Amazonia - DVD

Film: The little capuchin monkey Saï has grown up in captivity and is only used to living with humans. When he lands in the wilderness of the Amazon jungle after a plane crash, the environment, which is completely foreign to him, initially scares him. But Saï cannot hide for long in his protective cage in the plane wreckage. He has to venture into the jungle to find food and maybe even a way home. On his adventurous journey, the little monkey encounters numerous other animals such as crocodiles, anacondas, anteaters or howler monkeys. And slowly he gets used to life in the wild. When he meets a group of fellow monkeys, he finally seems to be safe. But the leader is not at all well-disposed towards the newcomer. And so Saï must continue to fear for his life at every moment - while growing more and more beyond himself...

Director Thierry Ragobert blurs the boundaries between feature film and documentary in Amazonia. Using a frame story staged with ten trained capuchin monkeys, the aim is to draw the audience into the fascinating and magical world of the Brazilian rainforest. For this purpose, the film was shot in 3D for the first time in the Amazon region. After two years of research and script development as well as six additional months for camera tests and technical development, the film was then shot for 18 months in the rainforest. Nature, weather and the wild animals made it necessary to spontaneously adjust the shooting schedule and plot again and again. In the end, you may be left with the feeling that the film didn't really need the feature story to entertain and fully develop its visual power. But overall, Ragobert and his team have created a truly wonderful and entertaining piece of work that will leave viewers wondering, laughing, and rooting for little Saï.

However, the ambiguity about which sequences were staged with the help of the animal trainer and which are actually documentary snapshots takes away some of the persuasiveness of some scenes. But before this can really have a negative effect on the positive overall impression, the next fascinating flood of images follows, from which the viewer is only too happy to be intoxicated. Especially positive is the fact that the film not only appeals to small animal and nature lovers, but also offers adults the best entertainment and a fairly high information content.

Naturally, Amazonia also contains a very clear ecological message. But this is not implemented too obtrusively, but makes it very clear how human intervention in an eco-system like the rainforest affects the habitat of many thousands of animal species and what responsibility each individual bears to preserve this nevertheless very vulnerable world. This message is conveyed with wonderful pictures, a nice story and a little humor in such an entertaining and endearing way that Amazonia can be warmly recommended not only to lovers of nature documentaries. Absolutely worth seeing!

Image + Sound: Even in the 2D version, the image of the film shot in 3D has a pleasant depth. In addition, the DVD convinces visually with a high image sharpness and powerful colors. Thus, even without 3D glasses, the viewer is quite wonderfully drawn into the fascinating world of Amazonia, whereby even smaller details are very well accentuated. For the audio, there are two options: a soundtrack with accompanying commentary, just as the film was seen in theaters. The commentary is rather front-heavy and clearly mixed, while the nature sounds and animal noises provide clear surround dynamics. The second option is a soundtrack completely devoid of commentary, relying only on the natural soundscape, punctuated here and there by the film's soundtrack. The surround effect is the same, but the film feels very different and a little more intense than with the commentary. It's nice that the viewer is given this option.

Extras: As a bonus, in addition to the trailer and teaser for the film, there is a Making of (approx. 30:05 min.) in French with German subtitles that is worth watching. This documentary shows very nicely how difficult and challenging the shoot in the jungle was and how much effort was put in here by everyone involved to capture the greatest possible images and sounds. Absolutely worth watching!

Conclusion: Amazonia is a very beautiful and stirring nature film that consists of a mixture of documentary footage and staged game scenes. Shot with great effort in the Amazon, the team around director Thierry Ragobert has succeeded in capturing some quite wonderful shots, through which the adventure of the little capuchin monkey Saï becomes a very big viewing pleasure for small and large viewers. And for this there is a clear: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp