We Bought a Zoo Film

Boxing Day here very excited!!

 

The soundtrack album is now available. The music is by Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson, who is the singer and guitarist in wonderful Icelandic ethereal rockers Sigur Rós.

It is, not surprisingly, very soundtracky in its sound - not unpleasant at all, but not something to which one might actively listen. Good background music.

 

Saw the movie today. It is actually a rather likeable film. I should mention that i did not read the book. The actors are all excellent. No talking animals fortunately. Director cameron crowe deals well with grief and repairing pain by taking care of other living creatures. Yes, some of the parts maybe a little overdone and not completely factual, but then again how many zooworkers look like Scarlett Johansson ? The film does try to show zoos in a positive manner. By the way, the scene from the trailer where the real estate seller says that running zoos requires no special knowledge was eliminated, at least from the version i saw. That seems to be a responsible action. The soundtrack and the photography are also good.

 

I saw Ben Mee on Anderson this week (Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show) along with the cast. I'm glad he's included and hope it benefits the zoo. He talked about the emotion of it, etc.
I don't know when I'll get a chance to see it, but I'm preparing myself mentally, since I have read the book, and been to the zoo before and after he bought it.
One clip I saw showed him looking at a house to buy and the realtor saying something like "oh, by the way it comes with a zoo". That seems pretty gimmicky to me. Wouldn't it be hard not to notice a zoo surrounding a house you were looking at? And, of course, it didn't happen that way anyway.

 

Loved the movie, the movie is actually very good and just happens to be set in a zoo.

Like Carlos mentions the line the real estate seller says that "running zoos requires no special knowledge" was eliminated.

Will not spoil it for anyone as l know it will not be released in the UK for awhile.

 

Yesterday, Christmas Day, I saw it in the afternoon with some friends before they all came over to my place for Christmas dinner (the first Christmas dinner I have hosted, so I guess I am a grownup now ).

A pretty good movie - I knew beforehand that it was somewhat different than the book - so I was ready to take it for what it is. The biggest surprise is that it is not as lighthearted as the promos make it out to be. A lot of the movie is centered around the family dealing with the loss of Mrs Mee. (In the movie she had already died six months earlier, whereas in the real story she dies while they are rebuilding the zoo). It is a very honest portrayal and of course that is part of life, so it is good - just not the fun comedy that some might think it is. I would not recommend taking very small children (under 7) to it.

The only villain in the film is the USDA inspector, which I am sure real USDA workers will not appreciate. There is a small amount of cursing in the film, not a lot, but to someone like me who hates to hear it at all it seemed unnecessary. There is only one totally unrealistic animal scene, involving snakes, that will drive anyone who knows anything about zoos nuts. But overall it is a good movie and worthwhile seeing.

 

Thanks for the reviews folks. I'm very glad to hear that the "no special knowledge required" message didn't pervade the movie. I may actually want to see this movie.

@Carlos: I do actually know some keepers that look like Scarlet Johannson (but I think that your point is valid!).

 

but then again how many zooworkers look like Scarlett Johansson ?

I do actually know some keepers that look like Scarlet Johannson (but I think that your point is valid!)
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I know a few keepers who look better than scarlett johansson. hahaha.

Anyway, saw the movie on Friday. Read the book a couple of months ago when I first found out there was going to be a movie. I liked that they had it set in the US and seemed to take place 'somewhere' in San Diego County. I thought they did a good job at handling the part with Spar (which had me crying, of course) and I wish I'd paid more attention to the visitors towards the end of the movie since some of the Mee Family had been in that scene. Overall, it was a pretty decent movie, but I thought they changed too much of it from the original happenings. I knew it wouldn't be exactly the same, but had hoped for a little more than what they showed.

 

OK, I went to see the movie tonight and I LOVED it! I have not read the book (yet), so I could care less if the film is "accurate" to the book. It's just plain a great movie, and I think that you don't have to be a zoo-lover to like this movie. Matt Damon is wonderful in his role as Ben Mee, as is Scarlet Johannson as zookeeper Kelly. (She's also very pretty, but so is the gal playing Mee's late wife Katherine.) The two Mee kids were also very enjoyable. I loved the heartwarming story between father and son Dylan, as well as the puppy love story between Dylan and a 13-year-old zookeeper (helper). The little girl is completely adorable.

The zoo scenes are fantastic! First, I was quite surprised at the wide variety of exotic animals in this zoo -- it was no "petting zoo". There's no giraffes or pachyderms, but I saw camels and I think I saw a Cape buffalo. But there was also more unusual animals such as some rare monkeys, African porcupines, and a binturong. Secondly, I was quite impressed at the quality of the exhibits in this Hollywood zoo. No, it's not at the level of the Bronx or San Diego Zoos, but the exhibits definitely didn't look like the cagey place I would have expected in a family-run zoo. The one exception was that the lock for the lion enclosure looked a bit rinky-dink.

