Going South (2): Monkey World

When we first arrived at Monkey World, we were worried a better name for the place might be "Spot The Monkey World". It was a windy, chilly day and despite having large enclosures full of climbing frames, nets and other exciting outdoor toys, most of the chimps were huddled up inside. Fortunately the sun soon came out, and so did the monkeys.

Monkey World is an Ape Rescue Centre dedicated to combating worldwide monkey smuggling and offering rehabilitation to rescued primates. Some of the monkeys here have health problems due to neglect or abuse they suffered in previous captivity and probably wouldn't be able to survive in the wild anymore. At Monkey World they're encouraged to live in natural social groups to aid in their recovery. The centre was founded by the late Jim Cronin who dedicated his life to the conservation and welfare of monkeys everywhere.

Our favourites were the orangutans, particularly Oshine, an older female who suffered weight problems having been fed on a human diet of junk food while being raised illegally as a pet by a family in South Africa. Oshine's social group also a included a younger female orangutan and a tiny toddler. These two squabbled and play-fought like human children, but when the older girl got a little too rough with her young step-brother, Oshine stepped in, took the little one's hand, and walked him away like a mother walking her child to school. I don't really do "sweet", but that was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen.

Slightly less sweet was the moment when the young female orangutan hung spread-eagled before us with her ladybits pressed up against the window. We might have found her innocence charming had not the assorted apes on our side of the glass not started clicking away with their camera phones to capture this image for perverted posterity. Still, we can't blame the monkeys for our own vile and disgusting ways. It's at times like these you realise the human race really doesn't deserve this planet... maybe it is time to give it back to the apes.

My Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review

The worst thing about the new POTA movie is the title. Repeat "of the"s sound clumsy. And 'Rise'? Why not Dawn? Or Birth? Or even the original working title, Genesis? "Rise" is a rubbish word, and that goes double for the next Batman film.

Beyond that, the fun begins. This is the first Apes movie where the titular (don't call 'em) monkeys are all-CGI rather than Roddy MacDowall or Tim Roth in ape suits and make-up. Of course, it's Andy Serkis behind the CGI as he's the only actor in the whole of Hollywood whose facial expressions can be motion-captured by computers. Fact. I thought I wasn't going to like all this computer generated idiocy. I grew up on ape suits and make-up (it was a confusing childhood) and I've long been a critic of the misuse of rubbish CGI over more traditional sfx techniques. But... damn it if these aren't some of the best CGI fx I've ever seen, only occasionally did I remember the chimps weren't real. And no 3D either - always a bonus.

The writers have worked hard to give us a credible origin story and an emotionally involving one. Scientist James Franco is desperate to find a cure for his dad's Alzheimers. Caesar, one of the apes he's testing his new brain-boosting drug on, may hold the key. But give Caesar a brain and he doesn't want to be an ape any more - he wants to be part of the family. Inevitably we end up rooting for the apes more than the humans - and by the end of the film, so does Franco.

Rise is peppered with references to the future / past Apes movies as NASA's first manned mission to Mars takes place in the background and the astronauts are soon lost in space. The in-jokes may go a little too far when we see the original Charlton Heston Apes movie playing on a TV in the background. If that movie exists in this reality... didn't anybody heeds its warning? My favourite reference comes from Harry Potter's Malfoy, now seeking alternate employment but still a sleazebag, as he tells Caesar to, "take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" A famous line from the original Apes epic, and one that's cropped up in a few other movies too...