Amazonia 3D

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 for a long time Saï can not hide in his protective cage in the plane wreckage. He must venture into the jungle to find food and perhaps even a way home. On his adventurous journey, the little monkey meets 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 increasingly outgrowing himself.

Director Thierry Ragobert blurs the lines between feature film and documentary in Amazonia 3D. 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 have viewers marveling, 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 3D also contains a very clear ecological message. But this is not implemented too obtrusively, but makes very well clear how the intervention of man 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 3D can be warmly recommended not only to lovers of nature documentaries. Absolutely worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp