Movie review: Amazonia

A scene from Amazonia.

Director: Thierry Ragobert
Running time: 85 mins
Rating: G
Verdict: For littlies, not Attenborough fans.

This film's director had a hand in 2007's The White Planet, a visually sublime documentary about the Arctic that was burdened with a teeth-grindingly banal commentary.

Such rampant anthropomorphism is not so overt here, only because the film has no voiceover at all. But it stretches the meaning of the word "documentary", given that it has a scripted storyline and the main character (called Sai), is played by a capuchin monkey, who has his own wrangler (called an animal director). Many of the other "cast members" are tamed and trained too.

City-raised Sai is abandoned when the plane he is on crashes in the jungle and a passing anteater damages his cage enough for him to escape. As anteaters do.

As he explores his new environment, he becomes the conduit for the viewer's explorations as well, and the film is replete with Disneyesque cutesie-pie moments that will have some reaching for the hanky and others for the sick bag.

A final-reel message about man's impact on fragile ecosystems likewise seems a bit rich coming from a crowd who've hauled 3D cameras into Amazonia, and I can't help but wonder whether films like this, which treat wildlife as playthings, are essentially anti-environmental.

In that regard, it's certainly better for younger viewers (though not so young as to be easily frightened) than for serious fans of David Attenborough. And if it does little to persuade me that nature documentaries are necessarily better in three dimensions than in two, the film is certainly technically superb. Eye-popping cinematography and a rogues' gallery of dangers, including spiders, snakes and eagles. It's a wild world out there, Sai.

- TimeOut