Review: Zoo Rangers in South America (2007) Zoop in Zuid-Amerika (original title)

Director: Johan Nijenhuis | 90 minutes | adventure | Actors: Nicolette van Dam, Monique van der Werff, Peggy Jane de Schepper, Thomas Berge, Vivienne van den Assem, Jon Karthaus, Juliette van Ardenne, Patrick Martens, Erwan van Buuren, Ewout Genemans

[imdb]tt0920476[/imdb]

According to many, sequels are by definition worse than the original. It is always the best, part two is always disappointing and the third film is another nice attempt to make up for it. This statement does not apply to ‘Zoop’, because the first film, ‘Zoop in Africa’, received moderate reviews, as befits the Dutch media, although it did attract a large audience (director Johan Nijenhuis will follow ‘Costa’ and ‘Full Moon’ are now used to). In part two, something surprising happened again, this time the film was praised by the press and the public! Comparisons were even made with ‘Indiana Jones’, which may not have surprised the makers of ‘Zoop in India’; Indiana Jones must have been an important ‘source of inspiration’. Anyway, that you can get something like this done with no budget (compared to Hollywood),

And now part three. A film is probably always disappointing when you compare it to a successful predecessor. You then look colored. Perhaps it is best to judge the film separately from the others:

‘Zoo Rangers in South America’ is cleverly put together. With nice different character types. Moes is a good-hearted cock and an independent, punky girlfriend, Taffie, who loves him very much. Bionda is a super babe, stupid blonde, heartthrob, but seems to be left alone by the men of the club. Sira is the more common type, a bit tough, sometimes insecure. Alwin is beautiful and tough (type for the cover of ‘the girls magazines’). Mike is the leader type, mentally strong and practical and best friend of Bastiaan, narcissist with a big mouth and a small heart. Clichés? Maybe, but can you get around that? It’s not flat as a dime here, because it’s well written, in short: it works.

The actors are well attuned to their role, it almost has to, at least it looks like that, soap opera game level, but no point. The story runs smoothly and is simple and simple in design, clearly elaborated. Film-like stumbling blocks have been subtly avoided or avoided (no goodbye at Schiphol, for example), so that the story runs smoothly. That remains credible, except for a few moments: Moes and Taffie break in somewhere ‘unseen’ in broad daylight and later destroy a market stall, to which no one responds, where is the market stall owner, who sees his precious commodities transformed into pulp?

The image quality is high (beautiful colors) and it contains a few beautiful shots. Like on that salt flat, a beautifully chosen location that produces beautiful material. The score is (again) Indiana Jones-esque and so works, sometimes it is even a bit funky, also nice. Everything sounds and looks neat. The story is mainly for the kids, but adults have also been taken into account it seems (especially with the men: see the beautiful long legs of Bionda).

‘Zoo Rangers in South America’ is modern without being too obvious. It is a smooth film for children, which the parents will also have a good time with. And so the makers have proven that sequels are not always worse than their predecessor (s), sometimes even better!