Shadows on the Wall | Ozi: Voice of the Forest

Ozi: Voice of the Forest

dir Tim Harper
scr Ricky Roxburgh
prd Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Phillip Watson, Adam Stanhope, Graham Appleby, Keith Chapman
voices Amandla Stenberg, Dean-Charles Chapman, Laura Dern, Djimon Hounsou, Marissa Anita, Ivanno Jeremiah, Urzila Carlson, Donald Sutherland, RuPaul Charles,Hugh Bonneville, Josh Whitehouse, Kemah Bob
release UK 16.Aug.24
23/UK 1h27

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As an animated adventure with a pronounced save-the-rainforest message, this movie might keep younger audiences entertained. But older viewers will grow tired of the insistently pushy themes, which come at the expense of character and story detail. And the action sequences are an odd combination of genuinely nasty violence and overly nutty slapstick mayhem. But the imagery is colourful, and there's some fun to be had along the way.

As corporate-owned bulldozers raze the forest, cheeky young orang-utan Ozi (Stenberg) is separated from her parents (Dern and Hounsou), rescued by rangers (Anita and Jeremiah) running a sanctuary for orphaned apes. They quickly see Ozi's extraordinary gift language, developing a gadget that translates her signing into speech. Then on her tablet, she sees that her parents are still alive, so she goes to find them assisted by untamed monkey Chance (Chapman). And they pick up clumsily enthusiastic rhino Honkus (Carlson) on the way to discovering the corporation's zoo-like enclosure for the animals they have displaced.

While the strong voice cast adds sparky personality, the script doesn't give them much to work with. Dialog is relentlessly pointed, and the jokes are thin. There's some offhanded charm here and there, but it comes from the actors rather than the filmmaking, which pushes everything toward the admittedly urgent message about the importance of the rainforest, even if it's framed more about saving the homes of cute animals than the very survival of humanity.

The animators are clearly working on a smaller budget than Hollywood studios, as surfaces, skin and hair all look rather plasticky. But they make up for this with brightly hued designs, expansive landscapes and whizzy camera stylings. Characters look enjoyably cartoonish, even if proportions are sometimes awkward. But the action sequences are oddly constructed, playing a bit too loosely with the rules of gravity while opting for visual impact rather than narrative integrity. And while no one feels like they're in genuine danger, the violence is eerily disturbing.

A deeper problem is that the story itself feels contrived. Giving Ozi a social media platform is an interesting idea, but it plays out in ways that feel gimmicky and downright preachy. It's fun to see her witty influencer chats and viral posts, but making her a Greta Thunberg-like spokesperson for deforestation is more than a stretch. Although any movie that teaches children to challenge the "more is better" mantra isn't all bad.

themes, violence 31.Jul.24

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