El reino de los monos

Primates are very familiar in nature documentaries. Not that that matters, as there is often a chance to see rarely seen species mixed in with those that most people know and see them doing skills one would never think they'd be capable of. Personally like primates and many types of monkeys a good deal, and have learnt something different about them every time going to my local zoo. It seemed a perfect group for DisneyNature to cover, having seen how children react whenever they see a monkey (captivated).

2015's 'Monkey Kingdom' is another solid DisneyNature documentary, but it is a long way from being one of the best ones. It's better than 'Elephant', with some of the worst narration for any DisneyNature documentary, and 'Born in China', that looked amazing but had really bad narration and a confused target audience. At the same time, 'African Cats' and from memory 'The Crimson Wing' for example were better. 'Monkey Kingdom' is definitely worth seeing for anybody that loves monkeys.

'Monkey Kingdom', like with all the DisneyNature documentaries, looks absolutely wonderful. Especially the photography, which in a very cinematic-like way stunningly captures the vibrant wonder of the scenery. The photography is also clearly in love with the animals without being self-indulgent, managing to capture vividly behaviours and skills one doesn't always see. The editing doesn't come over as too gimmicky or too chaotic.

The monkeys themselves are an absolute joy, so compellingly real in personality and both full of life and easy to root for. Enough of 'Monkey Kingdom' entertains, more the behaviour of the monkeys rather than the narration, and while there is not an awful lot that illuminates or is innovative it is educational. Much of it is incredibly charming and warms the heart, as well as moves. It is not as much of a tonal muddle as 'Born in China', there aren't scenes that are too disturbing and there is nowhere near as much that insults the intelligence. Tina Fey left me a bit mixed, she has the right kind of voice for the narrator role and has some sincerity.

Her "jokey" attempts at humour are less successful, personally like others here found it very corny, quite contrived and at times misplaced. The writing for the narration generally could have been a lot better and more focused, with more facts and less of a "trying too hard to appeal to younger viewers" vibe. Some of the pacing could have been tighter, some dull stretches here and there.

Another aspect that doesn't come over well is the music, which is far too loud and in terms of musical styles it really does not fit at all the tone or the imagery. Either being too chirpy or too playful and the pop songs really takes out of the setting.

Concluding, a good documentary but not a great one. 7/10

Monkey Kingdom

The best thing about being a part of an ape empire is that you can rest assure that your children will never have lice for long.

In fact, grooming one another is only one of the odd practices featured in this simian documentary.

When female toque macaque Maya migrates to the remains of an antediluvian jungle temple in Sri Lanka called Castle Rock, she learns quickly that the roost is ruled over by alpha macaque Raja and three sister monkeys.

Banished to the bottom of the food chain, Maya must now struggle to feed her newborn Kip, whose father Kumar has since flown the coop.

Painstakingly captured on-camera by Disneynature's intrepid film crew and wittily narrated by Tina Fey, Monkey Kingdom is a comical and captivating look at the social disorder of our distant cousins.

In fact, any more poop flinging and this could pass as a reality TV show.

Green Light

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Previous to this documentary, I had seen several of the other animal documentaries by Disneynature, and I thought they were pretty good. However, this time around things don't work out so well. It's not an awful movie; there are some good things to be found here and there. The Sri Lankan scenery is colorful and attractive to the eye. The photography is also well done (see this movie, if you must, on Blu- ray!). And you do get to learn some interesting things about the particular kind of monkeys the movie showcases.

However, while the previous Disneynature movies were presented in a way that adults could enjoy them alongside their kids, this is not the case this time. There is an often juvenile feeling to this documentary. The Tina Fey narration is quite often cloying and childish, and several times the mood is spoiled by the soundtrack playing loud pop songs. Just as big of a problem is the direction at times. It's clear that several situations are staged and manipulated by the filmmakers. This might have been because there isn't that much story or drama elsewhere. Even though the movie runs about 81 minutes, it sure feels slow at times.

There have been much worse documentaries out there, but in the end this particular one is strictly kids stuff. It will entertain your kids (at least if they are in a patient mood at the time), but if you want to watch a documentary with your kids, pick one of the other Disneynature offerings.

"Monkey Kingdom" is a wildlife documentary done in the trademarked Disney style - that is, to say, with lots of family-friendly positiveness and unyielding good cheer.

The movie takes us deep into the jungles of Sri Lanka, where a hierarchical society of toque macaque monkeys make their home in the shadow of a long-abandoned ancient city. The main focus is on one female monkey "named" Maya, a low-born member of the community who is consigned to a lifetime of serving those born into the higher strata (the caste system here makes India look like a model of egalitarianism and social mobility in comparison).

"Monkey Kingdom" is obviously aimed at a younger audience, which explains, but doesn't quite excuse, its tendency to talk down to its audience, speaking of the animals' thoughts and feelings in the most blatantly anthropomorphic of terms. It's probably not helped by the jejune Mark Linfield narration (spoken by Tina Fey), which can't resist interjecting corny asides at every opportunity. And a lot of it sure feels staged, especially a trip to a local city and a carefully choreographed raid on a birthday party (how DO they get their cameras in all those different places? Stick around for the closing credits to get an inkling of how it's done).

On the plus side, the high-definition photography is drop-dead gorgeous, and the glimpses the movie provides into monkey sociology - not too far removed from human sociology, I must confess - is often fascinating to observe. Though, I must admit, I frequently found myself wishing the cameras would turn away from the monkeys to explore the nearby ruins - and the history behind them - instead.

I'm not really into Disney nature documentaries. I've seen a few they did in the 1960s on The Wonderful World of Disney, but the new ones they put out don't last in the theaters long enough for me to catch (Although I think I saw the one about the chimpanzees, and the one about elephants)

This one is a lot different from the old docs 50 years ago. It's very playful with the narrative and tells a more linear story voiced by Tiny Fey. What's most interesting about this is how the plot follows the Disney formula of a true underdog coming up. They must have had to do a lot of research and follow these monkeys for a long period of time to pull that off.

The story is about a single mother named Mya who's on the very bottom of the social status and must beat the odds in order to provide a better life for her son, kip.

It was so fascinating to see how the Monkey kingdom mimics the kingdom of man. Whenever someone tries to convince me that we are better than other animals (cause sometimes man forgets that's what we are). I'll have this movie to use as an example of how that's not accurate.

I went into this film not thinking much of anything but killing time, but it was not a waste of time. It was great!