With a jazz-inflected version of ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ in the background, Disney is ready to show us what it’s really like to be an orangutan. And they’re nothing like The Jungle Book‘s King Louie.
Narrated by Josh Gad, Disneynature’s Orangutan is an immersive look at the lives of some of nature’s most misunderstood animals. Set high into Southeast Asia’s rainforest canopy, we meet Indah, an adolescent orangutan who is learning how to navigate life while preparing to move away from her home and venture out on her own. But Indah’s move changes the family unit in a number of ways, causing her and her family to discover what the next chapter of life means for them all.
Directed by Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz, Orangutan continues Disneynature’s trend of bringing the natural world to life in unexpectedly wonderful ways. There’s simply something beautiful about this film. While all of Disneynature’s films are fun, this look at the orangutan world draws the viewer in with warmth and humour that feels like one of their better entries in some time.
Sitting high above the rainforest floor, Linfield and Berlowitz draw us into a world that few have had the opportunity to explore. Unlike creatures lower to the ground, it’s far more difficult to understand the creatures that live high amongst the trees. Even so, Orangutan manages to take us into the animal culture with stunning footage that helps us believe that we know what these beloved beasts are thinking.
And, admittedly, that’s part of the magic of the Disney brand. Led by Gad’s charming narration, we’re invited to see the orangutan world through the eyes of relationships instead of taking a more clinical approach. Despite taking place high above in the rainforest canopy, Orangutan presents this space as something familiar. By giving the creatures names like Indab and Bimo, these films help us to connect with their stories on a personal level. These aren’t just wild animals hanging from branches.
They’re friends and family with stories we recognize.
Between Inda’s journey away from home, Hardo’s messy… um… courtship and Dionne’s challenges of motherhood, Orangutan frames the lives of its subjects as relatable. (“They travel together, watch each other’s backs and combine their skills to solve problems because that’s what friends are all about,” we’re told.) Disneynature has always drawn a clear line between the animal kingdom and our human experience and that tradition continues here. We see ourselves in them and, as a result, they don’t feel as alien to us.
In fact, if anything, the communal identity of their culture is the primary takeaway from Orangutan. Once believed to be solitary creatures, Linfield and Berlowitz’s film highlights the relationships that matter in the orangutan world. (“They’re nothing like the solitary loners we once thought they were,“ Gad explains.)
But Orangutan proves that their connections matter deeply in the depth of their jungle environment. Though they may differ in familial structure than gorillas and chimpanzees, they still remain rooted in family units, raising kids with the intent of sending them out on their own to begin again. Every interaction that they have here is framed with the same love (and frustration) that comes from a group that cares for one another. Frankly, it’s beautiful.
So, yes. Even though their world is wildly different than our own, maybe there is a part of these orangutans that ‘wanna be like’ us. With an emphasis on family, their lives are built around helping their young become fully functional adults who can restart the process themselves. And, in that way, maybe they’re not that different at all.
Orangutan streams exclusively on Disney+ on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026.
