Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

romanorum1 This Disney Studios (Disneynature) feature focuses on a community of about fifty macaque monkeys who inhabit the jungles of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka. As they like to dwell around the ancient temple ruins near Castle Rock now overgrown by jungle flora, they are known in the film as the Temple Troop. These monkeys are bound by a caste system, a strict social order that determines even what they eat. In the most prized fig tree, only those at the top capture the best and ripest fruit. Raja, the alpha male, is the king, supported by the three queens (the "Sisterhood") who back him. They and their offspring get what they want. As we descend the tree, the lesser monkeys get the lesser produce. At the bottom of the fig tree lowly Maya gets the scraps. The "high-born" monkeys even get the sunnier, warmer branches while the others shiver on the colder ones below. Before the movie ends Maya will ascend the top of the tree. This is her story.Lone male monkey Kumar enters the group during mating season, but is expelled by the alpha monkey Raja. Six months later, his offspring through Maya is born ("Kip"). During the heavy downpours of the rainy season Castle Rock makes a great shelter for the alpha monkeys. But the others suffer from the cold and dampness. One day a year is feast time for the lowly, when the termites come out. Cassata leaves are tasty, but only for the alphas. Needing to eat to form milk for Kip, Maya goes to the lily pond, where there is food but also predators. She swims for the tasty lily-seed pods (underwater plants). Eventually Maya and friends enter a human house at the forest edge and take all kinds of foods and leave a mess.Kumar eventually returns, smarter and stronger. He brings jackfruit as a bribe to Raja, who accepts the gift. Raja will need Kumar as a rival monkey group moves in, led by Rex. But Lex's group wins by tactical trickery and Raja's clan has to evacuate. The troop travels beyond the forest to the city to regroup; Maya becomes a queen as she has learned to take food from the humans. The journey further blurs the distinction between high-born and low-born. Out of their element, the alphas are bewildered, and strong Kumar takes the lead. Fortified, the Troop is ready to return to Castle Rock and regain the lost homeland. At Castle Rock the Troop attacks. Lex's group retreats as Kumar lays his claim as King of the Castle. Along with him, Maya and Kip - and his new sister – will live well as alphas. During the end credits the macaque monkeys approach the cameramen and "inspect" camera equipment. Yes, there is anthropomorphizing as the narrative of Tina Fey imposes human emotions on these animals. After all, the characters are animals, not humans. Does Maya really fight to beat the odds, or did she just get lucky and mate with a strong male? And were some parts of the film staged, like, for instance, the birthday party invasion where the humans are outside but the monkeys (and camera crew) are inside? Still, the filmmakers do not interfere and allow the monkeys to do their part like realizing their social structure and capturing their intimate close-ups: eating, sleeping, grooming, and playing. We also see their interaction with other animals, such as a mongoose and a langur. Animals in the story include bears, deer, Asian elephants, and predators such as a leopard and a seven-foot long monitor lizard. Disney has always done well with animal documentaries going back to the "True-Life Adventures" series. This one should please animal lovers everywhere.

subxerogravity I'm not really into Disney nature documentaries. I've seen a few they did in the 1960s on The Wonderful World of Disney, but the new ones they put out don't last in the theaters long enough for me to catch (Although I think I saw the one about the chimpanzees, and the one about elephants) This one is a lot different from the old docs 50 years ago. It's very playful with the narrative and tells a more linear story voiced by Tiny Fey. What's most interesting about this is how the plot follows the Disney formula of a true underdog coming up. They must have had to do a lot of research and follow these monkeys for a long period of time to pull that off.The story is about a single mother named Mya who's on the very bottom of the social status and must beat the odds in order to provide a better life for her son, kip.It was so fascinating to see how the Monkey kingdom mimics the kingdom of man. Whenever someone tries to convince me that we are better than other animals (cause sometimes man forgets that's what we are). I'll have this movie to use as an example of how that's not accurate.I went into this film not thinking much of anything but killing time, but it was not a waste of time. It was great!

