A Monkey's Tale [2000]

Customer Reviews:

This film is brilliant.......2005-04-03

my sister and i saw this film by chnace on sky and we were totally blown away by the amazing animation and storyline, a real gripper! i would HIGHLY recomend this film to anyone as appeals to all age boundaries. if i had to sum it up in one word it would be: OUTSTANDING.

The film offers a nice idea, it's just badly executed........2001-01-22

A group of monkeys live together peacefully until an earthquake triggers a flood that sweeps across the forests. This effectively changes the lives of this monkey community, as they desperately search for safety. Some climb into the treetops while others fall and cling desperately to the roots of the trees in order to survive. This creates two completely separate monkey communities, the Laankos, who live on the ground and the Woonkos, who live amongst the treetops.

Over time, the Laankos and Woonkos have grown so far apart, that they have forgotten how they used to live together as a single community. Indeed, the Woonkos are totally unaware of the Laankos existence, taught from an early age that that monsters and demons live below them. The Laankos however are well aware that the Woonkos exist because they occasionally find one that has fallen from the treetops yet they are so convinced they are 'savages', any survivor is immediately put to death.

A Monkey's Tale tells the story of one of the Woonko monkeys, Kom (Matt Hill), an inquisitive monkey who dares challenge the community's belief of the evil that lurks beneath the treetops. When one day when he inadvertently falls to the ground, he sets off a chain of events that will change the lives of the two communities.

The premise of this film, it has to be said, is a great idea for a kid's movie. A story about bringing together two communities, overcoming obstacles of 'race' and resentment could teach all children a thing or two. Unfortunately this film displays absolutely none of the charisma that is necessary to enliven the promising idea. The film's plot plods along at a pace that would have most children bored within the first twenty minutes and it doesn't improve as the story unfolds. The script is extremely poor and allows no real development of the lead characters, so even if the kids managed to suppress their boredom, there is no incentive to empathise with Kom, the character that should be teaching us about tolerance and acceptance between the two communities.

How the filmmakers managed to convince some very talented British actors to voice these characters, with such poor material is something I am still wondering this very minute. My only explanation is that the voice cast recordings were made way back in 1996, when perhaps they had fallen on harder times and were desperate for a bit of cash. Rik Mayall, who could have so easily have stolen the show and made the movie at least bearable, is rarely on screen as Gerard, the dwarf-like sidekick to the (supposedly) malevolent Chancellor Sebastian, an equally missed opportunity to let John Hurt be excellently evil.

Now, realising the animation was not going to be on a par with what we have come to expect from Disney, I was prepared to be open-minded. However not this open-minded, the animation is among the poorest I have ever seen, worse than the dreadful The King and I last year. It is overly simplistic, the characters never come alive and the entire film looks dull and insipid. In some scenes I even got the impression the animators too got bored, and instead of finishing backgrounds, just merged the action and faded out the background with an appalling watercolour effect. The few CGI effects that are contained in the film are good, except they look so out of place next to the standard of the rest of the animation within the film, it becomes laughable.

A Monkey's Tale just goes to show that a whole host of famous voices and a song from boyband of the moment Westlife, doesn't save what is essentially a badly animated and poorly scripted film. If animated animal adventures are something you enjoy, I would strongly advise you save your admission price and watch The Lion King or The Jungle Book again and see what a great film. A Monkey's Tale could have been if someone had actually put a bit of thought into it.

Average customer rating:

Really enjoyable kids show

Timothy Goes To School [2000]
Starring: Austin Di Iulio , Fiona Reid , Alyson Court , Laurie Elliott , and Darren Frost
Director: Gary Hurst (III)
Manufacturer: Maverick Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All Children's DVD | Children's DVD | Categories | DVD | Video
DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Berenstain Bears - Go To School [2002]

Timothy Goes to School: The Great Race! (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Timothy Goes to School

Letters and Sounds: Timothy Goes to School Learning Book #1 (Get Set for Kindergarten!)

Timothy Goes to School: Dress Up Fun

ASIN: B00022EF52
Release Date: 2004-05-10

Customer Reviews:

Really enjoyable kids show.......2007-09-18

My 3year old daughter LOVES this program & I actually found it very helpful, I first showed her it on tv as she was starting nursery & was nervous about it, but since watchin the show she had NO issues going. So not only was it an enjoyable, fun & educating show for her to watch, it also taught her that school is a fun place :) I highly recomend it.

DVD:

DVD List

DVD