Animal Kingdom: Let's Go Ape

Obviously it's a Jamel Debouzze Debouzze Debouzze business. If you are not familiar with or not into Jamel Debouzze stuffs and his comic multi-french team you will probably find yourself lost in Debouzze's logic which is Debouzze's way of acting.

The story in 1h36 is about an instantaneous evolution simian-homo erectus which coexists with pterodactyls, the use of fire, music, dynasties...they don't respect how events occurs on the time line...which is not a bad thing if you have not yet had enough of Jamel Debouzze because you may like the way they get through it. You will definitely be disappointed if you try to compare this to, let's say "The Croods"

Watch with kids if you have time

Literally the worst movie I have ever seen and will ever see. I don't know what possessed me to watch the whole thing, perhaps the fact I was stunned by such an atrocity, how it was even possible to create an injustice such as this.

The characters, CGI and voice acting are abysmal, the story nonsensical. Actually, describing the story as non-existent would be more accurate.

Every scene makes me shake my head in bemusement, confused and afraid of this abomination. I would go as far as to say this qualifies as the eighth deadly sin. My eyes, brain and body feel violated having watched it. Frankly, it's a crime against humanity that this was ever released.

There is obviously a lot of passion in the ratings for this movie, it's mostly either 1 or 10 stars. I didn't have any expectations for the movie, so I was happily surprised. I watched the original French version, and I can well understand that people who don't know or like the two generations of French comedians Jamel Debbouze and Louis de Funès didn't get into the movie, especially Jamel, with his fast French-Moroccan accent from the suburbs. But I found both totally suitable to the characters and Jamel absolutely terrific. Actually, all of the characters' voices were excellent, there was a lot of work choosing the right voices, accents and tonality for these characters, in addition to the funny dialog. A great family comedy, kids will easily follow the simple plot, although kids and people not familiar with French culture will not benefit from all the hidden humor like some references. There is a bit of the Croods' theme, a tribe leaving its safe haven for the Unknown, and quite a few other borrowings from it, but the whole story is still very different. The almost human faces were a bit upsetting to me, almost too realistic. ;) Definitely a reference animation I will probably watch a few more times, one star less than The Croods I already watched at least 5 times, in English and in French. And there's not that many French full feature animation movies either.

There's a lot of story here but for some reason the people that made this movie decided to throw a lot of it out. Back in 1994 Roy Lewis, a British author, wrote a satirical book called "Evolution Man: Or How I Ate My Father". It's a wickedly funny book about a group of upwardly mobile hominids from the dawn of time. The father has just discovered fire and is learning about it's uses. Mother makes sure her kids finish all the toad on their plate before being excused from the table. Junior has made the first cave painting. And Uncle thinks that coming down from the trees and making flint tools will eventually lead to them being killed in a big bloody war. It's satire of modern issues and ideas set several million years ago. And one day somebody decided to make a movie about it. And it's awful.

From what I understand there's two versions of this movie. There's the original French that goes into more detail and there's the butchered English version that cuts out certain scenes. I haven't seen the English version so I can only speak of the French version. And even then, it's terrible.

Now the animation is... okay. There's nothing ground breaking here. It's adequate in a Saturday morning cartoon kind of way. But for some reason they decided to give the apes in this family very human looking faces. And my god, they go straight into the uncanny valley. They're downright terrifying. That coupled with how they move in rather cartoonish ways just increases the uncomfortable feeling you get.

I wanted to watch this movie to see how bad it could be. But by about the thirty minute mark I just couldn't take it any more. I couldn't focus on the story, which was butchered I might add, because every few seconds the faces kept bothering me.

Don't watch this movie. It'll give you nightmares. Read the book instead.

Mmmmmmh ...

Although I have been using it for years, this is my first comment EVER on IMDb ! One advice : do not trust reviews :)

Maybe I end my silence because I think this cartoon/movie does not deserve such an unfair treatment ; or is it because I am French (excuse my English, but I wanted everyone to be able to read it... or not LOL) and have watched Jamel in so many different contexts since my teen age ?

I enjoyed the movie and truly do not understand its bad review here (and from what I read from google.fr) : - Visuals, effects and animations are far from being perfect (cheap motion capture that I usually do not like) but, this time, it worked with me, and provided me with enough paintings, colors and emotions - Voices (from the original, French, version), or at least main characters' voices are quite fun and well played (Edouard/Jamel, of course, but above all his best friend "Ian" made me laugh so many times) - Funky & Soul music goes along quite well and helps keeping a fresh and catchy rhythm - Progressively, light humour (a little "Gaulois" / Gallic (?), maybe) turns into an epic story, more profound that it seemed at first sight, and might even push you to think a little further and connect to the Man or the Monkey within yourselves... yep yep ;)

I expected to find "traditional Jamel's humour" (that I still quite enjoy), but I was eventually very surprised by "Mr. Debbouze's" first work as a director, by its quality and its variety that should entertain a quite larger audience. Some kind of (alternative) allegory of mankind... hahaha ;)

Finally, here is a list of things with which you might want to be at peace in order to enjoy the movie pleasantly, OR "Why I (did not) eat the critics" : 1) One has right to do a pastiche (quite successfully I would add) of the great Louis de Funès ; I only see here the humble and unexpected tribute from a man to a genius 2) One has right to make "incoherent" cartoons (with Pterodactyls and Humans living side by side)... Some directors even made movies about Humans living side by side with Dinosaurs... C'mon ... Guys ! Really ? 3) Jamel Debbouze has right to make a movie

All in all, I would recommend for family's entertainment (and fans of : Alain Chabat / Les Nuls / Astérix ...), original mixture of stupid gags and clever situations, available to every child with a caring eye (young or old).