Zambezia 3D

Little hawk Kai (voiced by Yoshji Grimm) always brings his father Tendai (Engelbert von Nordhausen) to the brink of despair with his impulsive, headstrong nature. But even fierce lectures can't curb Kai's thirst for adventure. When he learns about the city of Zambezia, where the heroic hurricane pilots ensure that the animals can live there in safety, there is only one goal for the young falcon: he wants to go to Zambezia. Against his father's wishes, he sets out to become a successful hurricane flyer. But although he manages to reach Zambezia, realizing his big dream there turns out to be much more difficult than he thought. But Kai's courage is soon called upon when he learns that his father has been captured by Zambezia's arch-nemesis, the evil iguana lizard Budzo, and that Budzo plans to attack Zambezia with his vulture army. When Kai also finds out that there is a very special bond between him and Zambezia, it is clear that he will save his father and prove to the city that he is not only a worthy Hurricane, but also a solid member of the community.

Zambezia is a South African animated film that very clearly borrows content from numerous others in the genre, from The Lion King to The Legend of the Guardians and Finding Nemo to Rio and Conference of the Animals. There's hardly a scene that doesn't remind you of another film, either very directly or scantily hidden. Furthermore, the animations can't quite keep up technically with the quality of the great role models. But even if this may sound like a complete flop now, the result has become an exciting and entertaining animated adventure, at least for children, with endearing characters, humor appropriate for the target group and a coherent visual realization.

Kai is a hero with whom small viewers can certainly identify quickly. He is curious, a bit cheeky and cocky, but always remains a likeable character. The friends he makes during his adventure are also drawn very charmingly and with Budzo a very good villain has been created, who will surely scare the hell out of very young moviegoers. What the film additionally benefits from in its character drawing is the good dubbing. While two prominent voices were also hired in the form of popular comedians Kaya Yanar and Paul Panzer, the makers have primarily relied on professional voice actors who breathe life into the animals of Zambezia in an engaging manner.

Whoever expects originality or technical finesse on a Pixar level will certainly be disappointed by this animal adventure. But if you simply want to offer your children almost 80 minutes of sometimes exciting, sometimes funny and then again just nice cinema entertainment, you can confidently go on the journey to Zambezia - and that too in 3D! Well worth seeing for little animation fans between 5 and 11 years!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp