Movie Thoughts: Ozi: Voice of the Forest (2023)

 

• Released: June 13th, 2023
• Directed by: Tim Harper
• Running time: 1h 27min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

An orphaned orangutan named Ozi becomes a star on social media. But one day she runs away from her rescue center and learns of the state of the forest: humans are destroying it for palm oil plantations, and are keeping all animals in a fake rescue center. Ozi decides that she and her friends must be the ones to stand against the destruction of the forest.

My Thoughts

Movie I planned on seeing earlier but honestly just didn't until now. It looked mildly interesting to me, even though the premise of "influencer ape saves the environment" is frankly ridiculous.

But despite this weird premise, yeah, it's a pretty decent film. It is generic and by-the-books, but it does have a good message to tell and I did really enjoy some of its characters. Visually it also looks pretty nice, with some neat animation and character designs.

But for me it was a little hard to take the movie seriously sometimes, because, in the end, it is still the "iPad ape movie". The entire premise and conclusion of the climax hinge upon the fact that Ozi is a social media influencer. And that's just a concept that's a bit too out-there and ridiculous to take seriously, especially when it is what ends up saving the day in the end. I think that this movie wou'dve probably been stronger if it didn't have the whole social media influencer aspect. It really does feel like the movie is trying desperately to be hip appeal to the younger crowd by including the social media aspect. Otherwise it doesn't feel very fitting for the premise and story.

Had this just been a movie about an orphaned ape and her friends trying to save the forest without the whole "this orangutan is a social media influencer" aspect I think I might've genuinely really liked this movie a bit more. It still probably wouldn't be perfect, but I could take it at least a bit more seriously. But the whole technology aspect, not just the tablet and social media but also the overly-advanced glove Ozi wears, or the  high-tech animal facility, it's all just a bit too out-there for me. So despite the movie's good qualities, I just struggled to take it seriously quite a bit.

Oh also, I figured I'd just mention that there's a gay gharial character in this voiced by RuPaul, which I just thought was kinda funny. Not this character's inclusion or gayness being the funny part, but rather the fact that this is a 100% pointless character who contributes nothing to the movie other than just being there as a RuPaul cameo. I don't mind the character or anything, but like, why even bother spending time on including a character like this if you're just gonna make him pointless to the plot? We could be spending these previous minutes on developing other, more important aspects of the movie.

But I will give it credit: What it does well, this movie does well. I like the message of finding a home and family, and protecting said home and family. I like the characters. Especially Ozi and her two best friends are just likable and they have a fun chemistry together. And like I said before, it's not a bad-looking movie.

I really do think that the biggest pitfalls of this movie are A) the ridiculous concept that feels like it's trying desperately to be hip, and B) that this movie is pretty generic outside of its good qualities. Even the better qualities don't really stand out in any way or anything. They're good, but nothing groundbreaking.

Not a bad movie, but I don't think a lot of older people will get anything out of it. But for a child this is perfectly fine to put on for them, they'll probably enjoy it. It does have a good environmental message and likable characters despite the silly premise.