SCHIMPANSEN - Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany

SCHIMPANSEN
Kinostart: 9. Mai 2013
im Verleih von Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Germany
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Introducing Oscar…
Disneynature takes moviegoers deep into the forests of Africa with “Chimpanzee,” a new True
Life Adventure introducing an adorable young chimpanzee named Oscar and his entertaining
approach to life in a remarkable story of family bonds and individual triumph. Oscar’s playful
curiosity and zest for discovery showcase the intelligence and ingenuity of some of the most
extraordinary personalities in the animal kingdom. Working together, Oscar’s chimpanzee
family—including his mom, Isha, and the group’s savvy leader, Freddy—navigates the complex
territory of the forest.
The world is a playground for little Oscar and his fellow young chimpanzees, who’d rather make
mayhem than join their parents for an afternoon nap. But when Oscar’s family is confronted by a
rival band of chimpanzees, he is left to fend for himself until a surprising ally steps in and
changes his life forever. The film is directed by Alastair Fothergill (“African Cats” and “Earth”)
and Mark Linfield (“Earth”), produced by Fothergill, Linfield and Alix Tidmarsh, and narrated by
Tim Allen (Disney•Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” ABC’s “Last Man Standing”). Don Hahn (“The Lion
King,” “Beauty and the Beast”) is executive producer. Rated G by the MPAA, “Chimpanzee”
swings into theaters on April 20, 2012, just in time for Earth Day.
“Making a film about chimpanzees for the big screen represents an exciting challenge because
no one has really done it before,” says Fothergill. “This film is an amazing chance to take
audiences into the middle of the rainforest with all its incredible sights and sounds and let them
see chimpanzees as they have never been seen before.”
For Linfield, “Chimpanzee” fulfills a lifelong dream. “I have always wanted to make a film about
chimpanzees and I don’t think there could be a more fascinating wildlife subject,” he says. “They
can be playful and tender, cunning, loving, competitive, curious and simply full of fun. They’re
just like us, or we’re just like them, however you want to think of it, and when they look out at us
from the big screen, it’s impossible not to feel an extraordinary connection and be completely
engaged.”
“All great films tell great stories,” adds Jean-François Camilleri, executive vice president and
general manager, Disneynature, “and ‘Chimpanzee’ is completely compelling. It’s moving, very
funny, full of adventure and excitement and it has great heart. It’s also a true story—all the
behaviors you see really happened—and that’s something that I believe strongly appeals to
today’s audiences.”

“I’m so happy that Disneynature started when it did,” says Linfield, “because this is a story that
couldn’t be effectively told on television. On the big screen with surround sound, it’s like
transporting people to the jungle. Suddenly you’re sitting in front of these life-size chimpanzees
and you are looking into their eyes. It’s an amazing experience.”
“First and foremost, ‘Chimpanzee’ is a wonderful family film and a great adventure,” says
Camilleri. “But I believe people will come out of the film entranced and marveling at these
incredible creatures. And I think it’s with that sense of wonder that you can begin to change the
world.”
With the continued survival of chimpanzees at risk from deforestation and poaching,
Disneynature and the filmmakers also hope that “Chimpanzee” will inspire audiences to find out
more about how we can protect these extraordinary animals with whom we seem to have so
much in common.
“Disneynature movies are made to entertain audiences,” says Don Hahn, executive producer,
“but there's also a subtext to them, which is if we're going to be caretakers of this planet and
share it with all the other animals that inhabit this place, we need to be aware of their lives. One
of the coolest things Disneynature does is to help moviegoers give back—from planting trees
with ‘Earth’ to preserving coral reef with ‘Oceans’ and saving the savanna with ‘African
Cats.’ For ‘Chimpanzee,’ we have this spectacular program with the Jane Goodall Institute
called ‘See “Chimpanzee,” Save Chimpanzees.’”
SEE “CHIMPANZEE,” SAVE CHIMPANZEES
For every moviegoer who sees “Chimpanzee” during the film’s opening week (April 20-26,
2012), Disneynature will make a donation to the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) through the Disney
Worldwide Conservation Fund to protect chimpanzees today and tomorrow. Founded in 1977,
the Jane Goodall Institute continues Dr. Goodall’s pioneering research on chimpanzee behavior
started more than 50 years ago—research that transformed scientific perceptions of the
relationship between humans and animals. Today, the Institute is a global leader in the effort to
protect chimpanzees and their habitats. It also is widely recognized for establishing innovative
community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa, and Jane Goodall’s
Roots & Shoots, the global environmental and humanitarian program for youth of all ages, which
has groups in more than 120 countries.
Explains Hahn, “We want to say ‘come with your family, enjoy the film, let us entertain you—and
check out the Jane Goodall Institute, because they’re doing really great things.’ Hopefully,
audiences will take away a sense that we’re not alone on this planet: we live our daily lives, we
go shopping, we pay the gas bill and sometimes we get so wrapped up in our problems that we
forget that we live in this miraculous natural world and that could go away if we're not careful. By
being able to take the audience by the hand and show them a family that's trying to make it just
like they’re trying to make it—trying to eat and love and survive in this amazing world. We tell
stories that are deeply involved in the characters and we take you places on the big screen that
no one else can take you. So if these movies can inspire and educate and allow the audience to
go off and make a difference, we'll have really done our job.”
“Chimpanzee” is the fourth release from Disneynature, launched in April 2008 to bring the
world’s top nature filmmakers together to capture a variety of wildlife subjects and stories. The
first three releases under the Disneynature label—“Earth,” “Oceans” and “African Cats”—are
among the top four highest-grossing feature-length nature films released in theaters in North
America.
Conservation has been a key pillar of the label, and Disneynature films empower the audience
to make a difference. Through donations tied to opening week attendance for all three films so
far, Disneynature, through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, has planted 3 million trees
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in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, established 40,000 acres of marine protected area in The Bahamas,
and protected 65,000 acres of savanna in Kenya.
Disneynature continues the tradition of Walt Disney, who was a pioneer in wildlife documentary
filmmaking, producing 13 True-Life Adventure films between 1948 and 1960, including “Seal
Island” (1948), “Beaver Valley” (1950), “The Living Desert” (1953) and “Jungle Cat” (1958). The
films earned eight Academy Awards®.
WHO’S WHO IN “CHIMPANZEE”
Filmmakers Capture Compelling Personalities
In True Life Adventures as with all movies, it’s all about the story. And driving every story are its
key characters. “We got incredibly lucky when we started filming,” says director Alastair
Fothergill. “We couldn’t script anything, so we just had to wait and see what happened with our
group of chimpanzees. First of all we found Oscar, who was adorable, and then these
extraordinary events overtook him and his mother and the rest of the group of chimpanzees.”
“If we had scripted it, no one would have believed us,” director Mark Linfield adds. “So it really is
one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction moments. We had golden moments in the Taï Forest
on Africa’s Ivory Coast and we captured them on film. I am so happy that audiences will get to
experience what we experienced when they see ‘Chimpanzee.’”
