Monkey Kingdom

When you have a movie with this much action, romance, adventure and heart, who needs humans?

The latest entry from ­Disneynature, Monkey Kingdom, finds unlikely but captivating movie stars from a group of monkeys living in the jungles of Sri Lanka. The toque macaques simians live in an area the filmmakers have dubbed "Castle Rock" because the hills are littered with the ruins of abandoned palaces and temples.

The misty, tree-covered hills are a gorgeous backdrop for the remarkably dramatic lives the macaques have. Even without Tina Fey's droll narration, these monkeys have vivid, distinct personalities that make the occasional breaks for a biology and geography lesson easier to take.

The leading lady of Monkey Kingdom is actually not royalty. Maya has what looks like a bowl haircut and an unenviable social situation. She lives near the bottom of the fig trees while the alpha males and females enjoy the lower temperatures and better fruit. To stay alive, Maya has to eat scraps of figs, chase down flying termites or even dodge equally hungry monitor lizards to get by.

Maya's life becomes a little brighter when she meets up with a young male named Kumar. Fey and writer/co-director Mark Linfield dub him "15 pounds of hunky monkey." He angers the troop's alpha male, but before that he fathers Maya's adorable son, Kip. Gradually the three become a family and reconcile with the rest of their band. It's a good thing they do, because a hostile group of macaques wants their scenic domain.

There's a sense of contrivance that runs throughout Monkey Kingdom, but manipulation is probably why the film is so frequently entertaining. While we probably didn't need to hear the theme song to The Monkees as the macaques swing throughout the jungle, the constant struggles to keep fed and safe are inherently gripping.

It's debatable whether we need to have the monkeys named and humanized, but Preston Sturges or Mel Brooks would be hard-pressed to match the comedy gold that comes when monkeys scour a market in a nearby village or ravenously devour an unattended birthday cake. These little creatures are ingenious about locating a day's sustenance and have a wildly entertaining process for doing so.

Because the macaques are so hyperactive, Fey's subdued but almost maternal delivery is an ideal counterpoint. A less subtle approach might have actually gotten lost in all the frenzy. She also delivers just the right amount of tenderness to describe the bonding scenes between Kip and Maya, making it easier to care whether the lad makes it to maturity.

Linfield and co-director Alastair Fothergill (who both worked on Disneynature's Chimpanzee) have great instincts on how to focus their story and have obviously put a lot of work into Monkey Kingdom. The landscape photography alone is breathtaking.

Even if you've brought along some youngsters who have an aversion to sitting still, you might want to sit through the closing credits. Not only is the list of people who've worked on the film long, but viewers can get a small taste of how far the filmmakers have had to travel to get those beautiful shots and how dangerous their jobs can be. Nature is full of wonders, but it still takes a lot of human labor to bring that splendor to the screen.

MovieStyle on 04/17/2015