Jane Goodall on ‘Chimpanzee’

Dame Jane Morris Goodall, renowned British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist and a UN messenger of peace, has teamed up with Disney to promote their new movie, "Chimpanzee" in order to raise money to protect chimpanzees. Goodall didn’t participate in the production of the movie.

The movie revolves around a story of a 3-year-old chimpanzee that is separated from his troop and is then adopted by a fully-grown male. "Chimpanzee" is directed by Alastair Fothergill & Mark Linfield and you will get to see your favorite star, Tim Allen, in one of the leading roles.

A portion of the money generated during the opening weekend will be donated for the good of chimpanzees. Disney has announced to donate a portion of ticket sales to the “See Chimpanzee, Save Chimpanzees” program. Some of this money will go to the Jane Goodall Institute through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.

Jane Goodall shared her views about the movie and said, “When they first began this film they were delighted because a mother had a baby and they called him Oscar and the whole plan for the film was built around watching Oscar develop and watching his relationship with the rest of the community and through that, getting to know the community members,” according to a report by Canada's Tribute.

The filming took a dramatic turn when the mother of the chimpanzee named Oscar was killed. Jane Goodall talked about this twist and said, “The mother of Oscar was killed by a leopard and they thought, ‘The whole film is destroyed, what are we going to do?’ Then amazingly, the top ranking male who was a crusty kind of guy chimp adopted this baby and his whole personality changed and he became very gentle, he became much less involved with his position as leader.”

Jane Goodall is considered as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees. She has conducted a 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, and is also the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, where she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.