OSCAR is a feisty, funny and adorable young chimpanzee. His high-energy spirit and sense of
adventure shine as he plays with his little friends and learns the ways of the world under the
watchful eye of mom Isha. “The first time you see tiny Oscar and he looks out at you with those
wonderful eyes,” says Fothergill, “you just can’t help but go ‘aah!’ It happens every time we
show the film: the whole theater falls in love with him from the very first moment he appears on
screen.” But life in the rainforest isn’t always fun and games and Oscar has a lot to learn. He
teams up with a very special and unexpected teacher who shares the most valuable tool of all:
love.
ISHA is Oscar's loving mother and sole caretaker. “The bond between the two of them is
immediately tangible,” says director Mark Linfield, “and the level of nurturing Isha shows is
incredibly touching.” She grooms Oscar, nurses him and serves as his personal taxi throughout
the rainforest. Like all mothers, she is challenged with Oscar’s restless ways—often missing out
on well-deserved naps due to his shenanigans. But she loves her son dearly and would do
anything for him.
FREDDY is the powerful and highly respected leader of Oscar’s chimpanzee family. He is in
charge of keeping everyone safe and knows just where to go to find breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“Freddy is an impressive alpha male,” says renowned chimpanzee expert and conservationist
Dr. Jane Goodall. “There’s no mistaking his self-confidence and assertiveness. Even the way he
walks let’s you know he’s the boss.” Freddy takes his responsibilities very seriously, so he has
little time for fun.
SCAR heads up a rival chimpanzee group that always seems to be lingering on the edge of
Freddy’s turf. They’d love to get their hands on the tasty nuts that grow in Oscar’s neighborhood
and their constant presence keeps Freddy on his toes. “Scar is a perfect villain,” says Linfield.
“He has these great eyes and the beaten-up look of an experienced fighter.”
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WHERE IN THE WORLD…
“Chimpanzee” Filmmakers Explore Africa’s Ivory Coast
Long before anyone knew about Oscar and his family, indeed, long before the charming
chimpanzee was even born, filmmakers pondered just where they’d set their long-awaited film
about chimpanzees. “Rainforests are very special, fascinating places,” says director Mark
Linfield. “They are jam-packed with life and full of exotic sounds and often incredibly beautiful.
This seemed like a wonderful opportunity to let people experience that on the big screen.”
The République de Côte-d'Ivoire, as it is officially known, is a country roughly half the size of
Texas with a population of 21 million. The Taï Forest, situated 60 miles inland, was designated
a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. It is an area of astonishing biodiversity—hundreds of
species of plants and birds live within its borders. And it’s home to a thriving population of
chimpanzees.
But according to director Alastair Fothergill, the mere existence of chimpanzees doesn’t
necessarily mean a successful shoot. “If chimpanzees don’t want to be seen, you won’t ever
see them because they simply disappear into the forest,” he explains. “Most wild chimpanzees
are understandably very frightened of humans.”
Christophe Boesch, one of the world’s most renowned chimpanzee experts and a director at the
Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, has been studying the chimpanzees in the Taï Forest
National Park for more than 30 years. Although the chimpanzees at Taï had rarely been filmed,
they had slowly become accustomed to being followed and observed by Professor Boesch, his
students and fellow researchers, which meant there was a good chance they would adapt to the
presence of filmmakers and cameras in their midst.
Fothergill and Linfield, who’ve shot wildlife films on every continent and in some of the world’s
most hostile environments, long ago accepted the discomforts and logistical challenges that are
part of every nature filmmaker’s job description. But both considered the Taï Forest to be
especially grueling. “One of the big things is the sheer inaccessibility of the Taï Forest,” says
Fothergill. “To get there you begin by driving 10 hours from the nearest city on what’s still a
tarmac road. Then you do another four hours on a dirt road that is sometimes impassable. And,
if you make it that far, there’s an hour or more of walking along a very narrow path into the
forest.”
Adds Linfield, “They’re called rainforests for a reason and, believe it or not, the rainforest even
has a wet season. So the roads become quagmires and cars get stuck, sometimes for days. It’s
very easy for camera equipment to get ruined and the humidity level is so high you just never
feel dry. I love the rainforest, but I knew a shoot that might last for three years wasn’t going to
be easy.”
In March of 2008, the two directors decided to do a “recce” (reconnaissance, pronounced rekee),
to the Ivory Coast to help them determine where they would shoot. A three-mile trek into
the jungle in search of the chimpanzees was, says Fothergill, “like jogging in a sauna.” Once
they got into the forest, Linfield took out his light meter and couldn’t get a reading: the dense
canopy blocked the sun. The filmmakers struggled to keep up with the chimpanzees, who were
naturally agile despite the tangled jungle vegetation. “A lot of the time you are on your hands
and knees and ducking vines,” says Linfield, who feared the dark and fleeting shapes of the
chimpanzees would end up on film as mere “shadows within the shadows.”
Yet on their last day of the recce, just when the two directors were about to admit defeat, they
had a miraculous change of fortune. “We suddenly came to this sunlit clearing in the forest,”
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says Fothergill, “and sitting on and around the trunk of a rotten tree were more than 30
chimpanzees.” Some of the older chimpanzees were in small groups grooming each other,
adolescent males were showing off in front of the females, and several youngsters were running
up and down a termite mound playing a game of king of the castle, shrieking with delight as they
reached the top of the mound.
These were the chimpanzees that the filmmakers would soon know by name and who would
become the focus of their film: Freddy, the powerful and highly respected leader of the group,
and Isha, the loving mother who would later bear Oscar, a feisty, funny and adorable young
chimpanzee whose fate would be at the heart of their story. “It was like a vision of Eden,”
Linfield says.
Though they’d supplement their footage with shots from Gabon and the Ngogo Forest in the
Kibale National Park in Uganda, the filmmakers found the heart of their story in the Taï Forest.
“It has its challenges,” says Fothergill, “but to me the Taï Forest is still one of the most special
places on earth.”
Boesch agreed to sign on as the film’s principal scientific consultant, but insisted that the
filmmakers have no more than three crew members in the forest with the chimpanzees at any
one time. They would also be expected to maintain a distance of about 23 feet from the chimps
and would have to wear three-ply surgical facemasks to reduce the risk of transmitting disease.
“I had known Alastair Fothergill for more than 20 years,” says Boesch. “I thought he and Mark
would make a wonderful film, which, having seen the film, I am happy to say they did. I also
hoped the film would draw attention to wild chimpanzees and the threats they face and maybe
inspire people to help us protect the chimpanzees and the Taï Forest. To me there is no more
important goal than that.”
BEHIND THE SCENES OF “CHIMPANZEE”
Filmmakers Brave the Realities of the Rainforest
“Chimpanzee” takes moviegoers on an exciting journey to the heart of Africa for a first-hand look
at the lives of some of the animal kingdom’s most fascinating characters. While audiences will
make a there-and-back trip to the rainforest in 78 minutes, directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark
Linfield and their dedicated team spent three years gathering the footage they needed for their
extraordinary new film. In the process, they faced enormous technical and logistical challenges,
including swarms of aggressive bees, torrential rains, some of the world’s deadliest snakes and
a cast of chimpanzees who had a habit of turning their backs to the camera or wandering off in
search of a nut.
ACTION!?!
On a typical Hollywood film, the director goes to set each morning and can usually count on his
cast being on time and ready to shoot. But it’s not like that on a nature film. Directors on a
nature film might spend hours just looking for their cast.
