Au royaume des singes

This is the latest of the DisneyNature films and it retains the finest qualities of the previous features: amazing photography, stirring music, and enjoyable narration. Ms. Fey does a brilliant job with the script -- we laughed at all the appropriate points (and there are many). But I found myself laughing at even more points because of the wonderful, comical display of macaques being macaques. There are crises as well as tender moments but the food hunting scenes were especially wonderful.

If you are familiar with DisneyNature films, you know that the credits at the end are an integral part of enjoying the film. This feature is no exception. It is a rare film when I wish the credit roll were twice as long as they are, but this is one of those films. A brilliant addition to the series. It makes you proud to be part of this amazing pageant that is life on Earth. The filmmakers are deserving as much as the good causes that the film series contributes to.

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.

I'm not really into Disney nature documentaries. I've seen a few they did in the 1960s on The Wonderful World of Disney, but the new ones they put out don't last in the theaters long enough for me to catch (Although I think I saw the one about the chimpanzees, and the one about elephants)

This one is a lot different from the old docs 50 years ago. It's very playful with the narrative and tells a more linear story voiced by Tiny Fey. What's most interesting about this is how the plot follows the Disney formula of a true underdog coming up. They must have had to do a lot of research and follow these monkeys for a long period of time to pull that off.

The story is about a single mother named Mya who's on the very bottom of the social status and must beat the odds in order to provide a better life for her son, kip.

It was so fascinating to see how the Monkey kingdom mimics the kingdom of man. Whenever someone tries to convince me that we are better than other animals (cause sometimes man forgets that's what we are). I'll have this movie to use as an example of how that's not accurate.

I went into this film not thinking much of anything but killing time, but it was not a waste of time. It was great!

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

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"Monkey Kingdom" is a wildlife documentary done in the trademarked Disney style - that is, to say, with lots of family-friendly positiveness and unyielding good cheer.

The movie takes us deep into the jungles of Sri Lanka, where a hierarchical society of toque macaque monkeys make their home in the shadow of a long-abandoned ancient city. The main focus is on one female monkey "named" Maya, a low-born member of the community who is consigned to a lifetime of serving those born into the higher strata (the caste system here makes India look like a model of egalitarianism and social mobility in comparison).

"Monkey Kingdom" is obviously aimed at a younger audience, which explains, but doesn't quite excuse, its tendency to talk down to its audience, speaking of the animals' thoughts and feelings in the most blatantly anthropomorphic of terms. It's probably not helped by the jejune Mark Linfield narration (spoken by Tina Fey), which can't resist interjecting corny asides at every opportunity. And a lot of it sure feels staged, especially a trip to a local city and a carefully choreographed raid on a birthday party (how DO they get their cameras in all those different places? Stick around for the closing credits to get an inkling of how it's done).

On the plus side, the high-definition photography is drop-dead gorgeous, and the glimpses the movie provides into monkey sociology - not too far removed from human sociology, I must confess - is often fascinating to observe. Though, I must admit, I frequently found myself wishing the cameras would turn away from the monkeys to explore the nearby ruins - and the history behind them - instead.