EMM# : 33371
Added: 2014-12-16

Zambezia 3D (2012)
Up, up and a long way from home.

Rating: 5.8

Movie Details:

Genre:  Animation (Adventure|Comedy|Family)

Length: 1 h 22 min - 82 min

Video:   960x520 (23.976 Fps - 3 141 Kbps)

Studio: Cinema Management Group| The Department of Trade a...(cut)

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Set in a bustling bird city on the edge of the majestic Victoria Falls, "Zambezia" is the story of Kai - a nave, 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 part of a community. Written by
a href="/search/title?plot_author=Triggerfish+Animation+Studios&view=simple&sort=alpha&ref_=tt_stry_pl"
>Triggerfish Animation Studios

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mrassokhin from Moscow, Russia
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This is a story of a young and disobedient falcon who left his father and their nest in the isolated desert to challenge the mysterious bird-city Zambezia.

I watched this with two kids, 4 and 9, both liked it a lot and so am I. It's pretty dynamic and funny, colorful (beautiful nature, birds, animals) and has nice and lively soundtrack. Storyline is easy to follow, not too complicated for children and not too boring to fall asleep in the middle for grownups. Characters are OK, although no really memorable ones (don't remember the kids to discuss anyone on the way back from the cinema). As an extra plus I see the absence of hidden context or jokes for adults.

Overall, I think it's underrated and surely worth at least a single watch in the cinema or at home by all of your family.

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VelvetOctopusProductions from Australia
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'Zambezia', the new south African animated film is an obvious low budget animated feature, you wont see any ads on TV, and the animation looks 10 years old, but that's no reason to straight away hate on Zambezia, it's not one of those dubbed foreign trashy animated movies which have no single thing put into them apart from making money. Zambezia has a story, a plot, good characters. When it wants you to take it seriously you will take it seriously. When it wants you to laugh you will not be sitting there rolling your eyes.

The movie is another one of those typical 'parent letting go of child' kind of animated movies, which is possibly the most clich type of character development seen in any kids movie. But I guess there's good reason for the situation, it just doesn't have it thrown in to make a plot (hint hint Ice Age 4). But I thought the characters were good, not really that deep, but good, nothing to really complain about.

The movie has a nice soundtrack, and I thought the visuals of the landscape were absolutely brilliant. The humour isn't bad, with a lot of jokes that hit. Nothing laugh out loud funny of course, but still much better than the humour in 'Ice Age 4'.

There are some obvious similaries to 'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole' and possibly the movie was made with the intention to 'duel' Rio, but it still has originality, the bad guy for one, is new, and intimidating enough to be a good villain.

Zambezia is a perfectly good movie for kids and adults, there's nothing wrong with it at all really, and it actually kind of surprised me. I think this movie takes much more risks than 'Ice Age 4', 'Rio', and many other current animated films.

Go and see it, have a good time.

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John Hill from Cape Town, South Africa
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An amazing gem set in an imaginary world in the heart of Africa right where it plunges over the magnificent Victoria Falls, arguably one of the greatest waterfalls in the world.

What as incredible setting for a 'coming of age' story that should appeal to everyone, young an old.

While the animation might be a little dated, this in no way detracts from the way the tale is told - the characters are just as relevant now as ever they were.

Fresh! Different! Yet familiar enough for youngsters to identify with and enjoy.

Go and see this movie.

You'll be so glad you did.

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izakvh from South Africa
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It is easy to spot a good animated kids movie: Kids will sit on the edge of their chairs, and parents will stay awake throughout and be reasonably engaged. This one ticked both boxes.

Leonard Nimoy, Samuel L & Jeff Godblum created believable characters, but the Ezee character came over as a bit of a clich. The animation was done well and could easily rival a movie like Rio.

This is miles better than the previous animated attempts from South Africa, but unfortunately its very difficult to create an animated blockbuster if you don't have the budget of a Sony, Pixar, Dreamworks or Disney.

Pleasant hour and a bit overall.

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Tomas Nordendorf from Denmark
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This movie is truly inspiring.

it has flown straight into me, I will buy this movie as soon as it comes out. No doubt about it.

it's story is so amazing and the movie itself is great also loves the music even thou it gets a bit the same, but its great and probably placed.

I can highly recommend watching this multiple times, simply bcz it makes you think over it, and you can easily see its message.

Like I see one of the points with the Malibu's's.