“I have made wildlife films on almost every animal on the planet, in almost every habitat on the
planet,” says Fothergill, “and there is no doubt in my mind that by far the most challenging is
working with chimpanzees in the rainforest.”
Even before filming began, the production’s field logistics manager, Ed Anderson, was faced
with the daunting task of creating a crew camp in the middle of the Taï Forest in less than three
months. The camp would need to include sleeping quarters, kitchens, a reliable electricity
supply and state-of-art technical facilities that would allow the filmmakers to review their footage
at the end of each day. Since the nearest major city was a two-day drive away and the only
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passable road came to an abrupt end nearly an hour’s walk from the camp’s intended location,
Anderson and a team of locals had no choice but to carry everything they needed into the
forest. “That included 2 ½ tons of cement, seven tons of wood, 400 sheets of roofing tin, four
truckloads of sand and four truckloads of gravel,” says Anderson.
Linfield and cameraman Martyn Colbeck flew to the Ivory Coast to join Anderson in the Taï
Forest. They had one last hurdle to overcome before they began work. Professor Christophe
Boesch was concerned about the filmmakers’ level of fitness: chimpanzees can travel 10 to 15
miles through the dense jungle vegetation in a single day; it was often hard for researchers and
students—who carry nothing more than a notebook and pencil—to keep up with them. Lugging
heavy camera gear would make navigation even more difficult. Boesch devised what the
filmmakers later dubbed “chimp boot camp” as a way to familiarize them with the rigors that lay
ahead. “In my experience you can tell people how difficult it is to move through the forest and
follow the chimpanzees, but they don’t really understand,” says Boesch. “The chimpanzees
have lived all their lives in the forest and they walk on all fours, so they can move very quickly.”
“Basically Christophe pretended to be a chimpanzee and we had to see if we could keep up,”
Colbeck says. “The first thing he did was walk very quickly through the densest forest and over
the most difficult terrain that he could possibly find. Then he got down on all fours and we
realized this was meant to be our opportunity to film the “chimp,” so we set up the tripod and the
camera and, just as we were about to start shooting, Christophe rushed off again and tried to
lose us.”
HIDE AND SEEK
Once the filmmaking team began the real filming, they quickly realized that finding the
chimpanzees in the forest and keeping up with them was only half the battle, especially since
the first three months of the shoot coincided with the Taï Forest’s wet season. Annual rainfall in
Taï is around 74 inches (about double the yearly amount for Seattle), with the majority
seemingly falling at the precise moment the filmmakers positioned their cameras for a shot. “It
was like being in a car wash,” says Fothergill.
“The irony is that chimpanzees obviously have huge potential for the cinema because they are
such charismatic creatures,” says Linfield. “But technically they are probably the most difficult
wildlife subjects you can imagine. They live somewhere dark—most of the time you can’t see
your hand in front of your face due to foliage—and somewhere where it constantly rains.”
“Their dark fur absorbs light like a black hole,” says Colbeck. “Then when the sun comes out,
there’s too much contrast and the images look burned out. I would say that 90 percent of what I
saw I couldn’t film, and if I got one shot a day that was usable then I was relatively happy.”
The early weeks of the shoot were further complicated when the filmmakers realized that some
of the Taï chimpanzees simply weren’t interested in their moment in the spotlight. “Chimps are
rather like humans at a party,” says Colbeck. “Some like having their pictures taken and some
don’t. We’d set up a camera and tripod and they wouldn’t necessarily walk away, but they would
just turn around and sit with their backs to us.”
The filmmakers’ luck finally changed several months into the shoot when the camera team was
trekking through the forest and heard strange noises up ahead. Coming into a sunlit clearing,
the filmmakers found a familiar group of chimpanzees—a group that included Oscar, Isha,
Freddy and their extended family—excitedly cracking the walnut-like coula nuts, a favorite food
of the Taï chimps that had just come into season. Using tree roots as anvils and pieces of wood
and large stones as hammers, the adults were busily shelling the nuts while the infant chimps
begged for their share of the spoils or played in the nearby branches.
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“The chimpanzees in the Taï Forest are known to crack nuts in this way and to use wooden and
stone hammers,” says Fothergill. “The fact that they carry the stone hammers for miles through
the forest makes it even more remarkable.”
The footage, rarely caught on film before, revealed the Taï chimpanzees’ astonishing
intelligence, playfulness and sheer zest for life. “One of the funniest things about the nut
cracking scene is seeing the little ones like Oscar trying to learn it because they tend to get it
wrong the whole time,” says Linfield. “They’re using a hammer but they miss the nut and hit their
foot instead or they try with a piece of wood and the wood keeps breaking.”
Since the chimpanzees spent hours at a stretch contentedly cracking nuts and often returning to
the same trees several times a day, they learned about the group dynamics and gained insight
into the individual personalities. “Everyone loved Oscar from the moment they saw him,” says
Fothergill. “There’s something playful and a bit naughty about him and he’s clearly quite
determined.”
Colbeck was especially drawn to Isha. “She was quite old and she had this extraordinary
presence, something that indicated wisdom and experience and you could see it in the way
other chimpanzees responded to her,” he explains. “She was also the most extraordinary
mother—she was so patient with Oscar.”
As for Freddy, there was no denying that he had the presence and charisma of a leading man.
“He was such a big bruiser and at the same time he had this lovely gentle side,” says Fothergill.
“And he’s very handsome too!”
TWIST OF FATE
When a rival group of chimpanzees appeared on the scene and threatened the seemingly idyllic
life of Isha, Oscar and the rest of their group, the crew realized that Freddy’s prowess would be
put to the test. Chimpanzees often clash with neighboring groups over territory and access to
food supplies, so everyone was worried about the fate of Oscar and the other chimpanzees.
But the filmmakers also knew they had found another key ingredient of their drama: a menacing
cast of villains and a powerful plot twist. The leader of the rival group was an older male known
as Scar, a name he more than lived up to with the grizzled appearance of an aging boxer who’d
fought one too many fights.
Events would take a tragic turn, putting a question mark over the film’s future. Early encounters
between Freddy and the rivals who seemed determined to invade his territory had not amounted
to much, but the tension ultimately took a tragic turn, separating Oscar from mom Isha and
changing his life forever.
Experts estimate that half of all newborn chimpanzees die within the first five years of life. Oscar
still relied on his mother for both protection and breast milk. Without her, his chances of
surviving seemed slim. “We had all fallen in love with little Oscar,” says Fothergill, “so it was
incredibly painful to see him so alone and helpless. In the back of our minds, we were also
thinking we might have to call Disney and say, ‘Thanks guys, we haven’t got a movie.’”
The crew anxiously watched Oscar forlornly trailing behind the other chimpanzees, clearly
traumatized by his loss and looking weaker by the day. But just when things seemed hopeless,
a small miracle took place, says Fothergill. “Oscar approached Freddy with this sort of sad
attitude of, ‘Nobody else is going to look after me, how about you?’ And Freddy’s response was
just the most incredible, amazing and unpredictable thing I have ever seen.”
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Freddy let Oscar climb aboard his back and the patriarch carried the young chimpanzee through
the rainforest just as Isha had once done. It was extraordinary. Alpha males like Freddy rarely
care for young chimpanzees—and it had never been caught on film like this.
