Review of Chimpanzee (2012) by Ray H — 10 May 2012

Lots of excellent video footage of chimpanzees in the wild. The star of the documentary, Oscar, a very young chimp, resembled an infant human. His eyes and ears were adult size, but his head was not; just like young humans.

This film is rated G, and is from Disney, so I expected some anthropomorphic comparisons. But, this movie is solidly presented as chimps acting like hairy humans from beginning to end. And, partly as a consequence, we learn very little about normal chimp troop life.

The movie seems to have been conceived from the very unusual observation of an adult male chimp caring for an orphaned infant. That chimp, Freddy, becomes the movie hero. Freddy seems to be the only adult male chimp in his troop. He leads and protects his troop. His troop is menaced by a neighboring troop, lead by a battle worn chimp, given the name, Scar. Its reminiscent of the cartoon about lions, LION KING. Scar is aging, and apparently has many younger males waiting to depose him. Freddy, apparently, does not have that problem. So, we have skirmishes between the 2 troops over food and territory.

But, we dont learn much about troop life. Like: how big are their territories, how often do they mate, is only one dominate chimp allowed to mate, how long do they live, what happens to young male chimps when they reach sexual maturity, etc, etc. Maybe this subject area is forbidden in a G rated film.

The movie is worth a look for the fantastic film footage alone. But, dont expect to learn much from the experience.