Friday 22 March 2013

Kids' DVD review : Adventures in Zambezia


Pretty much every day, at the moment, a new DVD lands on the doormat for us to review. I guess that's because it's almost the Easter holidays so they know there will be lots of family viewing time and they're all releasing their kid-friendly titles at the same time ! Anyway, no complaints here and look out for all our new DVD reviews coming up !

The latest film that we all sat down to watch was Adventures In Zambezia which, I have to admit, I'd never heard of until I was emailed about it ! The picture on the box reminded me of Madagascar so I guessed it would get a good reception from the Madhouse Mini-testers.

The film - which is CG animated - is set in the Zambezia River Valley in Africa and features a young, high-spirited falcon called Kai who decides to head to Zambezia, the fabulous city of birds. He is quite peeved that his father betrayed him by failing to mention this amazing city but when he is kidnapped by an evil lizard who wants to attack the city, Kai steps in to rescue him and save the day. There's a nice lesson in there about teamwork, coming of age and the tricky relationship between kids and their parents.

As a grown-up watching a kids' film, I always like to play "guess the actor doing the voices" and this film has an all-star cast, led by Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park), Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek) and Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained).

The DVD also has some nice extras, including the music video ”Come Fly with Me” by Jewels Jaselle and Benj Heard, and four featurettes : “Birds of a Feather” (which looks at the different birds from South Africa which inspired the film); “An African Story” (focusing on the story and scriptwriting process); “The Tree City” (which explores what it took to create and animate the Zambezia); and “Technical Challenges” (revealing some of the challenges of making an animated film).

If you like animated movies featuring cute talking animals (and birds), this is bound to be a big hit with all the family. We loved it.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £9


  • Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Classification : U
  • DVD Release Date: 18 Mar 2013
  • Run Time: 79 minutes




Disclosure : We received a copy of the DVD in order to write an honest review.

Other reviews you may be interested in :


Blu-ray review : The Princess Bride 25th Anniversary

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