Over the next few days, Oscar stayed as close as he could to his new protector. Before long,
Freddy was cracking nuts for him, sharing his nest with him at night and delicately grooming the
baby chimpanzee. “It was just amazing and very touching to see this big, normally gruff male
pour his love and devotion into caring for Oscar,” says Linfield.
Fothergill recalls Freddy’s attempts at grooming his newly adopted charge. “He has the great
big sausage-like fingers of an adult male, but he did the best he could,” says the director. “There
was a moment of complete bonding when Freddy let Oscar sleep in his arms.”
Adds Linfield, “It was pretty clear that the story of Oscar and Freddy was going to touch other
people as much as it touched us.”
Two of the world’s most renowned chimpanzee experts were especially touched. Says
Dr. Jane Goodall, one of the world’s foremost conservationists and an authority on chimpanzee
behavior, “The adoption of an infant by an adult alpha male has never been filmed like this. We
had one adopted by a 12-year-old [at the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania], but
that’s nothing like a top ranking male, so the fact that it happened just when the film was being
made [is] amazing.
“It’s incredible because when you’re an alpha male or number one male, you have a certain role
to play,” continues Dr. Goodall. “You have to make sure that you keep the cohesion of the other
males in your group, which is very important because of territorial aggression. Looking after an
infant, carrying an infant on your back, spending time grooming an infant, is going to detract you
from the normal role of the alpha male, so it’s an altruistic behavior but an interesting one,
because that very altruism could have led to the demise of the whole group, or at least to them
losing their territory.”
Adds Professor Christophe Boesch, “I have never seen a male like Freddy take up the role of a
mother like that. It was very moving for me to see Oscar’s longing for some sort of protection
and closeness and the tenderness that Freddy showed him. It is very unusual.”
CAMP LIFE
The crew’s proximity to nature came with its challenges. The camp was intentionally unfenced
to allow the free flow of air and for the easy passage of any of the local wildlife, but it meant that
the crew could come face to face with unexpected visitors at any time of day or night, like when
a highly venomous rhinoceros viper slithered into the crew’s living quarters one evening, whip
scorpions took up residence in the toilets, and on more than one occasion, crew members woke
up covered in hundreds of army ants. On a side trip for some additional filming in Gabon, field
producer James Reed was stung nearly a hundred times by bees. “You start to feel that nature
is picking on you,” he says with a laugh.
BIG PICTURE
Filmmakers were challenged with capturing footage that would give a sense of the airy, sunfilled
and vibrant world that existed higher up in the tree canopy. “Fortunately Mark [Linfield] is
an absolute genius at this sort of thing,” says Fothergill. “We got aerial shots from a helicopter,
which is a traditional way, but they didn’t get you right into the forest canopy. So Mark and an
incredible team put cables in the canopy, from the top of the trees right to the bottom and we got
these incredibly smooth tracking shots right through the forest and they give you an fantastic
wide-angle view of the forest.”
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“It was a combo of very low- and very high-tech solutions,” adds Linfield. “The very high-tech
camera wobbled as it traveled down the cables, so we stabilized it with a couple of wheels
borrowed from a racing bike.”
The resulting footage was applauded by Dr. Goodall. “There are incredible time lapse shots and
just wonderfully atmospheric images of storms and of the chimps climbing up into the canopy,”
she says. “It is quite magical. It really is the next best thing to going there yourself.”
Professor Boesch, meanwhile, believes that filmgoers will have a better view of the chimps than
even the scientists themselves. “The quality of the images in ‘Chimpanzee’ is so impressive,” he
says, “and seeing the film has been a marvelous experience for me and all the students
because we are seeing unbelievably clear, close-up images of the faces of very well-known
individuals in a way we have never before.”
If it’s up to the filmmakers, the film will make an impact both in theaters and beyond.
“Chimpanzees are endangered,” says Linfield, “but we never wanted to make a film that
preached. The film has to be entertaining and immersive and fun so that people tell their friends
to go and see it too. Still, I think that if we have done our job, people will not only have a great
time at ‘Chimpanzee,’ they will start to think about how chimps deserve our protection. I mean,
how could you not fall in love with little Oscar? And it’s an inevitable consequence of loving
something: you want to protect it.”
“I thought the film was wonderful,” Dr. Goodall adds, “especially knowing something about the
conditions under which it was made. I’m filled with admiration for the people who made it. It’s
got drama, it’s got a story, it’s got sadness and it’s got a lot of humor.”
For Fothergill, “Chimpanzee” also has a special place in his heart. “People often ask you as a
wildlife filmmaker what your favorite animal is on the planet,” he says. “I always say
chimpanzees; I’ve said that for 25 years. This film has just confirmed my complete passion for
these animals and if we can communicate that passion to audiences then I will be enormously
happy.
“I think the kids in the audience are going to love the baby chimpanzees,” Fothergill continues,
“the mothers are going to really relate to the love that Isha has for Oscar, and all the guys are
going to wish they were as cool as Freddy.”
SOUNDS OF “CHIMPANZEE”
Tim Allen Tapped as Narrator, Nicholas Hooper Delivers Emotion-Driven Score,
McClain Sisters and Dutch Singer Caro Emerald Share Original Songs
THE NARRATOR
Filmmakers called on comedian Tim Allen to help share Oscar’s story. “‘Chimpanzee’ is the
funniest movie Disneynature has made so far,” says executive producer Don Hahn. “We needed
a narrator who could understand the comedy of these animals cracking nuts with hammers and
stealing each other’s tools, but it needed to be someone who could carry the drama of the story,
too. That's a pretty short list and from the get-go, the person on top of the list was Tim Allen.
With Tim, it was fun to just run the film and let him riff.”
Allen currently stars in ABC’s “Last Man Standing.”
THE SCORE
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“The great challenge facing a composer on a natural history film,” says “Chimpanzee” director
Alastair Fothergill, “is to write music that does the work that dialogue does in a film with human
actors.
“Chimpanzees in particular have a wide variety of emotions and complex inner lives,” Fothergill
adds, “and a composer has to find a way to give voice to that.”
In Nicholas Hooper, Fothergill and fellow director Mark Linfield found the perfect candidate for
the job. Hooper has had a lifelong love of nature and natural history. With feature film credits
that include two of the “Harry Potter” films, he has repeatedly proven his ability to create richly
expressive and dramatic scores to accompany even the largest scale feature films. He was also
responsible for the memorable and highly praised score to “African Cats” (directed by Alastair
Fothergill and Keith Scholey). “Nick did a fantastic job on ‘African Cats,’” Fothergill says, “and
we were thrilled to get him back. He is steeped in cinematic music and always full of great
ideas.”
Hooper was easily convinced to take on his second assignment for Disneynature. “I found the
film completely enthralling,” the award-winning composer explains. “Like everyone else, I love
Oscar and his interaction with Freddy, but there are so many great scenes: the nut cracking, the
family moments and the villains.
“It’s definitely appealing to me to work on a film without a lot of dialogue because the music can
be more complex and do more things,” continues Hooper. ”And I like that ‘Chimpanzee’
represents such a sharp contrast to ‘African Cats,’ which was so spacious—the landscape, the
timeless story—but ‘Chimpanzee’ is intimate, colorful, playful, full of humor and set in a very
different environment. It’s more like an urban drama.”
