Certificate: PG
Running Time: 87 mins
UK Distributor: Signature Entertainment
UK Release Date: 16 August 2024
Amandla Stenberg, Dean-Charles Chapman, Djimon Hounsou, Donald Sutherland, Laura Dern, RuPaul, Urzila Carlson, Hugh Bonneville, Marissa Anita, Kemah Bob, Ivanno Jeremiah, Liam Lau-Fernandez, Rachel Shenton, Josh Whitehouse
Tim Harper (director), Ricky Roxburgh (writer), Graham Appleby, Rodrigo Blaas, Keith Chapman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ramsay McBean, Mike Medavoy and Adam Stanhope (producers), Richard Harvey and Elwin Hendrijanto (composers), Mélanie Moulin (editor)
A young orangutan (Stenberg) sets out to find her missing family…
There’s little doubt that we should be doing more to save our planet. With climate change growing at an exponential rate, deforestation continuing to disrupt the natural world, and animal species growing more and more extinct by the day, it should be a no-brainer that we should at least do something to combat it. The problem, though, is that nobody exactly wants to be lectured about it, especially in films that are meant to offer an escape from all these real-world problems. So, it’s all too common to see the likes of Avatar, On Deadly Ground and Don’t Look Up (the latter of which ironically tackled humanity’s inability to do anything about impending disaster head-on) be ridiculed for trying to inject overtly environmental messages and themes into what should otherwise be accessible entertainment.
Don’t expect Ozi: Voice of the Forest to be that much different from the flock. The animated film, made by Mikros Animation and co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio through his production company Appian Way, falls very much in line with eco-friendly cartoons like FernGully: The Last Rainforest, WALL-E and Princess Mononoke, but is much more of a run-of-the-mill family adventure, filled with cutesy animal characters and goofy slapstick. There’s nothing wrong with that in theory, because Lord knows not every animated film, eco-friendly or not, can match the likes of WALL-E in pretty much any department. However, it does make it harder to talk about anything else regarding this movie, because as well-intentioned as it is, Ozi: Voice of the Forest is largely forgettable beyond the messages.
Set in an unspecified part of the world – probably Africa, given the variety of wild animals, or maybe even South America, due to its rainforest setting; either way, it’s never explicitly stated – the film opens with a young orangutan named Ozi (Amandla Stenberg) being separated from her parents (Laura Dern and Djimon Hounsou) during a forest fire. The little simian is swiftly taken in by kindly animal care workers at a nearby sanctuary, where she learns to communicate with humans via sign language, and even gains a worldwide following as an online influencer. However, upon discovering that her parents might still be alive, Ozi sets out on a journey with wild monkey Chance (Dean-Charles Chapman) and dim-witted rhino Honkus (Urzila Carson) to find them, only to discover that her natural habitat is in dire condition thanks to a conglomerate palm oil company that is ravaging the land and relocating its various inhabitants.
Clearly, it is the subject of deforestation that is front and centre on this film’s mind, and as you may expect it lays on this subject thick and heavy at any given opportunity. Scenes of our animal heroes getting misty-eyed over the sight of barren land that was once home to tropical oases and majestic trees are about as subtle as elephant diarrhoea. Shots of giant factories in the distance blowing endless smoke into the sky feel as though they should come with flashing neon signs saying “THIS IS BAD”. There’s even a climactic speech given by one of the main characters where they may as well be delivering it straight to the camera (which, in a sense, they kind of do anyway). Again, it’s not like the messages that Ozi: Voice of the Forest is preaching are bad or even harmful, but when they’re delivered in such a heavy-handed manner, it can be difficult to take them on board since it feels like you’re being talked to like a child about all this stuff.
Granted, this is a movie that was primarily made for younger viewers, so perhaps the base-level commentary serves best for their young and impressionable minds. Who knows, it may even inspire some of them to do more about campaigning for a greener and less inhospitable environment, which would not at all be a bad thing to take away from this movie. But while children may be more eager to absorb that stuff, along with the harmless comedy and silly characters, adults will struggle to find much else about the film to fully admire. Narratively, it’s pretty straightforward, and while the characters are likeable enough, they’re also not especially complicated, or at the very least more than their designated personalities. The animation is serviceable if nothing spectacular, for what it lacks in texture and detail (with some character designs feeling as though they were rendered from a simplistic 2D drawing), it makes up for in bright and shining colours that add a nice visual palette to the mix.
Most of all, its lack of emotional depth leaves much to be desired, to where it ends up affecting the impact of the central message itself. Because there’s not really a point where you care that much about Ozi and her friends – some of whom are wildly irritating for no reason other than the film felt like it needed an equivalent to Eddie Murphy’s Donkey – it’s less likely that you’ll be on board for what she has to preach later on, rendering those moments a little unearned. It’s a shame, because there is a part inside where you do want to follow in this film’s example, but it’s not making a strong enough argument for you to listen in the first place.
This is a film that young kids will most likely enjoy more than adults, who have yet to be entirely won over by all the heavy-handedness.
Ozi: Voice of the Forest is a harmless but forgettable animated film that preaches its noble if heavy-handed messages to younger audiences but struggles to provide an intriguing enough reason for adult viewers to listen as closely.
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