Fortunately, the film aspires to more than just cute moments. A charismatic baby chimp almost seems like too easy a protagonist for a G-rated nature documentary. Our sympathies lie with the fertile land's current reigners, a family that includes an adorable itty-bitty baby chimp named Oscar. The film centers on a nut grove, over which two rival packs of chimpanzees have fought for control. The photography of Disneynature productions has been nothing less than stellar, but here it is supplemented by a prominent and compelling narrative. I know that others are much less crazy about Allen's shtick and some genre-devoted viewers of this film will wish he would shut up and let the powerful imagery speak for itself. Being one of Tim Allen's bigger fans (with the disclaimer that I'm not crazy about all his work and could only withstand a single episode of "Last Man Standing"), I didn't mind when he let out one of his signature grunts or used his comedy sensibilities to describe gender dynamics and power tool usage (material undoubtedly tailored to "The Toolman"). The actor's personality comes through in ways that the on-camera work of previous narrators James Earl Jones, Pierce Brosnan, and Samuel L. Allen's famous persona and his longstanding relationship with Disney made him an obvious choice for narrator duties based on the footage gathered here. Chimpanzee follows in African Cats' footsteps and in doing so it is sure to rub some nature film buffs the wrong way.Ĭhimpanzee does as much telling as it does showing, courtesy of active running narration from Tim Allen. African Cats went a different direction, focusing on one species and dramatizing its nature footage into a standard narrative. #Man touching chimpanzee hand series#Earth was itself adapted from the BBC's acclaimed and popular series "Planet Earth" and so it stood to reason that it too would give us a few minutes on one subject and move on. Earth and Oceans took a survey approach, depicting life for a wide variety of animals on land and in sea. I'd like to think it has something to do with the movie, which is probably Disneynature's best yet. You can come up with a number of theories to explain why Chimpanzee performed considerably better than the two previous Disneynature releases. That places it third among all non-IMAX nature documentaries, narrowly trailing Earth (which played in 250 more theaters) and more widely falling short of March of the Penguins (which expanded to an all-time record 2,500 theaters). Given a slightly wider release (1,563 theaters, as opposed to the 1,200 claimed by its two predecessors), Chimpanzee provided a franchise rebound, taking in $29 million in its practically North American-only release. Returns diminished, however, on Oceans (2009) and African Cats (2010), the latter grossing just $15 million domestically and under $6 million in foreign markets. There was also a tradition to this kind of film, with Walt having pioneered the format in his highly decorated True-Life Adventures shorts and features of the 1950s.ĭisneynature's strategy seemed to pay off in the reasonably and globally strong box office numbers of 2009's banner-launching Earth. But Disney believed with enough marketing muscle, there could be an audience for strongly-produced theatrically released nature documentaries, even with all the alternative options on television and home video. Clearly, Disneynature did not fit this model, based on documentaries' modest commercial power historically. There was little mystery to the studio's game plan new CEO Robert Iger believed in franchising and saw value to making big, branded movies with endless earnings potentials. The company founded the Paris-based subsidiary on Earth Day Eve 2008, not long after announcing they were cutting their annual theatrical output in half. The introduction of the Disneynature banner was a bit odd. If so, the line of feature films given wide release in standard theaters has ended on a high note with this year's Chimpanzee. The tradition might be coming to a close the studio has yet to schedule or even announce either a title or a subject for Earth Day 2013. Pictures has used the third week of July to debut one of its biggest films of the year.Īnd, since 2009, Earth Day has belonged to the Walt Disney Company, who has used that April occasion to release each of its first four Disneynature documentaries. Big tentpoles gravitate to the Fourth of July and Christmas Day. You'll usually find at least one or more romance film opening shortly before Valentine's Day and some horror movies within a few weeks of Halloween. #Man touching chimpanzee hand movie#There are a few constants to the movie industry's theatrical release calendar.
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