"Amazonia" tells us the story of a little Capuchin. It's not really a documentary, but more a fictitious story with an animal as the main "actor". And more animals as actors that are obviously not realizing that they are acting. I'd imagine that it wasn't easy at all to get the animals to "act" the way the movie makers wanted them to. The result is fairly entertaining. One of the scenes that stays memorable is where the little monkey pokes his tongue out at a snake who tried to catch him. This scene is also used int he trailer and especially the younger audiences totally loved it.
There's also some drama included like when he leaves his group with the female monkey as the leader won't accept him as part of them and it's nice to see the little monkey meet many other animals: crocodiles, big cats, tapirs, sloths and how he interacts with them. Children will enjoy it, but you should really only watch it for the story. The few moments when the film tries to get documentary-style or scientific, it does not succeed, sometimes even gives contradictory statements about which the largest animals in the area are (tapirs? cats of prey?). This is a bit disappointing as director Thierry Ragobert is fairly experienced with the subject as he has worked on several nature documentaries already, but also on other subjects like religion for example. The beginning with the plane crash and the pilot simply leaving the plane and never being heard of again felt a bid odd to me. However, they had to find a frame for the little monkey being exposed to wilderness and they found one about which younger audiences won't complain.
Congrats to Venice Film Festival for giving this fairly obscure movie a prize and making it a bit more seen this way maybe. It reminded me a bit of a live action version of the animated film "Rio", even if in its center we don't have birds. Let me finish this review by saying that I quite liked the ending where humans are described as the major enemy to this wonderful jungle wildlife world. Crucial statement and I really liked that they included it at such a significant position (i.e. the end), so it stays well in the minds of people.
There's also some drama included like when he leaves his group with the female monkey as the leader won't accept him as part of them and it's nice to see the little monkey meet many other animals: crocodiles, big cats, tapirs, sloths and how he interacts with them. Children will enjoy it, but you should really only watch it for the story. The few moments when the film tries to get documentary-style or scientific, it does not succeed, sometimes even gives contradictory statements about which the largest animals in the area are (tapirs? cats of prey?). This is a bit disappointing as director Thierry Ragobert is fairly experienced with the subject as he has worked on several nature documentaries already, but also on other subjects like religion for example. The beginning with the plane crash and the pilot simply leaving the plane and never being heard of again felt a bid odd to me. However, they had to find a frame for the little monkey being exposed to wilderness and they found one about which younger audiences won't complain.
Congrats to Venice Film Festival for giving this fairly obscure movie a prize and making it a bit more seen this way maybe. It reminded me a bit of a live action version of the animated film "Rio", even if in its center we don't have birds. Let me finish this review by saying that I quite liked the ending where humans are described as the major enemy to this wonderful jungle wildlife world. Crucial statement and I really liked that they included it at such a significant position (i.e. the end), so it stays well in the minds of people.