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Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (IMAX)
Slingshot // Unrated // February 4, 2003
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
One of the more interesting of the many IMAX films I've seen, "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" not only offers some incredible scenery, but it offers new and interesting ideas and educates without feeling slow or dull. In a matter of about 40 minutes (normal for most IMAX films), the film does a pretty remarkable job of covering much in the way of Jane Goodall's research on chimps in the Gombe Park area of Tanzania, which has been ongoing for 40 years.
The film offers a good general look at Goodall's everyday life, as well as some of the findings that she's made over recent years. We watch chimps as Goodall discusses the relationships and politics that are within any chimp family, shows us the kind of tools that apes have made to use (which is absolutely fascinating) and occasionally, the film simply lets the viewer sit back and observe.
The film is certainly easy to watch, as not only are the locations spectacular, but director David Lickley is assisted by two of the finest cinematographers in the IMAX business: James Neihouse ("Space Station", "The Dream is Alive") and Reed Smoot ("China: The Panda Adventure" and "Ultimate X"). Also pleasant is the fact that the film's messages are never presented in a heavy-handed fashion - the film's success im capturing the animals and the film's intelligent, insightful narration clearly present what the film is trying to get across.
This DVD would clearly be a fine choice as a fun and educational program for children to watch. Although not rated, this program is essentially "G", as there were no instances of scary wildlife moments.
The DVD
VIDEO: Slingshot offers "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" in 1.33:1 full-frame. Although I've been pleased with the studio's IMAX presentations on past DVDs, this is clearly the finest transfer I've ever seen from the studio. Sharpness and detail are exceptional, as the fine details of the grass and fur on the animals are clearly visible; not a single moment of noticable softness was spotted.
The picture appeared to be nearly flawless. The smooth, natural and "film-like" look of the image was aided by the fact that no edge enhancement was present at all. Compression artifacts were not seen, nor were any print flaws on the recently released picture. There were some noticable instances of wear in some clips of stock footage of Goodall that are seen on occasion throughout the movie, but this is to be expected. The film's warm color palette was presented exceptionally well, as the different colors of the jungle looked natural, clean and well-saturated. This is an excellent offering from Slingshot.
SOUND: Slingshot presents "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. To my very pleasant surprise, the DTS presentation actually turned out to be a DTS-ES (Matrix, not 6.1 discrete) track. As with most IMAX features, "Jane Goodall" presents a soundtrack that tries its best to immerse the audience in the sounds of the environment the film is trying to present. While not the most aggressive soundtrack for a large-format film that I've ever heard, this is clearly a top-notch audio production that takes advantage of all sound opportunities within the material.
Both the rear surrounds and back surround are constantly employed during the program to offer both reinforcement for the enjoyable, light musical score, jungle ambient sounds and the occasional scene where the chimp noises are clearly heard all around the viewer. Occasionally, different elements of the music also seem steered to the surrounds.
Audio quality was certainly first-rate, as the score seemed incredibly dynamic and detailed, with crisp highs and deep lows. Ambience was presented with convincing clarity and depth; this soundtrack is really wonderfully enveloping throughout. Lastly, Goodall's dialogue and the general narration sounded clean and crisp. As noted in the commentary, the film's sound crew had to venture into the jungle to capture both chimp and general jungle sounds. It took four months to piece all of the audio together.
Both the Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks provided a clear, detailed and enjoyable audio experience, although the DTS soundtrack was certainly the winner, as it provided more dynamic and seamless sound.
EXTRAS: The DVD offers an excellent commentary from director David Lickley, who provides a very informative discussion of the incredible obstacles that often came up trying to film wildlife with the weighty and loud IMAX equipment, as well as the patience involved trying to wait for things to actually happen. The other major supplemental feature is a 15-minute "making of" documentary. As with all IMAX "making of" featurettes, this is clearly a piece more concerned with showing the kind of difficulties the filmmakers ran into instead of simply promoting the story. Although it's a little disapointing that some of the director's comments here seem to have been reused for the commentary track, it's still enjoyable to see the filmmakers trying to work together to be ready to capture animal behavior when it happens.
Rounding out the supplements are: a video message from Goodall, chimp trivia, the film's trailer and trailers for other Slingshot IMAX titles on DVD. All of the menus are animated, even the scene selection.
Final Thoughts: "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" effectively uses every of its mere 40 minute running time to present the chimpanzees in an informative and entertaining way. Goodall's comments and the narration add a great deal of insight about these creatures, while the cinematography captures them perfectly. Slingshot's DVD edition offers fine supplements, along with excellent audio/video. Highly recommended.
