It occurred to me as I watched Monkey Business and Other Family Fun with my kids for approximately the 50th time that my review scope thus far has been too narrow. Why concentrate on only films made for adults when I have had this wonderful video more or less drilled verbatim into my brain by repeated viewings? I see absolutely no reason not to share my pain, er, delightful family viewing experience, with all of you!

Monkey Business and Other Family Fun is part of National Geographic’s Really Wild Animals series of videos for kids. Each video focuses either on a group of animals, animal behavior, or animals in a particular geographical area. Your host and narrator in each video is Spin, the animated globe, voiced by the late Dudley Moore.

Monkey Business focuses on, obviously, monkeys and other primates in the first half, and various aspects of animal child rearing in the second. During the primate portion you learn some basic facts about primates including physical characteristics, eating habits and social behavior. You also learn about the differences between the three major primate groups (prosimian, monkey and ape). The factual material is accompanied by National Geographic’s trademark excellent photography, as well as by a couple of original songs. One of the songs has a gentle message about the similarities between apes and humans, and human responsibility in the areas of protection and conservation.

The second half - Other Family Fun - focuses on, you guessed it, families! You learn about a variety of animal group behaviors and child rearing. Highlighted is a matriarchal elephant group, a male African bull frog caring for it’s young, an albatross pair raising chicks together, an ostrich group that battles for the right to raise all the chicks, a female octopus guarding her eggs and a female Loggerhead turtle leaving her eggs to fend for themselves.

Again, there are a couple of original songs with montages of animal families and absolutely gorgeous photography. There is also another gentle message in this half, this one being that there are many different kinds of animal families, each working just right as it is. As the focus is on babies and child rearing, the word “mating” does come up, but only in passing (and there is certainly no visual documentation of this process). This is definitely “kid friendly” (or maybe I should say “parent friendly” – you’re unlikely to be asked questions you’re not quite ready to answer).

My animal crazy kid started watching the Really Wild Animal videos at around age four, and will still watch them five years later, but has grown beyond asking for new additions. The learning is all interspersed with child friendly silliness, and Spin is an affable and appealing host for these adventures. With a running time of about an hour, the pace is fast enough to keep a child interested, but still allows significant amounts of information to get through. Overall, Monkey Business and Other Family Fun is a very well done children’s documentary that provides plenty of learning in a fun and entertaining format (it’s even pretty fun for adults). A must have for any junior zoologist!


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS