Going Ape! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Going Ape! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 8, 2022

Just in case it's not perfectly evident by the poster art and the title, Going Ape! is not exactly a film that will be spoken of in the same breath as The Godfather and Lawrence of Arabia, except, of course, in this sentence of this review. The only way it could be considered in the same ballpark as those masterpieces is that all three share in common the film medium, but then my daughter's stick figure family drawings share the same artistic medium as Grant Woods' "American Gothic." Still, a bonafide misfire though it may be, Writer/Director Jeremy Joe Kronsberg's (writer, Every Which Way but Loose) 1981 Comedy offers scattered laughs amidst an inane plot that is sort of like a precursor to Brewster's Millions without the charm, laughs, and excellent lead performances.

Acclaimed circus act Max Sabatini has recently died and it is assumed that his daughters, who loyally stuck with him in the family business, will inherit everything. That is because his only son Foster (Tony Danza) left the circus and has been selling illegitimate collectibles to scratch out a living instead. However, at the reading of the will, Foster finds himself with one final chance at redemption: he will inherit the entire $5,000,000 estate if he can do one thing: take care of his late father's trio of prized orangutans for two years. That means living with them, seeing to their needs, and keeping them alive. With the help of his late father's servant Lazlo (Danny DeVito) and his girlfriend Cynthia (Stacey Nelkin), Foster sets out to do everything he must in order to make his big payday a reality. Unfortunately, things are made messy when a trio of hitmen attempt to take the orangutangs.

The title Going Ape! is suggestive of two meanings that converge in the film: one, Foster's life literally goes to the apes as he suddenly finds himself in charge of not one, not two, but three orangutangs; two, Foster "goes ape" as in "crazy" with the weight and responsibility and world changing realities of caring for the three. His life is dramatically upended, but maybe it'll be for the best for him, anyway, and not simply because he's just waiting the time out for a big payday. No, maybe he will learn what it really means to live and make a difference, not make a living pitching bogus collectibles and struggling to make things work on the up-and-up with his girlfriend. And audiences can be sure to get just that sort of movie experience, because a movie like Going Ape! really can't go any other way.

There's not a whole lot that's novel here, but the fun comes not necessarily in creative story beats but in the simple pleasures that flow from the familiar story. The film juxtaposes Foster's various challenges with a trio of bumbling bad guys who set out to get the orangutans for themselves, and they invent several creative methods that are foiled every time, usually outsmarted by the orangutangs themselves. Much of the mileage comes from these secondary vignettes rather than the main story that follows Foster and his various exploits. The film is very short, clocking in at under 90 minutes, so it's not in the least bit pretentious as it goes about its very simple, though mostly amiable and harmless, exploits.

Going Ape! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paramount presents Going Ape! on Bu-ray with an overall attractive 1080p transfer. The picture holds steady to its natural filmic appearance, retaining a pleasing grain structure that does show some mild density fluctuations but nevertheless offers a satisfying structure that plays well with the well-rounded textural work in play. With the lack of de-noising, the textures are free to breathe and showcase the natural film quality detailing at work on ape hair, human skin and clothes, and various environments and odds and ends like old hoses and laughing gas cylinders in one key sequence partway through the film. The textural delights are many and stable. Colors are firm and accurate, certainly not vivid and fully realistic but offering enough stability and depth to satisfy needs. Skin tones are healthy, whites are adequately crisp, blacks are sufficiently deep, and the print is free of serious wear and tear (though the stray pop is in play). There are no major encode issues of note, either. This is a perfectly good catalogue presentation from Paramount.

Going Ape! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Listeners won't necessarily be going bananas over Going Ape!'s Dolby TrueHD 2.0 mono lossless soundtrack. To be sure, the track is in fine working order, delivering the basics -- dialogue and music -- with appropriate definition and placement. However, listeners should not expect a particularly robust or realistic presentation. There's a mild tininess to the elements, a slight hollowness that robs the material of full elegance and grace, but it would seem such traces back to the source rather than a result of an encode flub. As the track goes, the music and dialogue are about all there is. The odd extracurricular sound element finds its way in but anything in support lacks fullness and rich detail. Music is fairly wide but certainly does not stretch the front end all that far, and overall clarity leaves a bit to be desired. Dialogue images fairly well to the center, not perfectly but well enough to pass muster. Spoken word clarity is always intelligible.

Going Ape! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Going Ape! contains no supplemental content. The menu screen offer a static image with options for "Play," "Settings," and "Scenes." No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Going Ape! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Going Ape! is hardly a classic, but it's a passably entertaining time waster that's worth a watch when the mood strikes for lighthearted fare and Danza and DeVito. As far as the Blu-ray goes, it's fairly uninspiring on the whole. It plays well where it counts -- the video presentation is solid for a lower tier catalogue title of some age, and the audio is more than sufficient -- but the lack of extras, while unsurprising, is disappointing. Fans will love it for the technical presentation, particularly given that Paramount has released it at a sweet price worthy of what this disc offers.