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.
