There's a new family movie in town ! Snowflake The White Gorilla was released on DVD and Blu-Ray at the start of the week and we were very pleased to receive a copy to review. We happily settled on the settee with our duvets and a big bowl of popcorn for a family movie session.
Snowflake is a unique white gorilla who is captured from her homeland in Guinea, raised by a family - where she meets her loyal human friend Wendy - before ending up in Barcelona Zoo, where the other gorillas reject her because she looks different. Desperate to fit in, she breaks out of the zoo, along with her friend the red panda, and finds a witch in a nearby circus who will make her a potion to turn her black. The friends are in grave danger though, because a nasty man - very reminiscent of Cruella's henchmen in 101 Dalmatians - wants to snatch Snowflake, convinced that her fur can be used as an amulet to ward off bad luck.
As you'd expect from a family movie, there's a happy end. In the nick of time, Wendy manages to convince the gorillas that "different isn't bad, it's special" and that "it's what's on the inside that matters". Great life lessons for little viewers to take into the world at large. Even the villain gets what he deserves so all is right with the world !
It's a lovely feel-good movie that the kids really enjoyed. As a grown-up, there were a few things that slightly peeved me. The picture on the DVD case suggests that it is an animated movie but it is actually a film using real actors and computer-generated animals, which may be disappointing to some younger viewers. Secondly, the real life scenes seem really dated with washed out colours, but this may be done on purpose as the film is supposed to be set in the 1960's. (The real-life Snowflake was in Barcelona Zoo from 1966 to 2003, although I have no idea if she really was shunned by the other gorillas or not !). Thirdly, the film is dubbed from Spanish so there's a problem with lip-synching. Something I wouldn't mind too much if I was aware of it, but I didn't see any mention of the fact before we sat down to watch.
The kids didn't mind in the slightest though - they thought it was brilliant !
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £9.99
- Studio: Lionsgate UK
- DVD Release Date: 7 Oct 2013
- Run Time: 81 minutes
Disclosure : We received a review copy of the DVD.
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Spot on, Cheryl, I also expected it to be an animation, and the colours were a bit odd. Eddie preferred to watch the bits with the animals and was less keen on the live actors, so I actually fast forwarded a few times. But the baby gorilla was darn cute
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you shared my views ! xx
DeleteAdded a link to your review on mine!
ReplyDeleteThanks, lovely xx
Deletethe cover is deceiving, my kids are not into the acted movies
ReplyDeleteI just bought this today as a stocking filler for the kids!
ReplyDelete