Monkey twins of a king are separated at birth. The one deemed to be the rightful heir of the throne is dropped from from a ledge of a tree since he was too puny physically to represent the throne. The other twin grows up to become king of the tribe where he rules the tribe using tradition and fear. The infant monkey survives the fall and learns how to coexist in the habitat he fell into, both socioeconomically and with "street smarts".
The forsaken monkey eventually find his way back to the tribe and is rejected because of his lack of physical strength, but that is where he learns that he is the son of the king. But despite being of noble blood, he remains humble.
After a traumatizing event at the tribe and expelled, he finds himself in forsaken land where he further evolves. He discovers an attractive monkey, saves her life, follows her, and wins her affection. Together, they traverse 10000 years of evolution where they discover fire, military tradition, and basically other inventions discovered during the stone age.
Meanwhile there is a mutiny at the main tribe. The monkeys there found out that they were being manipulated socially by the evil village sorceress. They collectively decide to seek out the forsaken monkey and his girlfriend for shelter, since he has displayed having the knowledge of fire, advanced hunting, and shelter while they where up in the tree.
The new brother king is forced to recognize the reality of the situation given that tradition and fear are no longer effective methods of persuading the tribe into obedience.
Meanwhile the forsaken monkey manages his newfound followers like a construction foreman as he builds the new colony. However, the threat of socialism knocks on the door as new monkeys demand shelter, but within seconds, the evil village sorceress attacks the new colony with her summoning bee magic, causing chaos at the new colony.
Eventually, they quickly burn the sorceress alive and their old habitat but the war has left them homeless and despaired. However, with the blue-blooded twins working together, they invent hope (aka social manipulation), allowing the people to band together and work as a unit for a better future. His gamble for unity caused by the unfounded hope was not misplaced and they eventually find a new, better place to live.
The movie itself is about evolution and how intelligence is more important than physical force and social status. However, physical force and social status are still important to rule a civilization. The main character himself is a depiction of Napoleon since he always has a hand in his garment, which was a signature of Napoleon's. Napoleon was regarded as one of the leaders of the French revolution, and the staple of modern democracy, human rights, meritocracy, and capitalism.
However, I feel like this movie was as much of a demonstration of French CGI abilities as it was a story to be told. As an amateur CGI animator, I feel like this movie lacked the modern day techniques used at Hollywood to create a movie that is convincing in its story telling. The movie also lacked the most important ingredient in movies, video games, and any form of respectable entertainment; music. The music in this movie was appalling and it hardly evoked any emotion necessary for me to have during the story.
In a personal note, as a francophone not born in France, I find this movie rather hard to understand. My personal opinion is that the true French from France has been tainted by immigration and the language itself has evolved to something that is unintelligible to an outsider. I have the feeling that France itself is evolving into something I don't recognize, thus this is somewhat ironic to the story its telling. Whether I'm the one not evolving or the French people are becoming lesser is subject to interpretation. :)
