‘Monkey Kingdom’ is a Disappointing Destination

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Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Disney has always imported a bit of its cutesy narratives into its nature films. The best ones seem to spring organically from the images on-screen and it becomes easy to forget the contrivances and get swept up in the story. In the lesser entries, these attempts to impose a Hollywood story structure on the lives of wild animals only highlight how artificial they all are.

Disney’s latest entry “Monkey Kingdom” tries desperately to impose not just one story arc, but multiple story arcs onto the lives of a troupe of monkeys living in the ruin of an indonesian temple. The film focuses on Maya, a young female monkey at the bottom of the pecking order. She’s a plucky young heroine risking everything for her young child. And then it follows her as she tries to survive in the jungle and try to climb the social ladder of their particular monkey tribe.

Maya and Child in “Monkey Kingdom”
Photo credit: Walt Disney Studios

The usually-reliable Tina Fey carries the weight of the narrative load and struggles a bit here with her duties. There’s a disconnect between the yarn she’s spinning and the meandering footage on-screen. Her off-hand asides fall flat, and the attempts at humor smack a little of flop sweat.

The nature photography is beautiful as always. One of the problems is frankly there’s nothing all that special about Maya. It’s supposed to be a story of a spunky heroine risking it all for child, and taking on an unfair and unjust system. But she seems to be a protagonist by default. While the film tries to set her apart, she’s no different from any of the other monkeys hanging around.   

Along the way the filmmakers try to mold the footage into conventional Hollywood ready mini movies. A trip to a neighboring town to find food becomes a “Jungle 2 Jungle,” fish-out-of-water madcap romp. A face-off with a tribe of monkey invaders out to make the palace their own evokes “Braveheart.”

The Society Matters in “Monkey Kingdom”
Photo credit: Walt Disney Studios

But the actual nature of their lives has been scrubbed clean. Death is mentioned, but quickly glossed over – this all makes the artificiality of the narrative being superimposed upon it a bit much to take. And montages set to “The Monkees” and En Vogue’s “What A Man” don’t help matters.    

The youngest viewers will probably enjoy it, and there’s no shortage of beautiful images on screen.  But all this Hollywood monkey business made this movie seem about twice as long as its trim 81 minute running time. This is one instance where Disney Studios would have been best not to monkey around with things.

By SPIKE WALTERS Contributor HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]