Hooper incorporated a big string orchestra and a choir to the score, adding a jazzy and rhythmic
feel to emphasize the comic moments of the film. “I even used a bassoon for the nut cracking
scene,” Hooper laughs, “which is very unusual for me.
“The score goes from big to small,” Hooper continues, “so there were days when we would
record with 85 musicians in the studio accompanied by a big choir, and other days with just four
or five musicians. There are several violin solos, for example, and a lot of piano music, too.”
THE SONGS
The end credits to “Chimpanzee” will be accompanied by the inspirational track “Rise,” written
and performed by China Anne McClain, 13, star of the Disney Channel series “A.N.T. Farm,”
and her sisters Sierra, 18, and Lauryn, 15.
“When I saw the film, I just fell in love with little Oscar,” China Anne McClain says. “Oscar has
such an extraordinary and touching story, so when we wrote ‘Rise’ we were thinking a lot about
Oscar’s struggles and setbacks and the way his family comes through for him. I really love the
film and its message, so it’s a thrill for me to have ‘Rise’ included.”
“Rise” is the latest Disney Friends for Change anthem. With the motivating lyrics “Together we
can do anything,” the song captures the central message of the program: when kids and
families work together, they can inspire each other and their communities to make a lasting,
positive change in the world. “Rise” is the fourth Disney Friends for Change anthem to be
released with a benefit back to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. This contribution
marks nearly $1 million awarded through the music campaign to charities working to protect the
planet and conserve nature for future generations.
“Chimpanzee” also features “That Man” by Dutch singer Caro Emerald, whose debut album
“Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor” has become a hit across Europe, selling over 1
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million copies and receiving numerous platinum and gold awards in the UK, Germany, The
Netherlands and Poland. The jazzy track makes for a particularly inspired accompaniment to an
early scene of Oscar and his extended family playing, socializing and relaxing.
“We wanted something fun that would make people say, ‘Hang on! This isn’t your usual animal
film,’” says Fothergill, “and it’s perfect for that, and incredibly catchy, too. There’s a jazz element
to the song, but it also sounds modern, urban and humorous. Of course, Caro Emerald also has
a beautiful voice.”
Says Emerald, “‘That Man’ works brilliantly with the chimpanzees’ moves. This song is happy
and uplifting!”
ABOUT THE CHIMPANZEES
WHERE ON EARTH?
Wild chimpanzees live in African forests and grasslands in around 20 different countries.
VITAL STATISTICS
Adult chimps are between 4 and 5 ½ feet tall.
They weigh between 70 and 130 pounds.
The span of a chimpanzee’s arms is 1 ½ times its height.
They are quadrupedal: they walk on their knuckles, and have opposable big toes.
Their life expectancy is between 40 and 50 years.
By some estimates, chimpanzees are around five times stronger than humans.
Chimpanzees are highly social and live in groups of between 15 and 150 individuals.
MEAL TIME
Fruit makes up as much as two thirds of a chimpanzee’s diet.
They also eat pith, blossoms, eggs and honey, as well as insects, nuts and meat obtained
by hunting.
Chimpanzees have been shown to remember the precise locations of hundreds of different
fruiting trees within their territories.
When nuts are in season, chimps will spend as much as two hours a day cracking them
open with stones.
Chimpanzees also use sticks to retrieve insects from their nests and leaves as sponges to
soak up drinking water.
They may favor some of the plants in their diet for their medicinal properties.
BRINGING UP BABY
Female chimps reach reproductive age at 13.
Pregnancy lasts between 200 and 260 days.
Babies weigh about 4 ½ pounds at birth.
Chimpanzees spend the first five years of life suckling and sleeping in their mother’s nest at
night.
Even after being weaned, a young chimpanzee depends on its mother until age 10.
COMMUNICATION
Chimpanzees communicate with each other through a wide variety of barks, grunts,
whimpers, hoots, laughter and yells.
Grinning is often a sign of nervousness or fear. Raised body hair signals excitement.
Chimpanzees exhibit their dominance over other chimps by displays of hand slapping, feet
stomping and dragging or throwing branches and rocks.
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When separated, chimps maintain contact for distances of nearly a mile by drumming on the
buttresses of trees.
THE FUTURE
In 1960, there were a million chimpanzees in the wild. Today, just a fifth of that number
remain.
In the next two decades chimpanzees are expected to become extinct in 10 different
countries as a result of hunting, disease and gradual encroachment on their habitat.
Chimpanzees are sometimes attacked by leopards and lions, but the greatest threat to their
survival comes from humans.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
ALASTAIR FOTHERGILL (Director and Producer) was described by the Wall Street Journal
as “the Spielberg of nature films.” He is the director of two previous Disneynature productions,
“Earth” and “African Cats” (the last also directed by Keith Scholey), both of which number
among the top four highest grossing feature-length nature films in North American box-office
history. Fothergill’s other theatrical credits as a director include “Deep Blue.” From 2002 to
2006, Fothergill was series producer of “Planet Earth,” one of the most critically acclaimed
documentary series of all time. Most recently, he executive produced the BBC/Discovery
Channel series “Frozen Planet,” a natural history of the polar regions. His many other credits
include “Life In the Freezer” and “The Trials of Life.” Fothergill studied zoology at Durham
University and began his career in 1983 when he joined the BBC’s renowned Natural History
Unit. He served as head of the Natural History Unit from 1992 until 1998. When he is not
working, Fothergill is a keen walker and amateur artist.
MARK LINFIELD (Director and Producer) also shared directing duties with Alastair Fothergill
on Disneynature’s hugely successful feature film “Earth.” He recently directed an episode of the
BBC/Discovery Channel’s popular “Frozen Planet,” the sequel to “Planet Earth,” as well as
serving as one of the series’ producers. Linfield produced and directed the award-winning
“Capuchins: The Monkey Puzzle” and two episodes of the multiple Emmy®-winning “Planet
Earth,” including the opening episode “Pole to Pole.” Among Linfield’s other credits are the
documentaries “The Triumph of Life,” “Gelada Baboons: The Battles of Braveheart,”
“Orangutans: The High Society” and “The Temple Troop.” He was also a director on the BAFTAnominated
“The Life of Mammals” with Sir David Attenborough. Linfield had a childhood passion
for nature and photography, was educated at the University of Oxford and began his filmmaking
career more than 20 years ago on a BBC documentary about gorillas in the Congo, West Africa.
ALIX TIDMARSH (Producer) was born in Rome and traveled around the world for many years
before settling in London. After gaining a degree in psychology and zoology, she began her
career working for L’Oreal and Unilever but subsequently joined BBC Worldwide as director of
marketing. While there, she worked on such internationally acclaimed series as “The Blue
Planet,” “Planet Earth,” “Walking With Dinosaurs” and several David Attenborough series,
including “The Life of Mammals,” “Life in the Undergrowth” and “State of the Planet,” as well as
the IMAX® version of “The Human Body.” Her other two documentary feature films as producer
are “Deep Blue,” which came out in 2004 and has so far sold more than two million copies on
DVD, and “Earth,” which has taken in nearly $109 million at the box office worldwide and ranks
as one of the most successful documentary features of all time. Prior to “Chimpanzee,”
Tidmarsh also produced Disneynature’s feature films “African Cats” and “Wings of Life.” She is
currently developing two films about the natural world, "Dolphin: A 3D Adventure" and
"Hurricane." Beyond her work as a producer, Tidmarsh runs her own consultancy firm, B8
Media. When not working, she can usually be found cooking or on the back of a horse,
practicing dressage.