"You should not hate them of a crime they have done or because they are not in your liking." Or it can be put into the meaning of we cannot call ourself peacefully country's when almost every country is doing some kind of discrimination or hate, war, bad things. First when we accept everyone as they are and we do not forge war anymore first THEN we can call ourself peacefully nations.

Just truly an amazing movies with so many perspectives that you would not dream around when you first hear it.

This movie has made me think which I think is greatly done

10/10

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kovacsh-zoltan from Hungary
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First I thought it's just an average animated film but in the end I realised it is probably the most underrated film I have watched yet.

The main story is actually predictable and also similar to Legend of the Guardians. (A huge tree as a sanctuary) A young falcon named Kai wants to change his life to become a Hurricane to protect Zambezia and discover his past. There are only a few memorable characters here but the voice acting is very good. The jokes in the story won't make you laugh hard, however there are no awkward moments like in many animated films. The graphics and animations are very good but we can see some animated movements that should be more detailed. But let's not forget this is a low-budget film and from such financial support it's a masterpiece.

And now the best parts.

First of all the musics are one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard! Most of them were composed by Bruce Retief, a composer who has just started his career in film based soundtracks.(He's definitely a future talent) Some of these musics fit perfectly into the sad parts of the film and they make us feel sorrow for the characters. Go and check out at least these musics on YT: The Gorge ; Flying to Zambezia

At last but not at least the story about Kai and his father's origin (Tendai voice acted by Samuel L. Jackson) is very sad and memorable and leaves us many philosophical questions. (e.g. should we sacrifice our family to protect the weak) And the slow discovery of this story in the main plot is very well done. Also there is a moment in the beginning where Tendai loses a very important thing that reminds him of his long lost wife. These kinds of sorrowful parts are unforgettable.

In the end there is a surprising plot twist which would make the best animated film ending ever! But of course it doesn't end like that later and so we have an average ending. The end is happy of course but still we will feel a bit of sorrow because not everybody is there from Kai's family...

The sorrowful moments, the sad background story and the epic musics are so great that we forgive the negative and the average parts of the film too. A must see in it's category and I hope Triggerfish Animation Studios will make a sequel (or a prequel?) for this way-way underrated movie. The journey of Kai is more than great.

86%

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Shopaholic35 from Australia
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I was not expecting to like this movie very much but thought I would give it a go. Turns out I throughly enjoyed this movie as it had a great storyline was beautifully colourful and had a good amount of heart.

I'm not sure when people starting basing a movie's likability on it's level of animation/CGI special effects but they are missing out when they pick every little technical flaw apart. I didn't notice any problems with the animation because I was too busy allowing myself to enjoy the movie. Silly me not documenting every flaw of every movie in a notebook.

I definitely recommend this movie if your looking for a fun way to fill your time. But please leave your jaded adult world views and expectations at the door and just enjoy.

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in1984 from United States
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8.2 of 10. The second awesome film of 2012 Samuel L. Jackson is in (as a key character voice), and it's very different from Django Unchained, although there's an underlying common bond in working together in each film.

Besides making you want to pet birds, maybe not the vulture-like marabous, the animation doesn't get nearly enough credit. The lizards are bordering on life-like and the waterfall and mist (not to mention sand and other colored dusts) simply has never been better outside of actual filming of waterfalls. Even the bird poo is as gross as in real life.

As for the character voices, I was concerned that Nemoy and Jackson would dominate the audio and distract from the story. Instead, they both give surprisingly understated performances where you need to listen closely to identify them. Even Goldblum deserves credit because I still don't know which character he voiced.

Dear Oscars/Academy, you failed us again. Do any of you actually watch animations/cartoons?

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Angels_Review from United States
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This is pretty much a basic story of a boy in a small town wanting to make it big in the city. The story might be a little clich but I give them so many props for making it really entertaining. They added things to the story that I wouldn't of really guessed about and for things I did guess on, they added a bit more to make me second guess.

When I say I love the characters, I'm not joking. Kai and Zoe were some of my favorite main characters in a long time. Kai is a slightly fun-loving small town boy looking for action and adventure in the large town he pretty much just learned about and that his father was protecting him from. Zoe on the other hand is a rather down to earth girl with a small fantasy that seems to correlate with Kai and yet at the same time, she is torn between her want and her role as a good child to her father. The 'romance' they have between them isn't pushed out in your face but rather put off to the side with the main story being prominent. I really love when they don't try to just throw a romance element in there to call it good.

