ridiculous rating

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Only two words are needed to describe this movie.BRILLIANTBEAUTIFULThat is all there is to it.OK well I better elaborate.First of let me say that the first thing this movie made me think about was The Adventures of Milo and Otis, a movie i have loved since childhood. This movie was shot on the similar idea, letting the animals play out the parts naturally and shooting it in a sort of documentary style.That is where Amazonia really outshines Milo and Otis however, the cinematography in this was absolutely superb. You can tell those behind the camera really put an effort into getting the best shots they could allowing for some amazing footage, with the variety of animals looking absolutely beautiful.Where Amazonia misses out though, and the reason I pulled short of giving a perfect score, was the lack of a narrator ala Milo and Otis. I think the added bit of a storyteller just missed that extra little thing to get over that last hurdle and meet the entire audience. Just think of someone like Richard Attenborough or Morgan Freeman telling the monkey's story while we were watching. According to IMDb Martin Sheen does do a narration so one day I may go looking for one of those copies and it may just give it that extra edge it needs. All the same though this is a must watch for the movie is justBRILLIANTandBEAUTIFUL.

Delightful and beautiful. Although sanitised, it is a visually stunning and very sweet look at life in the jungle for one bred-in-captivity little monkey who by fate is suddenly free to be what he was always meant to be.Tragically, man's greed and gross stupidity is destroying vast areas of the Amazon and this is very good at keeping the viewer in the jungle's glory with subtle overtones of humanity and a stark moment or two of reality.I would definitely take my kids to see this. Mostly so that they would understand what a treasure our glorious planet is.

"Amazonia" tells us the story of a little Capuchin. It's not really a documentary, but more a fictitious story with an animal as the main "actor". And more animals as actors that are obviously not realizing that they are acting. I'd imagine that it wasn't easy at all to get the animals to "act" the way the movie makers wanted them to. The result is fairly entertaining. One of the scenes that stays memorable is where the little monkey pokes his tongue out at a snake who tried to catch him. This scene is also used int he trailer and especially the younger audiences totally loved it.There's also some drama included like when he leaves his group with the female monkey as the leader won't accept him as part of them and it's nice to see the little monkey meet many other animals: crocodiles, big cats, tapirs, sloths and how he interacts with them. Children will enjoy it, but you should really only watch it for the story. The few moments when the film tries to get documentary-style or scientific, it does not succeed, sometimes even gives contradictory statements about which the largest animals in the area are (tapirs? cats of prey?). This is a bit disappointing as director Thierry Ragobert is fairly experienced with the subject as he has worked on several nature documentaries already, but also on other subjects like religion for example. The beginning with the plane crash and the pilot simply leaving the plane and never being heard of again felt a bid odd to me. However, they had to find a frame for the little monkey being exposed to wilderness and they found one about which younger audiences won't complain.Congrats to Venice Film Festival for giving this fairly obscure movie a prize and making it a bit more seen this way maybe. It reminded me a bit of a live action version of the animated film "Rio", even if in its center we don't have birds. Let me finish this review by saying that I quite liked the ending where humans are described as the major enemy to this wonderful jungle wildlife world. Crucial statement and I really liked that they included it at such a significant position (i.e. the end), so it stays well in the minds of people.

Amazonia follows a little monkey, which was raised entirely in captivity, as it discovers its native habitat and eventually joins a band of monkeys. There is no narration. Most of the film has the natural sounds of the Amazon forest and some parts have "exciting" music, perhaps to alert younger viewers that something bad might happen. There is no grand plot or Meerkat Manor-like personages here. Just pure and simple nature, animals, insects, lots of rain, a snaking river, and many many trees. The visuals are breathtaking. Sunsets and sun rises are phenomenal. The diversity of the flora and fauna is truly humbling. If there is a plot, it is very loose. Basically little monkey survives a place crash, is rescued by curious animals form its cage, and sets out to wander around the forest. It gets stuck on a piece of floating dead trees for a while and travels downstream the river. And eventually it meets monkeys that look just like it. Of course, we do not know if it understand them, but it joins them and becomes a part of their little group.Scary things happen all the time, and there are two instances that are truly scary (plane crash and the death of a baby monkey). However, the children in the audience did not seem too upset by all this. i think most of them actually missed the hunt of the baby monkey. And since our friend survived the plane crash (and so did the human pilot), that wasn't too upsetting either. Several children did say "This is scary." out loud in a few instances. But none cried. The film is an hour and a half, which was perfect for us. But it is mostly silent, and with lots of scenes of forest and sun rays and river running through without much happening. So some adults and children found it too long. One kid was telling his mom in the bathroom afterwords that he liked it, but it was "like a billion minutes!"Highly recommended for nature lovers and nature documentary fans.