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DON HAHN (Executive Producer) produced Disneynature’s feature films “Earth,” “Oceans”
and “African Cats.” He produced the Disney classic “Beauty and the Beast,” the first animated
film to receive a Best Picture nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences. His next film, “The Lion King,” broke box-office records around the world to become
the highest-grossing Disney animated film ever and a long-running Broadway musical. Hahn
served as associate producer on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and produced “The Hunchback of
Notre Dame.” His 2006 short film “The Little MatchGirl” earned Hahn his second Oscar®
nomination. Hahn is also executive producer on Tim Burton’s stop-motion film “Frankenweenie.”
JEAN-FRANÇOIS CAMILLERI (Executive Vice President and General Manager,
Disneynature; General Manager, The Walt Disney Company-France) is a graduate of
ESCEM Management School in France. He joined The Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles in
1990 as media manager at Buena Vista International. He subsequently served as advertising
manager of Buena Vista’s newly opened European office in Paris and in 1992 became the
French marketing director for the newly formed Gaumont Buena Vista International joint
venture. Camilleri was promoted to French general manager in 1997. Buena Vista International
opened its own French office in 2004 with Camilleri as its senior vice president and general
manager. As head of BVI France, Camilleri also developed local co-productions and
acquisitions including “The March of the Penguins,” the most successful French film ever in the
USA, with a total box-office of $77 million ($130 million worldwide). The film also won the
Academy Award® for Best Documentary in 2006. Camilleri helped establish Disneynature in
2008 and was later appointed The Walt Disney Company’s country manager for France.
ANDY NETLEY (Editor) studied at Newport Film School and began his working life as an
assistant film editor at BBC Birmingham, where he worked on drama productions. He became a
freelancer in 1990 and since then has edited numerous documentaries, mostly about natural
history. Among his credits are three episodes of the acclaimed “Planet Earth” series; two
episodes of “Wild China,” one of which earned him an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding
Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming; “Snow Leopards: Beyond the Myth”; two episodes
of “Life”; and most recently, two episodes of “Frozen Planet”: “To the Ends of the Earth” and
“Spring.” Netley lives on a smallholding in Monmouthshire, Wales and when he isn’t working
looks after a menagerie that includes a cat, two dogs, eight sheep, six chickens and four ducks.
He also plays darts–badly, he says–for his local pub team.
NICHOLAS HOOPER (Composer) also composed the music for Disneynature’s feature film
“African Cats.” In 2007, he won considerable acclaim for his score for director David Yates’
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and worked with Yates again as the composer on
“Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.” Hooper’s other feature film credits include “The Heart
of Me” and “The Tichborne Claimant,” while his television drama credits include the BBC original
series “State of Play,” “The Young Visitors,” “The Chatterley Trial” “My Family and Other
Animals,” “Prime Suspect: The Final Act” and “Einstein and Eddington.” At the start of his
career, Hooper combined his love of nature and his passion for music to establish himself as a
leading composer for natural history television. Among his many credits are “Land of the Tiger,”
“Warrior Monkeys” and “Elephants of the Sand River.” Hooper has been nominated for five
BAFTA Awards for best original music and has won twice.
MARTYN COLBECK (Principal Photography) has been filming wildlife all over the world for
more than 25 years, principally in association with the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol. His
numerous credits as a cinematographer include episodes of “The Trials of Life,” “Planet Earth,”
“Nature’s Great Events,” and more recently, “Frozen Planet.” As a director, Colbeck has also
made his own films about orangutans, gelada baboons and pygmy chimpanzees, but he is
probably best known for his many films about African elephants, including the “Echo of the
Elephants” trilogy, made in association with Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in
Kenya. These films are a unique chronicle spanning 20 years in the life of an elephant matriarch
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known as Echo. Colbeck has won the Best Cinematography Award at The Jackson Hole Wildlife
Film Festival in the United States and at the Wildscreen Film Festival in the UK. He has also
won an Emmy® as part of the camera team on “Planet Earth” and the Royal Photographic
Society of Great Britain’s Lumiere Award for Outstanding Contribution to British
Cinematography. Martyn’s still photographs have appeared in major publications and exhibitions
around the world and he is a past overall winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year
competition run by BBC Wildlife Magazine and the Natural History Museum in London.
BILL WALLAUER (Principal Photography/Scientific Consultant) became aware of the Jane
Goodall Institute’s (JGI) Gombe Stream Research Centre in 1989 while on assignment for the
U.S. Peace Corps in southern Tanzania. After completing his Peace Corps work in 1991, the
Oregon native was drawn back to Tanzania and JGI. For the next 15 years, Wallauer spent
nearly every day tracking the wild chimpanzees of Gombe National Park and capturing the
intimate details of their daily lives. During this period, he believes he spent more time with
chimpanzees than with humans. Since then, film production companies from around the world
have recruited Wallauer as a camera operator, videographer and consultant for wildlife films
shot at Gombe and in other parts of Africa. He has served as camera operator and scientific
advisor for more than 30 productions, including the BBC/Animal Planet’s “Chimpanzee Week,”
which aired in 2005 and 2006. He also shot the closing sequence of the hugely acclaimed 10part
series “Planet Earth.” For “Chimpanzee,” Wallauer filmed the chimpanzees in the Kibale
National Park in Uganda and says that it was his most challenging and technically demanding
film project.
WARWICK SLOSS (Additional Photography) is an award-winning camera operator and
director of photography who has traveled to more than 50 countries over the last 16 years
working on a wide range of science and natural history documentaries. Among many other
specialty filming techniques, he is experienced in time-lapse, macro photography, motion control
and the use of infrared cameras. Sloss’ credits include “Blue Planet,” “Dolphin Murders,” “Inside
the Perfect Predator,” “Life,” “Nature’s Great Events,” “Planet Earth,” “Ganges,” “Earth Pilgrim”
and “Frozen Planet.” He also filmed special effects shots for the James Bond film “Casino
Royale.” Sloss won a Wildscreen Panda Award for his work on “Earth Pilgrim” and has also won
awards for his black and white still photographs. For “Chimpanzee,” Sloss shot aerial cable dolly
scenes, time-lapse sequences, storms and detailed sequences of forest animals. He was also
stung by more than 100 bees in one day and struck by lightning.
KRISTIN MOSHER (Sound Recordist) was born in New York. She spent three years as
director of operations at the Jane Goodall Institute before embarking on a career as a wildlife
photographer and sound recordist. Her early photographic work focused on capturing the life
histories of wild chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Mosher has received two
awards in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, including the mammal behavior
category in 2005. Her photographs have also been published in, among others, “National
Geographic” and “BBC Wildlife Magazine,” as well as in many books. Her images of
chimpanzees were also selected to promote the BBC’s series “Planet Earth.” As a sound
recordist, Mosher has worked on documentaries about the Gombe chimpanzees and Jane
Goodall’s pioneering work in primatology. She says her favorite sound is chimp laughter.
