From Triggerfish Animation Studio presents Adventures in Zambezia which is directed by Wayne Thornley and written by Andrew Cook. The movie includes the voice talents of Leonard Nimoy, Jeremy Suarez, Abigail Breslin, Jeff Goldblum, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Set in Africa, Kai is a young falcon who lives with his father Tendai. Their home is in a tree on the edge of a cliff where Tendai has been training his son to be a great flier. He has also been teaching him that strangers bring you nothing but problems so let them be. So when Kai helps a bird named Gogo trying to excape these bandit birds called The Marabous, trouble finds the father and son. The two birds tell Kai about the great bird city, Zambezia. She also tell him about the elite flying birds called the Hurricanes who protect the city from danger. When Gogo recognizes Tendai, he tells her to leave at once. Kai isn’t sure why he dismissed them and being the stubborn teen he is, leaves for the City to join the Hurricanes.
Tendai decides to follow his son to apologize for their fight and stumbles on a plot for them to take over the city from a lizard named Budzo. When trying to sneak away to warn the city, he is captured by Budzo.

This is unarguably a children’s movie from the story to the voice acting. I don’t know if it’s the way it was recorded or maybe the way it’s mixed but it almost feels like the actors had no interaction with each other. The actors did ok delivering the emotions but it never feels cohesive throughout the entire movie.

The movie is transferred in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC but it doesn’t hold up against most of the current animated films out there. The effect of the water, which is in a lot of scenes, does have a very natural look. The contrasting isn’t too good with a lot of problems throughout the entire movie. The blacks are riddled with crushing and makes the details disappear. The coloring is very dreary and flat, almost like it could use a boost. Another thing that is rather unfortunate is the animation itself seems outdated for the times. At times, certain sequences look polished but overall it looks around 10+ years old. There is a lack of detail but where its obvious is in the feathers.

The DTS-HD Master Audio mix is also a little below standard. All of the channels are used in the movie and in the rear speakers the most they get used is from birds in the background for ambient sound. With the scenes with the birds moving from channel to channel, there isn’t any depth. It’s a flat sound effect that only changes in direction, not the intensity or distance. However, during the musical portions the movie levels out. The audio mix just doesn’t feel like HD audio.

The release has a decent amount of extras that give a lot of incite and behind the scenes info.

Supplements

An African Story- this is a featurette with the director and the screenwriter talk about the changes in the script, why they made the changes and their experiences making this film.

Birds of a Feather- this interview with the director talks about conceptualizing the characters and the acting in the movie.

Music Video- a music video of “Come and Fly With Me” performed by Jewels Jaselle and Benj Heard.

Technical Challenges- Producer James Middleton talks about some of the issues in animation and especially feathers.

The Tree City- how the animators conceptualized Zambezia.

Edition Ratings
G

Disc Details
Blu-ray combo Pack
Includes 1 blu-ray and 1 DVD

Video Resolution
1080p MPÈG-4 AVC

Audio
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
English Audio Description Track

Subtitles
English
English SDH
French
Spanish

As is said earlier, Adventures in Zambezia is without a doubt a children’s movie. The over-the-top characters and goofy jokes is perfect for kids. Unfortunately, the movie has a lot of flaws and issues that stop the release from being more successful. One thing that I mentioned earlier is that it might be unfair to compare this to larger studio releases simply because Triggerfish Animation studios is a small South African studio working hard to make it to the “show”. My recommendation is if you’re looking for a grown-up animated movie, this isn’t for you but if you have kids, pick it up and they’ll enjoy it.