I want to take a moment to talk about Sekhuru now. He is one of my all time favorite background characters as well as a voice of reason and a father figure. There were only three people who I would have picked for their voices and luckily they picked one of them. Leonard Nimoy does him pretty nicely with how knowledgeable he is. It was like we had double father action with Sekhuru and Tandai. They each reminded me of my Dad and how protective he is.

The artwork is so beautiful. All the colors of the rainbow with the birds as well as the bright and lively look to the African sky and wood. There are so many beautiful pieces to the show that I can't pick one scene that I liked best. The big difference between the big city next to the small little home Kai came from, the colors of the birds, the models so close to the different types of animals just everything. The only thing I feel they could have done better would be the Monitor Lizards who feel like their textures aren't really that good. They feel a bit too flat.

Oh my god, the voices! We have a lot of very big names in the cast like Leonard Nimoy, Samuel L. Jackson, Jenifer Lewis, Jeff Goldblum, and Jim Cummings. Each and every one of the voices brings life to the characters making them very believable. At some points, I forgot we were even talking about birds and they were real people. The script and way they talked was just that good.

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dandebs from Norway
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This is Triggerfish Animation's first feature film. It's a pretty good first effort, but the inexperience shows. A particular problem was the shoestring budget which meant some shots had to go through to the finished film with known flaws, and the story was patchy in places. This film could have done with some pick-ups to fill in those holes. The story is pretty generic, but for the most part well told. The animation is bright and sparkly - the shot of the Falls and into the tree is brilliant. Voice acting is generally good. A shout-out goes to the score: this is in a class of its own, and really lifts the movie. Well done to the first-time composer Bruce Retief.

The film could have done with a few more months in post-production: tightening up some of the gags, filling in a few story holes, polishing up the animation... then it would have warranted an 8/10. As it stands it's a solid 6, particularly due to the score.

Zambezia is not a movie which will be frequently watched again. What it does signal is intent from the new kid on the block from Africa. There's real potential from this little studio in Cape Town,and their next films look like they are hitting their stride (Khumba, plus the next in development: "Sea Monster" with an almost watercolour animation aesthetic. Looks amazing. Pixar 2?)

Samuel L. Jackson's first G rated movie.
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The name "Zambezia" was a Victorian-era term for the area of south-eastern Africa that later became known as "Rhodesia" and is today called "Zimbabwe".
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Kai is a Peregrine falcon.
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Tendai is a Barbary Falcon.
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Ajax is a Lammergeier.
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Sekhuru is an African fish eagle.
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Zoe is a Black-shouldered kite.
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Gogo is a Saddle-billed Stork.
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Mushana is a Green pigeon.
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The attack method used by Gogo against the lizard is the same method used by the Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, the "Dambusters", during Operation Chastise on May 16-17 of 1943, in which 19 Avro Lancaster bombers flew low over the Eder, Mhne and Sorpe (Rhr) rivers in Germany's Ruhr Valley and released specially-developed "bouncing bombs" to attack German dams. Two dams (the Edersee and the Mhne) were breached, 8 aircraft were shot down, 53 aircrew were killed, and 3 were taken prisoner.
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Ezee is a Nightjar.
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Neville and his wife are Lilian's lovebirds.
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Tini is a Weaver bird.
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bird|falcon|city name in title|place name in title|one word title|
AKAs Titles:
Argentina - Zambezia
Bulgaria (Bulgarian title) - —амбези
Germany - Zambezia - In jedem steckt ein kleiner Held
Finland - Zambezia - lintukodon siipiveikot
France - Drles d'oiseaux
Greece - Zambezia: Poulia ston aera
Croatia - Zambezija
Hungary - Zamb zia
Israel (Hebrew title) - Zambezia
Italy - Zambezia
Lithuania - Zambezija
Mongolia (3-D version) - Zambezia
Mexico - Zambezia
Portugal - Zamb zia
Serbia - Zambezija
Turkey (Turkish title) - Kuslar Sehrinde Macera
Ukraine - —амбезi
South Africa (alternative title) (English title) - Adventures in Zambezia

Release Dates:


Certifications:
Argentina:Atp / Denmark:7 / Finland:K-7 / Hungary:6 / Mexico:AA / Netherlands:6 / Peru:PT / Philippines:G / Portugal:M/6 / Singapore:G / South Korea:All / Switzerland:6 / USA:G