TIM SHEPHERD (Time-Lapse Photographer) has always been fanatical about the natural
world and knew from an early age that he wanted a career that would reflect that passion. After
earning a botany degree from Oxford University, he got his first job with Oxford Scientific Films,
eventually becoming a cameraman. Shepherd went freelance in 1990 and since then has
specialized in time-lapse and macro photography. Among his numerous credits are
contributions to some of the BBC’s most successful natural history series, including “The Private
Life of Plants,” “Planet Earth,” “Life in the Undergrowth,” “Life,” “The Nature of Britain” and, most
recently, “Frozen Planet” and the forthcoming “Africa.” He won Emmy® Awards for his work on
“The Private Life of Plants” and “Life,” and a Royal Television Society Award for “The Human
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Body.” As well as being a cameraman, Shepherd has directed several programs for the BBC
Natural World series including “The Fatal Flower.” When Shepherd isn’t filming, he is a keen
natural history artist and his paintings have been exhibited around Britain and twice highly
commended in the annual Wildlife Artist of the Year competition.
TED GIFFORDS (Cable Dolly) was responsible for some of the most striking shots of
redwoods, glaciers and bat caves in the award-winning “Planet Earth.” His many other credits
include “Meerkat Manor” and the BBC/Discovery Channel’s “Wild Pacific.” Giffords moved into
filmmaking after a stint as a photojournalist and training in fine art, photography and aquatic
biology.
TIM FOGG (Canopy Access) is the managing director of Rope Access Specialists. He has
been working in the film and television industry for more than 20 years assisting filmmakers to
access difficult-to-reach locations, whether it’s a glacier or forest canopy. Fogg has also
provided rope access training, rigging and safety supervision for numerous natural history
productions, including “Planet Earth,” “Life,” “Lost Land of the Jaguar,” “Wild China” and, most
recently, the highly acclaimed “Frozen Planet.” Prior to establishing RAS, Fogg spent a number
of years in the Antarctic with the British Antarctic Survey working as a diver, field assistant and
running a dog team. He is a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society and a member of the
British Cave Research Association. Fogg is an experienced caver and has been a member of
18 major caving expeditions, including locations in Arctic Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Brazil.
JAMES ALDRED (Canopy Access Rigger) grew up in the New Forest in England. A childhood
passion for natural history, climbing and photography led him into wildlife filmmaking at an early
age. Aldred specializes in filming from ropes at great height in the rainforest canopy and
recently completed his hundredth rainforest trip to film lowland gorillas in the Congo. Whether
operating a camera himself or providing rigging support for others, Aldred has contributed to
many award-winning programs over the years, including "The Life of Mammals," "Planet Earth,"
"Life" and "Human Planet.”
LIZ STEVENS (Production Manager) was born near London and joined BBC White City in
1978. She worked in studio management before moving into production with music and arts
documentaries. Stevens relocated to Bristol in 1994 to work on a natural history series about the
human animal; and the past 12 years she has been working in the independent sector. Although
“Chimpanzee” is Stevens’ first feature film, she says there’s nothing quite like the stark
practicalities of listing, shifting and safely delivering one and a half tons of film equipment across
Africa.
JAMES REED (Field Producer) was obsessed with dinosaurs as a child, studied zoology at the
University of Leeds and subsequently worked on a whale and dolphin research project in the
Canary Islands and a great white shark study in South Africa. He has been involved in
documentary filmmaking for the last 10 years and has traveled to some of the most remote
regions of the world, from the high Arctic to the Nubian Desert. Reed’s many projects include
directing and assistant producing “Perfect Predators,” a natural history of sharks, for Discovery
and assistant producing “Monster of the Frozen North” for National Geographic. Reed also
directed a documentary about the making of “Chimpanzee.”
EDWARD ANDERSON (Field Logistics Manager & Camera Assistant) took a degree in
management and French at Leeds University before embarking on a career as an international
expedition leader. He led groups into remote regions around the world to pursue biodiversity
surveys in rainforests, construction projects in the desert and trips down rivers. Anderson also
had a brief sojourn as a tree surgeon, during which he became used to working at great heights
in the forest canopy. Anderson drew on these experiences when building the “Chimpanzee”
production camp in the Täi Forest, which included building platforms high up in trees from which
to film the chimps. In addition, Anderson became principal photographer Martyn Colbeck's
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camera assistant, recorded some of the soundtrack for the movie and shot footage for field
producer James Reed’s documentary about the making of “Chimpanzee.”
SAMUEL MUNENE (Camera Assistant) was born in Kenya. Over the years, Munene has
worked as a spotter and camera car driver on countless nature documentaries, including “Big
Cat Diary,” “Elephant Diaries,” “Planet Earth” and “The Great Rift.” He is also a marathon walker
and his all-round fitness proved a useful asset as he and “Chimpanzee” cameraman Bill
Wallauer lugged heavy equipment throughout the forests of Uganda in pursuit of their agile and
often fast-moving subjects.
KATE HOPKINS (Sound Supervisor) began her working life as a receptionist at a postproduction
company. She subsequently became an assistant film editor before deciding to
specialize in sound editing. Hopkins worked as a sound effects designer on the theatrical
feature “Hardware” (1990) and as a sound editor on the 1992 film “Dust Devil,” while her early
television credits include the mini-series “Shanghai Vice” and the documentary “The James
Bond Story.” Based in Bristol, the center of natural history filmmaking in the United Kingdom,
Hopkins increasingly came to concentrate on sound editing for wildlife films. Her many credits
include episodes of “The Life of Mammals,” “Planet Earth,” for which she won an Emmy®, and
“Life,” for which she gathered another Emmy® nomination. Hopkins was also sound editor on
the popular theatrical features “Deep Blue” and the hugely successful “Earth.” Most recently,
she worked on the BBC series “Frozen Planet” and the Disneynature film “African Cats.” When
Hopkins isn’t working she goes to the movies and is a particular fan of the sound editing in Coen
Brothers films.
TIM OWENS (Sound Designer) was born in Dar es Salaam and grew up in East Africa. He
began his career as an assistant picture editor at BBC Bristol and made the move into sound
editing at the end of the 1980s. He has since worked on a wide range of feature films, television
dramas and documentaries and won an Emmy® for his work on National Geographic’s “Haunt
of the Hippo.” Owens was dialogue editor on the theatrical features “Metroland,” “I’ll Sleep When
I’m Dead,” “Tideland” and “Notes on a Scandal”; ADR editor on “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse
of the Were-Rabbit”; and sound editor on “Earth.” As a sound editor, his television credits also
include multiple episodes of such well-regarded series as “Planet Earth,” “Wild Pacific” and
“Life.” His previous Disneynature credit was on the popular theatrical feature “African Cats.”
