Review for Great Apes Box Set

Great Apes box set includes three less than an hour long documentaries from National Geographic focusing on the wonders of the Great Apes.
The Changing Ape is a look at chimpanzees in the wild in Fongoli. The documentary looks at the development of chimps and how it relates to our development and evolution into humans. This includes taking refuge in caves, chimps looking after each other and hunting with spears. Their use of tools to hunt, contact each other or to fish for termites and open nuts is fascinating.
The footage is great, which you can expect from National Geographic and throughout this is some wonderful footage. Though the use of CGI at times to demonstrate points was a little distracting. One amazing part of this documentary was the capture and rescue of the infant chimp Aimee and return to her mother which was such a beautiful moment and make this a magical documentary to watch.
Ape Genius is a look at all apes and the gap between them and humans. This includes looking at Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Orangutans and Bonobos all of which show remarkable feats of intelligence. Chimps again are shown hunting with spears and having what almost looks like a pool party. Also shown is experiments demonstrating chimps asking and giving help and recognising and understanding numbers which is just fascinating. Bonobos are shown understanding many human words and knowing exactly what is being asked of it. One other interesting point made is the differences between how children learn and how apes learn which sometimes sees the apes doing things better than the kids.
Gorilla Murders: Lost Gorillas of the Virunga is a look at the killing or as the documentary so rightly calls it 'the murder' of the Gorillas in the Congo. These great apes, the last of their kind in the wild are sadly in the middle of a civil war in the country and because of this rebel soldiers are killing gorillas for no real reason. This is not for game or for food, but simply because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. The rangers who try to protect the gorillas are undermanned and underarmed and this almost makes it a losing battle, but one they will continue to fight.
This documentary is possibly one of the saddest I have seen in a long time. The sight of the rangers carrying the Silverback of the gorillas away after being assassinated was truly heartbreaking and the investigation to find out who did this is even more harrowing. Arresting one of the rangers Paulin (a man who spent many years protecting the animals) leads to a deep investigation including the UN and the Congo Army amongst others. As the documentary goes on and you realise that all of this is over charcoal, you begin to wonder that surely the lives of the gorillas is worth more than that. The trial that proceeds against the head of the park Mashigiro who allowed charcoal makers to use the park and slaughter the gorillas is almost like something from LA Law and although no verdict is given the sight of the young and old gorillas in the wild end this documentary with a glimmer of hope.
Great Apes is a wonderful set of documentaries and though I still prefer the narration of David Attenborough, I cannot dispute the wonder of the footage here.