We do some writing for #FandangoFamily and are compensated for this post. No monkeying around, all thoughts are our own. Every Earth Day DisneyNature releases a nature documentary in movie theaters. For 2015 it’s Monkey Kingdom and for every movie ticket sold in its first week of release $1 will be donated to Conservation International. That money will go to support Conservation International’s programs in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Cambodia that protect monkey and other endangered animals. Monkey Kingdom was better than my wife thought it would be and kids 10 and under will enjoy it for a variety of reasons.
Monkey Kingdom is the story about a pack of monkeys that live near an abandoned temple in Sri Lanka. The film also has some ancillary animals like a leopard, monitor lizard and bears; other than that it’s all monkeys all the time. What I found surprising, almost too surprising (but more on that later) was the fact that a well defined story was crafted in following the monkeys with cameras.
It turns out that the monkeys have a well defined caste system. There’s a couple older female monkey, their children and one alpha male who rule the area. They eat the best food, have the best places to sleep and can do whatever they want to.
The majority of the film concentrates on Maya, a female monkey who lives with the lower caste monkeys on the bottom branches. Maya has to scrounge for food and needs the approval of the alpha male in order to find a mate or do anything that might upset the proverbial monkey applecart.
One day a male suitor comes into camp and starts chomping his teeth at Maya. Apparently that’s a big deal in monkey culture because she is quite smitten by him and they sneak off. Unfortunately he’s then run out of monkey town by the alpha male who didn’t take kindly to the chomping of his monkey teeth.
Good news: Maya has a baby!
Bad news: the father was run out of town and she has to raise him herself.
Good news: The father returns!
Bad news: A rival group of monkeys kick all the monkeys out of their abandoned temple.
Good news: The monkey pack take a jungle trek to the city where they scrounge for food and the monkeys who ruled the jungle area are forced to learn and depend on the lower caste animals.
City wise and street smart, the monkeys head back into the jungle to kick those other monkeys out of their temple home.
As a film children will like it. It’s rated G and the only thing that children might find disturbing is when a monkey is killed, off screen, by the monitor lizard. Monkey Kingdom is narrated by Tina Fey and the script is more humorous and conversational than other nature documentaries that you’re used to seeing. Our five-year old liked it and I heard lots of laughter from the older kids who were sitting near us.
Monkey Kingdom Featurette – Making Of (2015… by viveos1
I liked the movie too, but it’s just that the film seemed too perfect. Was the film crew that lucky to profile the one monkey who would end up being the queen of the pack? I know that documentaries do research on the areas and species prior to production and then let the cameras go. Is this a case where they captured a concise, human-like story in the wild? That’s certainly possible since it is a movie about monkeys.
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