Set in a bustling bird city on the edge of the majestic Victoria Falls, “Zambezia” is the story of Kai – a naive, but high spirited young falcon who travels to the bird city of “Zambezia” where he discovers the truth about his origins and, in defending the city, learns how to be a part of a community.
ADVENTURES IN ZAMBEZIA is a new animated film set in Africa. The Victoria Falls creates a beautiful setting for this fun film for all ages. ZAMBEZIA has an easy to follow storyline and doesn’t drag on. The pacing of the film is almost perfect for the kids and the film itself running for a smooth 83 minutes. The film boasts colour, it’s a simple and pleasing film for children on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
The animated isn’t all that impressive and feels somewhat unrealistic at times. The picture on screen doesn’t flow nicely. However, this is no reason to not see the film whether you take your kids to the cinema or rent it after its release. The film has a great moral within the narrative for children to learn. For what the animation lacks, the sound department makes up for in sound effects and foley. The advanced sound gave the film and added element that is lacking. However, for the majority of time, it felt like I was watching an xbox game on the big screen.
The score throughout the film felt like preachy tribal music which felt disconnected at points. Also, the characters had African names but American accents? It just felt all over the place, as if they only hired Samuel L. Jackson and Abigail Breslin to rake in box office cash. The films moral is creeping in the shadows of many childrens animated films; ‘child becoming independent/parent letting go of child’. Definitely cliché and boring character development in any film regardless of its genre and target audience.
The humour is definitely for kids under ten years old and the villain is just a fat lizard with an Italian accent. The ending was predictable and reminded me of the villain in THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN crossing the bridge.
I recommend this film to children eight years of age and under as the older kids may get bored in places. ADVENTURES IN ZAMBEZIA hits cinemas in time for the school holidays 18th April. I rate it 4/10.
