Back at the end of
February, I had the chance to take my youngest daughter to the Walt Disney
Family Museum to meet Don Hahn. As the producer of her all time favorite
movie “Beauty and the Beast” this was a treat extraordinaire. After getting to meet Don in the morning,
receiving a signed copy of his book “Brain Storm” and having him sign a copy of
her “Beauty and the Beast” DVD, we spent a pleasant afternoon listening to Don
talk about Walt’s nature film adventures.
The session ended with Don providing us with an exclusive preview of
DisneyNature’s upcoming release – Chimpanzee, the sixth
release from DisneyNature. The preview just
barely did the film the justice it deserved.
Chimpanzee opened to the general public this last Friday, and as of this
morning closed out its first weekend in release at #4 in box office receipts.
From the very
beginning, the cinematography grabs you and draws you in. Having learned something about movie making
from my interest in Walt Disney, I know a little about how talented matte
painters, cinematographer, and director can miraculously plus a scene with the
use of matte painting. I have seen just
how a really good matte painting can trick the eye into believing there is more
to the scene than is there in reality. The
opening scenes are so magnificent that I had to look closely for any seams that
would indicate the use of mattes.
Nothing… just the beautiful work of a master of the camera. The story is a marvelous blending of on
screen antics and actions with a best in narration from Tim “The Toolman Taylor” Allen.
I will not spoil the
story by reviewing here; it is something that you truly need to witness for
yourself. I do have friend who take
issue with any anthropomorphic design or dialogic in the use of animal characters. However, chimpanzees are probably one of our
closest relatives in the animal kingdom, and in this movie are films in their
natural habitat, doing what comes naturally to them… nothing is staged, so to speak, to show them
doing anything which might be considered purely or exclusively human traits. In this film we are taken into a world rarely
seen by only a few humans. We get to
witness events that seldom happen and never before put on film, as well as
events of everyday life of two rival groups of chimpanzees, but seldom caught
on film. While Tim Allen’s narration
does put a somewhat human interpretation of the visual actions on screen, there
is never a moment that looks contrived to create a story, but, merely
interpretive of the story unfolding.
This is most likely a credit to the involvement of Jane Goodall, one of the
world’s foremost authorities on chimpanzees, in the project. By the way, it should be noted that Disney is
contributing a portion of the first week’s proceeds to the Jane Goodall Insitute. Bottom line, the story of young Oscar and his
unusual foster parent Freddie is not to be missed.
As the film opens
and during the closing moments we are treated to a few behind the scenes looks
at what the crews experienced while filming this movie. Braving the harsh inhospitable conditions of
the deep African jungles is a testament to the dedication of these amazing individuals
who captured all the film footage. As
Don told us during his presentation, this film was 4 years in the making, with
a couple of departures from the area because of local government conflicts that
could have ended it completely. Several
hundred hours of film was captured for what became the 78 minute feature. This dedication is something I come to
discover is a hallmark of great Disney films in all genres… the willingness of the cast and crews to sell
out to the story. Some may thing selling
out is a bad thing, but it is not! In
this case and many others, selling out is nothing more than doing whatever it
takes to get the story.
Well done Disney,
well done!!!
Your comments or questions
are always welcome. If you have a
correction or something you think I should look at in my research, please feel
free to contact me at mr.grumpyguy@gmail.com
