The things you see in “Kenya 3-D: Animal Kingdom” are fairly standard stuff for a large-format movie about Africa, but it’s the way you see them that makes the movie special.
Zebras, rhinos, lions, cheetahs and the like fill the enormous frame of “Kenya” at the Minnesota Zoo’s IMAX theater and director Jean-Jacques Mantello gives us unique ways of looking at them: an elephant, viewed from below, as it appears to walk right over us, a giraffe’s jaws making quick work of high-up acacia leaves, hyenas waiting for their turn at an animal corpse. It’s as if Mantello, aware that fans of large-format movies have probably spent some time with these creatures already, is determined to help us see them in a new way — and it works.
Another smart decision was to introduce us to the four-legged occupants of Kenya via a couple of two-legged gentlemen, Maasai warriors who are making their way home for a celebration and who — at least, as the movie sets it up — check out many of their fellow Kenya residents on the way. As the title promises, the animals remain the focus of “Kenya,” but observing them from the point of view of the Maasai puts us one extremely safe step closer to feeling like we’re actually there.
“KENYA 3-D: ANIMAL KINGDOM”
Directed by: Jean-Jacques Mantello
Rated: Not rated but contains scenes of animals eating each other
Should you go? It’s beautiful and the 3-D really makes it pop. ***
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Film At Minnesota Zoo Brings The African Animals To You
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