A 3-months-old chimpanzee is separated from his troop and is then adopted by a fully-grown male.
This kid-friendly documentary has all the elements you would expect given its Disneynature origins: excellent production values (many of the crew are veterans of the BBC’s natural history documentaries), slick filmmaking and a generally wholesome approach that smooths the natural world’s rougher edges for the benefit of the young target audience.
Combining gorgeous camera work with a compelling tale of an orphaned chimp called Oscar who is left to fend for himself in the wilds of the Ivory Coast rainforest after a leopard kills his mother, this latest venture from the recently renewed DisneyNature documentary brand is fairly adorable.
Maybe kids will embrace it – I always loved Johnny Morris and Animal Magic – but this nature documentary from Disney goes heavy on the anthropomorphic syrup.
Like The Only Way Is Primate, the reality TV-influenced approach to wildlife cinema gives us a hero to root for, but it's not coy on the tougher side of the natural world either.
The final five minutes give location interviews with the hardworking camera crew, and this is the only time when this plasticky film comes alive.
Surely children raised on the kind of documentaries the BBC produces in Bristol demand and deserve better than this.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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