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Tanzania, United States · 2012
Rated G · 1h 18m
Director Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Starring Tim Allen
Genre Documentary
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Deep in a Ugandan rain forest lives a family of chimpanzees, including a baby named Oscar. When Oscar finds himself alone in the forest, abandoned, an unlikely ally steps in and changes the young chimp's life forever.
Throughout, narrator Tim Allen shuttles between a jokey primer on chimp society and a basic play-by-play during the more action-packed scenes - the constant stream of explanation often detracts from the heart-of-the-jungle sights and sounds on display.
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
The astonishing footage of apes in their natural environment is made perfectly accessible and then nearly undone by a narration track that plays to the audience's basest desires for gag-inducing cuteness.
No one's asking for a somber account of simian life, but perhaps Buzz Lightyear could keep quiet for a bit and let the monkey business speak for itself.
New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier
Chimpanzee lets everyone feel like a mini-Jane Goodall.
It has plenty of charm and is filled with astonishingly intimate footage worth seeing on the big screen but is sketchy on details and dumbed down by cutsy, anthropomorphizing narration.
Boxoffice Magazine by Pete Hammond
Kids should especially like this magnificent and heartwarming look at the life of young Oscar.
It isn't easy to insult the intelligence of preschoolers, but Chimpanzee's insistence on turning the two gangs into the Sharks and the Jets does the job long before Allen lapses into his Home Improvement grunting.
The Hollywood Reporter by Todd McCarthy
Some privileged nature footage from the African rain forest is dishonored by deeply silly narration in Chimpanzee.
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