'Orangutan' Review: Jumping, Playing, Eating, Surprising
Narrated by Josh Gad, DisneyNature's new documentary premieres exclusively on Disney Plus, in honor of Earth Day.
In my review of DisneyNature’s Tigers and Tigers on the Rise two years ago, I covered my past experiences with watching nature docs. I also noted:
After a long absence from the nature doc game, Disneynature was founded in 2008. Since then, their documentaries have been made by a variety of filmmakers, narrated by celebrity voices, and honored the True-Life Adventures tradition by assigning human names to animals.
Since then, DisneyNature released Sea Lions of the Galapagos, which I have not seen yet, but I’m glad that I was offered an advance screener for their latest, Orangutan, which begins with a very familiar song from Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967).
(Naturally, I won’t spoil it here, though I’m sorely tempted.)
Directed by Mark Linfield, an experienced filmmaker who also made Tiger, Elephant, and Penguins, among many other nature documentaries, Orangutan follows a family of animals in Southeast Asia as one of them leaves the nest for the first time. Obviously, we’re most interested in the titular creatures, but what I always love about these type of documentaries is that they observe the environment in which the orangutans live, and then follows as they scamper up and down trees, across trees — by flying — and then up, up, and away from danger.
After all, the orangutans are not predators, though the ants and other insects they eat may not agree! They are happy creatures who get along with the other animals, and work together (sometimes), with the goal of peaceful coexistence. Nonetheless, director Linfield does not hesitate to show that the animals do not always cooperate together; they are subject to human weaknesses, such as selfishness and a self-centered sense of being, that are challenging to overcome, to say the least.
Even so, it’s rather marvelous to sit back and watch the wondrous abilities of various creatures to make their way through the world without the interference of humans.
And if, like me, you’ve missed some of the past documentaries in the series, Disney Plus has collected them together into a special section on the streaming service, which is a mighty nice resource to tap into with your children. Or your child-friendly friends and family members.