LUKE RAINEY (D.I. Colorist) studied electronic engineering before moving to London, where
he worked first as a video engineer, then as an editorial assistant and an online editor. He
subsequently became intrigued by the emerging field of color grading and for the past 17 years
has worked as a freelance colorist, grading numerous natural history films and television
dramas. Among his many credits are the highly acclaimed “Planet Earth,” “Frozen Planet” and
HBO’s “Band of Brothers,” as well as the theatrical feature “Earth” and the Oscar®-winning
documentary “Man on Wire.” Rainey lives on Dartmoor and spends his spare time sailing and
restoring an ancient farmstead.
ANDREW WILSON (Re-Recording Mixer) previously worked with Alastair Fothergill on
Disneynature’s feature films “African Cats” and “Earth.” His working relationship with Fothergill
goes back more than 20 years and includes “The Trials of Life,” “Blue Planet,” “Planet Earth”
and the feature film “Deep Blue.” His mixing style has won him numerous awards, including
three Merit Awards at the Missoula International Wildlife Film Festival and a Conch Award for
best audio for “Planet Earth.” Outside work Wilson enjoys walking, fly-fishing and sailing. He is
also an amateur musician.
GORDON LEICESTER (Camera Equipment Technician) has a background in engineering.
He worked on Disneynature’s feature film “African Cats” maintaining the production’s filming
equipment and ensuring that it survived the tough conditions of the African savannah. He
performed the same role on “Chimpanzee,” designing and building custom camera packages
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that would withstand the even more challenging conditions in the Taï Forest on the Ivory Coast.
As the hire department technical manager for Films@59 in Bristol, Leicester has also assisted
the camera teams of numerous other natural history productions, among them “Planet Earth,”
“Life,” “Human Planet,” “Frozen Planet,” “Springwatch” and “Autumnwatch.” When he isn’t
working, Leicester is an amateur astronomer and enjoys renovating the very old house in which
he lives.
TALENT
CHINA ANNE MCCLAIN (“Rise”) stars as Chyna Parks, an 11-year-old musical prodigy who
attends high school as part of the prestigious A.N.T. (Advanced Natural Talents) program, in the
Disney Channel Original Series "A.N.T. Farm."
McClain was discovered in 2005 by a music executive who heard her sing and encouraged
director Rob Hardy to audition her for his feature film "The Gospel." China's role in the film
caught the attention of actor/director/producer Tyler Perry who ultimately cast her in his series
"Tyler Perry's House of Payne." Soon thereafter, McClain landed a role in Perry's feature film
"Daddy's Little Girls."
McClain's additional feature film credits include roles in "Grown Ups" and "Hurricane Season."
On the small screen, she has made guest appearances on "NCIS" and Disney Channel's
"Wizards of Waverly Place," "JONAS L.A." and "Hannah Montana."
McClain is passionate about music, enjoys playing the guitar and is learning to play piano and
violin. She and her older sisters, Sierra and Lauryn, formed a singing group and are signed with
Hollywood Records.
In her free time, McClain is an avid reader, who favors The Hunger Games and the Twilight
book series. She also likes to crochet clothes for her American Girl doll. McClain's favorite
possession is a custom Fender Stratocaster guitar, a gift from Nick Jonas.
Born August 25, 1998, in Atlanta, Georgia, McClain currently resides in Los Angeles with her
family. Her father is a music producer, her mother is a singer/writer and McClain's two sisters
and younger brother also sing and act.
SCIENTIFIC CONSULTANTS
CHRISTOPHE BOESCH (Principal Scientific Consultant) was the lead scientific advisor on
“Chimpanzee” and his chimpanzee camp within Taï National Park in the Ivory Coast was the
main location for the film’s long shoot. Having obtained his PhD at the Universities of Geneva
and Zurich and furthered his studies at Basel University in Switzerland, Boesch has studied wild
chimpanzees for more than 30 years. He was a visiting Professor at the University of Rennes
and Paris in 1995 and 1996 and is currently a director at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig,
Germany. Boesch has written more than 200 scientific papers and published several books,
including “The Chimpanzees from the Taï Forest” (with Hedwige Boesch), “The Real
Chimpanzee: Sex Strategies in the Forest” and “Wild Cultures: A Comparison between
Chimpanzee and Human Cultures.” He acts as an advisor on numerous boards, including the
steering committee of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group, and is an executive committee
member and co-chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Great Apes Survival project
(UNESCO-GRASP). In 2000, Boesch founded the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation. He is currently
researching the development of cooperation, reproductive strategies, culture and tool use, and
population dynamics in wild chimpanzees.
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JOHN MITANI (Scientific Consultant) is the James N. Spuhler Collegiate Professor and
Associate Chair of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. A primate behavioral ecologist for
over 30 years, he has conducted fieldwork on the behavior of all five species of apes: gibbons
and orangutans in Indonesia, gorillas in Rwanda, bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo
and chimpanzees in Uganda and Tanzania. Since 1995, Mitani has directed a long-term field
study of the unusually large community of chimpanzees at Ngogo in Kibale National Park,
Uganda. His work addresses questions about the social behavior of apes and communication
and his current research involves studies of male chimpanzee cooperation. Several years ago,
Professor Mitani was awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty
Fellowship by the President of the United States and he has recently been named a Fellow of
the Animal Behavior Society. He is an editor of Advances in the Study of Behavior and on the
editorial boards of the International Journal of Primatology, Primates and the Journal of Human
Evolution.
DAVID WATTS (Scientific Consultant) is a professor of anthropology at Yale University,
where he teaches courses on a range of subjects including primate behavior and ecology,
evolutionary approaches to human behavior, hunter-gatherer societies and primate
conservation. The focus of his research is the behavior and ecology of primates and he has
done extensive fieldwork on capuchin monkeys in Panama, on mountain gorillas in Rwanda and
on chimpanzees in Uganda. Numerous film and documentary filmmakers have called on his
expertise and Watts was the on-site consultant in Rwanda during the filming of “Gorillas in the
Mist.” He also worked with Alastair Fothergill and Bill Wallauer on the chimpanzee section of
“Planet Earth.” In collaboration with Dr. Jeremiah Lwanga and Dr. John Mitani, Watts has
supervised a research project on chimpanzee behavior at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda
since 1995.
Dr.JANE GOODALL, Ph.D., DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger
of Peace, began her landmark study of chimpanzee behavior in July 1960, in what is now
Tanzania. Her work at Gombe Stream would become the foundation of future primatological
research and redefine the relationship between humans and animals.
In 1977, Dr. Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute, which continues the Gombe
research and is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. The
Institute is widely recognized for innovative, community-centered conservation and development
programs in Africa, and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, the global environmental and
humanitarian youth program.
Dr. Goodall founded Roots & Shoots with a group of Tanzanian students in 1991. Today, Roots
& Shoots connects hundreds of thousands of youth in more than 120 countries who take action
to make the world a better place for people, animals and the environment.
Dr. Goodall travels an average of 300 days per year, speaking about the threats facing
chimpanzees, other environmental crises, and her reasons for hope that humankind will solve
the problems it has imposed on the earth.
Dr. Goodall’s honors include the French Legion of Honor, the Medal of Tanzania, and Japan’s
prestigious Kyoto Prize. In 2002, Dr. Goodall was appointed to serve as a United Nations
Messenger of Peace and in 2003, she was named a Dame of the British Empire.
For more information about Dr. Goodall and the work of the Jane Goodall Institute, please visit
www.janegoodall.org.
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