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source: Monkey Kingdom

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 vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

In this latest outing by Disneynature, we meet Maya, a monkey who is an outcast to her own troop. Through pure determination and perseverance however, she survives and thrives. After she finds a mate, who is later runoff by the other monkeys; and becomes a mother to Kip, she continues her fight, even against the greatest odds. Even after being forcibly moved by a neighboring troop to a new home, and having to fight for survival and even traveling into a human village. It is while Maya and the other monkeys are in the human village that they get into a lot of mischief. Very entertaining and fun movie for the whole family. My only fault with the film is that the voice of Tina Fey can make you want to fall asleep.

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

It's a Disney nature documentary following a troop of macaque monkeys living on Castle Rock in Sri Lanka. Maya is a lowborn female living at the bottom of the social group. With the arrival of the new male Kumar, the alpha male Raja notices and drives out Kumar. Six months later, Kip is born. Monkeys! Monkeys! More Monkeys! It's great. It's also informative with insights into their social structure. It's hilarious when they steal from people. The most notable difference from other nature documentaries is the narration of Tina Fey and the use of modern music. Tina's got a sarcastic tone which is quite different from the usual British legends, the Attenboroughs. She's American comedy compared to the British high-minded light humor. This is not as scholarly but it's plenty entertaining. The climatic conflict is actually intense. This may be the new era for nature documentaries.

Pop music was really annoying and not appropriate. Narration a little overdone. Documentary would have been enjoyable and rated higher if not for these two factors. Some scenes seem obviously staged but overall, beautiful visuals and an intimate view into the animal world.

The Disneynature documentaries are an odd lot. One one hand, they have the best cinematography you could imagine--going to many amazing and beautiful places around the globe in the process. And, the cinematographers are able to get some stunning footage of animals in the wild. However, many of these documentaries ALSO feature some of the most annoying and inane narration you could ever find in a nature documentary. Of them, "Monkey Kingdom" might just be the worst due to this awful narration and 'funny bits' they've included to appeal to dumber members of the audience....which is odd, as I cannot imagine dumb people going to see these films. I knew I was in trouble when this film began. This is because over top of the stunning footage in Sri Lanka of the featured macaques, you suddenly are treated to the song "Hey, Hey, We're the Monkees"!! It made me cringe. Also cringe-worthy is some of the stuff they have Tina Fey say, such as "15 pounds of hunky monkey"! What?! It seems as if "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and a nice documentary have been merged into one! The bottom line is that this film and a few other Disney documentaries would make biologists and most audience members cringe. I loved their "African Cats" and "Crimson Wing"....but films like "Monkey Kingdom" and "Bear" and "Born in China" are all like documentaries for the incredibly immature. You could do a lot better than "Monkey Kingdom" because of this...and because unlike the other subjects in the Disney documentaries, it's hard to feel connected to or care for these homely macaques.

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 (2015): Dir: Mark Linfield, Alastair Fothergill / Narrator: Tina Fey: Another fascinating Disney Nature documentary. This one is set within the jungles of Sri Lanka that homes a clan of macaque monkeys. Narrator Tina Fey points out the status lifestyle of these creatures sighting that the leading alpha male eats highest in the trees with the choicest food. From there it descends in rank, which unfortunately places Maya on the ground under the watchful scowls of the "sisters." Eventually she is courted by Kumar, a visiting macaque that is quickly banished for his curiosity but not before getting Maya pregnant. Her son Kip is born but it is a struggle to provide food at the lowest rank. This results in an exciting, amusing and adventurous film where the macaques are faced with all sorts of issues. They are stalked by a leopard early on, which they escape although they are not so lucky with a monitor lizard during a river sequence. They are attacked by a rival group that forces them to risk entering a nearby city. They approach this with caution as they steal food from angry humans that view them as pests. When the city becomes too overwhelming they decide to return to the jungle and fight to reclaim their rightful home. Beautifully filmed with a variety of wildlife throughout, and a well told informative narrative that gives insight to the struggles these creatures face daily. It is another triumph from the studio that brought us such treasures as Bears, Chimpanzee and African Cats. This is equally fine family viewing or for animal lovers curious to see the chaotic lifestyles going on outside our society. Score: 10 / 10