CleveMan66 Life can be tough if you weren't born to privilege. You know and understand your place in society, but wish it were higher. You try in vain to be accepted by your betters. You see no way to improve your lot in life and all you can do is watch others enjoy the fruits of their vaunted positions, and serve them. Sufficient food and shelter are hard to come by, but you make the best of the situation. You're disregarded and sometimes outright disrespected. You might not even be free to enjoy the company and comfort of the life partner of your choice. If you become a single parent, you may find yourself even more alone than when you just had yourself to be concerned with. And this whole time, you also have to worry about those outside your society taking your food, your home, your family, even your life, knowing that your only defense is those above you who treat you with such disdain. Yes, it can be really tough being a monkey in the jungles of Sri Lanka."Monkey Kingdom" (G, 1:20) is the eighth feature film from Disneynature and tells the story of Maya, a female toque macaque (pronounced "muh-KAK") who finds herself in the exact situation described above. She was born at the bottom of her group's social ladder. She has to watch her fellows in the tree branches above her eat fruits and flowers, while she is forced to scavenge what she can, including the scraps which fall to the jungle floor. She watches the other monkeys play in the tower of boulders called "Castle Rock", knowing that trying to interact with them would lead to an attack by her own kind. When it rains and the higher-born use Castle Rock for shelter, Maya and the other societal cellar dwellers are literally left out in the cold. When a male macaque who has struck out on his own shows an interest in Maya, he is chased off by the others. Maya is left alone and pregnant, with no choice but to fend for herself and her little boy, Kip.This being the jungle, there's even more for Maya and her fellow macaques to worry about besides the social order in their kingdom. First off, they have their natural predators to contend with. Steering clear of leopards and seven foot long monitor lizards will always be a priority, as will the search for food. Different seasons yield different edibles in varying amounts. Sometimes the monkeys have to get creative in their search for food, and sometimes (equally creatively), they just steal it from a nearby village. I suppose regular human people could be dangerous to encounter, but we see none of that here. In fact, we see the monkeys interact very amusingly with a variety of animals that are neither predator nor prey, to include an annoyed mongoose, some cute bear cubs and even an easy-going dog. Then again, there's also the danger of losing out on more than some nuts and berries. Castle Rock is prime jungle real estate and could be seen as very tempting by, say, a rival gang of macaques.I had no idea that monkeys had such a strict social order. And that's not all that surprised me. I don't want to spoil anything by describing some of the other things I saw monkeys do in this movie, because, unless you're a monkologist (yeah, I just made that up), you're likely to be surprised as well. But there's a lot more to this movie than simply an educational journey through the wilds of an island nation in the Indian Ocean. The movie features magnificent cinematography and editing, along with Tina Fey perfectly narrating a script that is accessible, interesting, clever and fun. Technically, this is a documentary, but it feels much more like a well-planned story, only you can't plan this stuff. There's real drama here, situations to which most people can relate and even a touch of a Disney princess story."Monkey Kingdom" is definitely not your grandparents' nature program. This movie is beautiful, thrilling, fun and educational in a way that you'll thoroughly enjoy. I had the pleasure of seeing this movie with three generations of a family with whom I am very close. The youngest member is three years old and was experiencing her very first movie in a theater. This child, who is normally very… energetic (choosing my words carefully because my friends will be reading this review), was as happy and calm as I've ever seen her (awake) and, for much of the movie, she was rapt, as was her mother and grandmother, and me. Whether you're 3, 23, 43 or 93, I can hardly imagine anyone of any age not enjoying this wonderful movie. "A"

AllisonRoad This is the latest of the DisneyNature films and it retains the finest qualities of the previous features: amazing photography, stirring music, and enjoyable narration. Ms. Fey does a brilliant job with the script -- we laughed at all the appropriate points (and there are many). But I found myself laughing at even more points because of the wonderful, comical display of macaques being macaques. There are crises as well as tender moments but the food hunting scenes were especially wonderful.If you are familiar with DisneyNature films, you know that the credits at the end are an integral part of enjoying the film. This feature is no exception. It is a rare film when I wish the credit roll were twice as long as they are, but this is one of those films. A brilliant addition to the series. It makes you proud to be part of this amazing pageant that is life on Earth. The filmmakers are deserving as much as the good causes that the film series contributes to.