Zambezia - In jedem steckt ein kleiner Held

This is a story of a young and disobedient falcon who left his father and their nest in the isolated desert to challenge the mysterious bird-city Zambezia.

I watched this with two kids, 4 and 9, both liked it a lot and so am I. It's pretty dynamic and funny, colorful (beautiful nature, birds, animals) and has nice and lively soundtrack. Storyline is easy to follow, not too complicated for children and not too boring to fall asleep in the middle for grownups. Characters are OK, although no really memorable ones (don't remember the kids to discuss anyone on the way back from the cinema). As an extra plus I see the absence of hidden context or jokes for adults.

Overall, I think it's underrated and surely worth at least a single watch in the cinema or at home by all of your family.

This is Triggerfish Animation's first feature film. It's a pretty good first effort, but the inexperience shows. A particular problem was the shoestring budget which meant some shots had to go through to the finished film with known flaws, and the story was patchy in places. This film could have done with some pick-ups to fill in those holes. The story is pretty generic, but for the most part well told. The animation is bright and sparkly - the shot of the Falls and into the tree is brilliant. Voice acting is generally good. A shout-out goes to the score: this is in a class of its own, and really lifts the movie. Well done to the first-time composer Bruce Retief.

The film could have done with a few more months in post-production: tightening up some of the gags, filling in a few story holes, polishing up the animation... then it would have warranted an 8/10. As it stands it's a solid 6, particularly due to the score.

Zambezia is not a movie which will be frequently watched again. What it does signal is intent from the new kid on the block from Africa. There's real potential from this little studio in Cape Town,and their next films look like they are hitting their stride (Khumba, plus the next in development: "Sea Monster" with an almost watercolour animation aesthetic. Looks amazing. Pixar 2?)

(2012) Adventures In Zambezia COMPUTER ANIMATION FAMILY ADVENTURE

Co-written and directed by Wayne Thornley that has an ambitious young falcon Kai as well as other birds seeking for the ultimate bird's paradise called Zambezia, which is really a huge tree house located in the middle of some occurring water falls. And the egg eating lizards are the bad guys with Budzo being the most conniving trying to convince a hoard of marabous to work alongside with him. One of the major problems is that upon viewers first seeing the different varieties of birds, I am unable to tell which bird is what, since I thought the so-called falcons looked liked owls, while the marabous looked like vultures. This is one of those computer animations where one would have to read up on first before watching.

It is easy to spot a good animated kids movie: Kids will sit on the edge of their chairs, and parents will stay awake throughout and be reasonably engaged. This one ticked both boxes.

Leonard Nimoy, Samuel L & Jeff Godblum created believable characters, but the Ezee character came over as a bit of a cliché. The animation was done well and could easily rival a movie like Rio.

This is miles better than the previous animated attempts from South Africa, but unfortunately its very difficult to create an animated blockbuster if you don't have the budget of a Sony, Pixar, Dreamworks or Disney.

Pleasant hour and a bit overall.

You can tell if a kids movie just hit the mark, if the young viewers shout "We want to watch this again", immediately after the end credits start to roll. "Zambezia" is a very sweet, well crafted and engagingly told south-African animation, that works very well with its target audience, tells an ambitious story; and ends up being hold back by its budget restrictions.

Director Wayne Thornley aims high with his home grown south-African story of the young hawk Kay, who lives alone with his father at the top of a gorge of the Zambezi in an otherwise deserted landscape. When Kay abandons his home to live in the bird's big city of "Zambezia", where he learns the truth about his origins and has to find his own strength, parallels to "The Lion King", "Finding Nemo" and other genre classics become obvious.

To my surprise, Zambezia fits surprisingly well into the shoes of its predecessors. The animal characters are developed very nicely and with attention to detail. Clearly the creators of this movie know their subjects very well. I always like, when animal characters like these are still rooted in their natural behavior, something "The Jungle Book" or the mentioned "Lion King" do all so well (while annoying movies like the "Madagascar"-franchise don't seem to get this right).

The south-African landscapes are stunning. It is a joy to follow Kay and all the other birds of prey as they race over rivers and waterfalls, through gorges of stone and wood at breakneck pace. These visual treats are accompanied by a simple story with an important message ("Stronger together"), both transported in a very engaging way for the young viewers. The movie is funny and exciting and the main villain is very creepy, so there is a lot to enjoy for the kids.

So, that Zambezia ultimately cannot quite reach the heights of its paragons, has nothing to do with bad story telling or movie making. The creators clearly had a vision of what they wanted to accomplish and it only seems, they have been held back by limited resources. They are some plot points, that would have deserved greater development, such as the relationship between Kay and the female kite "Zoe". Though the story paces along at falcon speed, I would have loved to see some story arcs told with more patience. But these are adult complaints, that surely don't diminish the fun of younger viewers.

Zambezia is a certainly underrated, definitely ambitious and well crafted piece of animation, that deserves to be given greater attention. If you need to kill an afternoon at home with your kids, this one is well worth the time.