This is not a simple documentary. It employs magnificent footage of
the monkeys and fashions it into a narrative storyline. The plot
centers on Maya, a solitary female at the lowest end of the class system
among the animals, who has a child by a newcomer called Kumar before
he’s exiled from the group. After a time during which Maya must
struggle to raise little Kip on her own, Kumar returns and is accepted
by the clan’s alpha male. All finally seems happy on the outcropping of
rock the monkeys call home, along with some bears, peacocks and a
mongoose.
But a rival clan drives them off the rock, forcing them to flee
further into the forest. At this point Maya becomes a leader, since her
lowly condition had led her to forage for food much further in the
past, and she helps the others avoid predators like snakes and lizards
before conducting them to a human village, where they adeptly steal
eggs, cakes, vegetables and other delicacies before going back to their
home and, under Kumar’s leadership, retaking their rocky home. As the
film ends, Maya, Kip and Kumar have won newly exalted status in the clan
and all is well.
Much of the narrative is delivered with panache by Tina Fey. The story does have some suspense, but not so much as to disturb younger viewers,
and even the sequences of imminent danger are handled with a light touch
to avoid becoming too scary for toddlers. Of course most of the
footage is devoted to monkeys acting in simian ways that will delight
children, who will recognize themselves in some of the critters’
horseplay.
T
he lead monkeys are such an engaging trio, and the filmmakers
are so successful in capturing them in vibrant images, that family
audiences are will probably be charmed, if not enthralled . Monkey Kingdom may be awfully insistent in castigating the privileged position of
this kingdom’s royalty, who treat their underlings with an air of utter
entitlement, but it plays to what people might like to believe about how
eventually innate talent and courage will inevitably rectify social
injustices. In that respect it might be thought as much a
fairy tale as most Disney animated features are. 