One of the more interesting of the many IMAX films I've seen, "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" not only offers some incredible scenery, but it offers new and interesting ideas and educates without feeling slow or dull. In a matter of about 40 minutes (normal for most IMAX films), the film does a pretty remarkable job of covering much in the way of Jane Goodall's research on chimps in the Gombe Park area of Tanzania, which has been ongoing for 40 years.
The film offers a good general look at Goodall's everyday life, as well as some of the findings that she's made over recent years. We watch chimps as Goodall discusses the relationships and politics that are within any chimp family, shows us the kind of tools that apes have made to use (which is absolutely fascinating) and occasionally, the film simply lets the viewer sit back and observe.
The film is certainly easy to watch, as not only are the locations spectacular, but director David Lickley is assisted by two of the finest cinematographers in the IMAX business: James Neihouse ("Space Station", "The Dream is Alive") and Reed Smoot ("China: The Panda Adventure" and "Ultimate X"). Also pleasant is the fact that the film's messages are never presented in a heavy-handed fashion - the film's success im capturing the animals and the film's intelligent, insightful narration clearly present what the film is trying to get across.
This DVD would clearly be a fine choice as a fun and educational program for children to watch. Although not rated, this program is essentially "G", as there were no instances of scary wildlife moments.
The DVD
VIDEO: Slingshot offers "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" in 1.33:1 full-frame. Although I've been pleased with the studio's IMAX presentations on past DVDs, this is clearly the finest transfer I've ever seen from the studio. Sharpness and detail are exceptional, as the fine details of the grass and fur on the animals are clearly visible; not a single moment of noticable softness was spotted.
The picture appeared to be nearly flawless. The smooth, natural and "film-like" look of the image was aided by the fact that no edge enhancement was present at all. Compression artifacts were not seen, nor were any print flaws on the recently released picture. There were some noticable instances of wear in some clips of stock footage of Goodall that are seen on occasion throughout the movie, but this is to be expected. The film's warm color palette was presented exceptionally well, as the different colors of the jungle looked natural, clean and well-saturated. This is an excellent offering from Slingshot.
SOUND: Slingshot presents "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. To my very pleasant surprise, the DTS presentation actually turned out to be a DTS-ES (Matrix, not 6.1 discrete) track. As with most IMAX features, "Jane Goodall" presents a soundtrack that tries its best to immerse the audience in the sounds of the environment the film is trying to present. While not the most aggressive soundtrack for a large-format film that I've ever heard, this is clearly a top-notch audio production that takes advantage of all sound opportunities within the material.
Both the rear surrounds and back surround are constantly employed during the program to offer both reinforcement for the enjoyable, light musical score, jungle ambient sounds and the occasional scene where the chimp noises are clearly heard all around the viewer. Occasionally, different elements of the music also seem steered to the surrounds.
Audio quality was certainly first-rate, as the score seemed incredibly dynamic and detailed, with crisp highs and deep lows. Ambience was presented with convincing clarity and depth; this soundtrack is really wonderfully enveloping throughout. Lastly, Goodall's dialogue and the general narration sounded clean and crisp. As noted in the commentary, the film's sound crew had to venture into the jungle to capture both chimp and general jungle sounds. It took four months to piece all of the audio together.
Both the Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks provided a clear, detailed and enjoyable audio experience, although the DTS soundtrack was certainly the winner, as it provided more dynamic and seamless sound.
EXTRAS: The DVD offers an excellent commentary from director David Lickley, who provides a very informative discussion of the incredible obstacles that often came up trying to film wildlife with the weighty and loud IMAX equipment, as well as the patience involved trying to wait for things to actually happen. The other major supplemental feature is a 15-minute "making of" documentary. As with all IMAX "making of" featurettes, this is clearly a piece more concerned with showing the kind of difficulties the filmmakers ran into instead of simply promoting the story. Although it's a little disapointing that some of the director's comments here seem to have been reused for the commentary track, it's still enjoyable to see the filmmakers trying to work together to be ready to capture animal behavior when it happens.
Rounding out the supplements are: a video message from Goodall, chimp trivia, the film's trailer and trailers for other Slingshot IMAX titles on DVD. All of the menus are animated, even the scene selection.
Final Thoughts: "Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees" effectively uses every of its mere 40 minute running time to present the chimpanzees in an informative and entertaining way. Goodall's comments and the narration add a great deal of insight about these creatures, while the cinematography captures them perfectly. Slingshot's DVD edition offers fine supplements, along with excellent audio/video. Highly recommended.
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