combine several genres, including romance, action and comedy. There is vibrant love between Maya and Kumar, and a lot of tension during the tribes’ ruthless fights. There is also an absolutely hilarious scene of adorable tailed beasts trashing a human kid’s birthday party. They eat up a cake and take away anything they can possibly carry in their small paws. Combining so many genres, though, gives a feeling that the filmmakers were trying too hard to target all possible audiences.
Yet, this Disneynature film was made with the youngest viewers in mind. The filmmakers tried to avoid all brutal and sexual scenes. Maya and Kumar have their first child after taking a long walk together, and formidable leopards protect the macaques from the stress of seeing their relatives being eaten by dining with corpses exclusively in dense thickets, hidden from the monkeys’ eyes.
“Monkey Kingdom” is stuffed with sharp humor, but while immensely amusing to children, the plot might appear overwhelmingly staged to adults. Even though real footage of the macaques was used, the movie was edited heavily to fit the storyline.
Despite all this, the majestic views of nature nurtured by powerful monsoons and ancient ruins tested by time are simply fascinating. The lack of dialogue is completely substituted by touching and beautiful music, created by award-winning composer Harry Gregson-Williams.
Besides fulfilling its entertaining purpose, “Monkey Kingdom” is also striving to help make our planet a better place. For every ticket sold during opening week – April 17-23 – Disneynature will make a donation to Conservation International, an ecology-oriented charity organization. The money will be used to protect monkeys and other endangered species in their natural habitats in Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Part of the donations will also contribute to the protection of fresh drinking for local populations.
In the end, “Monkey Kingdom” is an informative and fun movie, as well as a worthy opportunity to give back to Mother Nature.
– Maryna Romanchuk-Kapralau