Amazonia - Abenteuer im Regenwald

This is one of the most beautiful films that I have ever seen. There are only a few words spoken and they are spoken by a young girl to the monkey who is the central character of this tale. The Capucin monkey was a family pet and became free in the Amazon rain forest when the airplane he was travelling on crashed. At first he is dismayed but he quickly learns to fit in with his new environment and animal friends.

The nature photography is superb, with gorgeous views of the scenery, the sky, the weather and the animal activity. Scene after scene offer a great variety of interesting animal behaviour. Some scenes are very touching and others are very exciting. Since the hero of the tale wears a bright red collar, he can be easily identified in a group of monkeys.

The music is beautiful and suitable to the activity. I predict that I will see this film repeatedly. My wife loved it too.

What a great concept! So wonderfully executed. Terrific cinematography. You really feel as though you are traveling with him on his adventure. A unique approach to nature docos.

Highly recommended. A must watch for kids!! (I must admit to being a bit of a kid myself. Loved it!) 😝

I would have given the movie a perfect score of 10 if there had been no musical score. I felt that it intruded on the otherwise genuine natural sounds of the animals in the Amazon jungle.

I saw it on television so not with the 3D version that was apparently shown in theatres. That must have been quite a treat.

The film is so realistic that one wonders how it was done. It does appear to be a documentary of sorts starring that little expressive monkey. And he never appeared to be acting for the camera.

So congratulations to the film crew that endured rainstorms and God knows what else in the wilds of Amazonia.

Amazonia follows a little monkey, which was raised entirely in captivity, as it discovers its native habitat and eventually joins a band of monkeys. There is no narration. Most of the film has the natural sounds of the Amazon forest and some parts have "exciting" music, perhaps to alert younger viewers that something bad might happen. There is no grand plot or Meerkat Manor-like personages here. Just pure and simple nature, animals, insects, lots of rain, a snaking river, and many many trees. The visuals are breathtaking. Sunsets and sun rises are phenomenal. The diversity of the flora and fauna is truly humbling.

If there is a plot, it is very loose. Basically little monkey survives a place crash, is rescued by curious animals form its cage, and sets out to wander around the forest. It gets stuck on a piece of floating dead trees for a while and travels downstream the river. And eventually it meets monkeys that look just like it. Of course, we do not know if it understand them, but it joins them and becomes a part of their little group.

Scary things happen all the time, and there are two instances that are truly scary (plane crash and the death of a baby monkey). However, the children in the audience did not seem too upset by all this. i think most of them actually missed the hunt of the baby monkey. And since our friend survived the plane crash (and so did the human pilot), that wasn't too upsetting either. Several children did say "This is scary." out loud in a few instances. But none cried.

The film is an hour and a half, which was perfect for us. But it is mostly silent, and with lots of scenes of forest and sun rays and river running through without much happening. So some adults and children found it too long. One kid was telling his mom in the bathroom afterwords that he liked it, but it was "like a billion minutes!"

Highly recommended for nature lovers and nature documentary fans.

Only two words are needed to describe this movie.

BRILLIANT

BEAUTIFUL

That is all there is to it.

OK well I better elaborate.

First of let me say that the first thing this movie made me think about was The Adventures of Milo and Otis, a movie i have loved since childhood. This movie was shot on the similar idea, letting the animals play out the parts naturally and shooting it in a sort of documentary style.

That is where Amazonia really outshines Milo and Otis however, the cinematography in this was absolutely superb. You can tell those behind the camera really put an effort into getting the best shots they could allowing for some amazing footage, with the variety of animals looking absolutely beautiful.

Where Amazonia misses out though, and the reason I pulled short of giving a perfect score, was the lack of a narrator ala Milo and Otis. I think the added bit of a storyteller just missed that extra little thing to get over that last hurdle and meet the entire audience. Just think of someone like Richard Attenborough or Morgan Freeman telling the monkey's story while we were watching. According to IMDb Martin Sheen does do a narration so one day I may go looking for one of those copies and it may just give it that extra edge it needs. All the same though this is a must watch for the movie is just

BRILLIANT

and

BEAUTIFUL.