Thirdly, I thought the "zoo message" in the movie was great! It was mentioned at least a few times the importance of zoos preserving endangered species. Damon himself gets excited about preserving endangered animals. There is a great line (by Scarlett) that zoo exhibits are "not cages", but "enclosures". Loved that! There was also a nice scene where Damon (Mee) wants to improve (expand) the enclosure for the grizzly bear, and they then did this in the movie. I have to think that zoo-haters will hate this movie.

In addition to enjoying the zoo visuals, zoo message, and the actors, I also thought the story/plot of the movie was terrific. I'll be very surprised if this movie doesn't make a lot of money. I agree with Arizona Docent that there was too much profanity -- that really hurts in that it keeps the movie from being a genuine "family movie". Finally, back to positives, I also loved the soundtrack. All in all, I loved this movie!

 

I wrote a review and as I was about to finish, my computer froze up. Maybe it was for the best as it was not that well written. So here is shorten version of it.

LIKES:
* The acting, particularly Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson. The daughter and Elle Fanning were also endearing.
* The music.
* Some nice visual shots of the animals. I teared up when the pea fowl egg opened up.
* For a home zoo, the enclosures were pretty good. Grass in all the exhibits and decent amount of space. Although they need to do something about those locks!
* Although I question if Benjamin really did have enough to fund the zoo until it opened, it definitely showed it's not that easy to open a zoo and some obstacles you would have to overcome.

DISLIKES:
* I questioned the targeted audience for the movie. I wouldn't say it was geared towards children, but maybe it has something for the whole family? Some darker moments though I didn't find appropriate for younger ones.
* Unrealistic and questionable moments. Example, how were the older visitors and those with walking disabilities able to climb over the tree to get into the zoo?
* Some of the writing made me roll my eyes a few times.
* Although a good human interest movie, I wanted to see more animals. But I think it was there point as they asked the question at the end, "If you had to choose, would you pick humans or animals?" Did anybody pick animals? ;-)

 

Was only wondering today when this was coming out in the UK

 

March the 23rd, I think, it's certainly towards the end of March.

 

Good Movie.. Good Message.. Great Acting

 

Apparently they built an entire new zoo as the set for the movie, be interesting to know if like most movie sets it was demolished at the end of the movie making or if someone was actually able ot use it as a zoo.
Of course being sets they may have been mainly props and not suitable for animals, but they looked pretty good in the photos.

 

I didn't feel like they built that many exhibits - it seemed like there were a lot of shots of different animals where you couldn't see their context, and then a few actual exhibits. I'll have to look more when the DVD comes out. Compared to a typical movie set, I don't think there will be that much structure left behind.
At least the movie had more in common with reality that the Dolphin Tale movie, although that one does say "inspired by" rather than "based on" a true store. My favorite part of that was in the credits "Winter as herself".

 

I just saw the film; my date stood me up so I went by myself.

To be honest, I found it rather dull. The scene with the snakes was stupid as was the bear escape scene.

They recreated Dartmoor Zoo rather well; obviously the setting is different but it recognisably based on the real zoo. It's nice that it gets a mention at the end although I'm not sure about its world wide influence that they mention before the credits roll. Interestingly they mention that the real zoo will be getting giraffes. It's also nice to see the real Ben as an extra in the final scene.

I hope it results in higher visitor numbers and financial benefit to the zoo but I have to say that I hate it when Hollywood remakes or relocates things to the States. Instead of being a dull but not unlikeable tribute to the American Dream it could have been a dull but not unlikeable British rom-com with Jude Law or someone similar. Of course even if it remained a UK based story we would still have ended up with the compulsory American female lead...

 

I didn't think it was dull at all. A very sweet story with very likeable actors. More than anything, I think lots of folks like me were wishing this could have been me -- owning my zoo!

As for relocating the zoo to the States, I think the point was that it was an American film company and they were after the bigger bucks that come from an American audience.

 

I agree it was likeable and I would love to own a zoo too, I just found it dull. The teenage angst/romance story bored me and I just kept thinking 'cut to tha animals already!'

I know what the point was of relocating it and understand fully why they did it, I'm not naive but it still annoys me.

 

I can certainly understand how, from your side of the Pond, it would annoy you. But it makes sense from a money-making point of view, and making money is that film companies are in business for.

Also, if they didn't attempt to have a "plot" (teenage angst/romance) and stuck only to the zoo story, that would have been great for us ZooChatters, but it wouldn't have attracted nearly as big an audience. When you've got a beautiful lead actress in Scarlett Johannson and a longtime sex symbol in Matt Damon, at least some form of romance is almost mandatory. I personally enjoyed it.

 

In the real story he is taking care of his dying wife while trying to rebuild the zoo. That seems like a pretty strong plot to me.