Orangutan Review: Disneynature’s Latest Documentary Is Too Familiar for Its Own Good

Nature documentaries offer a very specific type of populist documentary filmmaking: easy to digest, lighthearted edutainment that is built to appeal to as wide‌ a target audience as possible. And few brands are more populist than Disneynature. While it’s clear that the primary viewer base for these Disneynature documentaries is getting younger and younger with each passing one, the company’s latest outing, Orangutan, represents a new low, offering little more than the bare minimum that audiences expect from a nature documentary.

What is Orangutan about?

In Orangutan, we follow Indah, an orangutan on the cusp of adulthood who prepares to leave her family and enter the wide world of the rainforests of Southeast Asia. As expected, the cuteness factor is very strong with Orangutan, with the film likely to melt the hearts of any animal lovers in the audience. However, it also feels like Disneynature has settled into too comfortable a rhythm, making movies that achieve little more than the lowest common denominator. 

Orangutan Review

Like the rest of Disneynature’s documentaries, Orangutan thrives on the personification of its animal subjects. But at this point, the formulas that filmmakers apply to these animals have become somewhat repetitive. Audiences who are familiar with the studio’s output will be unsurprised to learn that Orangutan follows a pretty standard coming-of-age arc. On the one hand, it’s an easily followable story, especially for young audiences, but on the other, it’s frustrating how dull and by the book it is.

Diann and Bimo in Disneynature’s ORANGUTAN. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Unfortunately, the biggest issue with Orangutan is that it feels like old hat. Primates are one of the most common subjects of nature documentaries like this. Just within the Disneynature label, there’s Chimpanzee and Monkey Kingdom, and outside of it, as recently as last week, we’ve seen movies like David Attenborough’s A Gorilla Story. Of course, while orangutans aren’t the same as any of these, Disneynature documentaries aren’t interested in exploring the subtle differences here, and as a result, it feels overwhelmingly familiar.

Disneynature has always been great at placing the focal species within the context of its ecosystem, but in Orangutan, that’s a double-edged sword, as the other animals are infinitely more interesting than the orangutans. One section of the film involves jumping snakes, and it is more interesting and unique than anything the film has to say about orangutans.

It’s a shame that these documentaries have been relegated to streaming in the post-pandemic era. For over a decade, Disneynature’s documentaries were a theatrical event for families every Earth Day, and a theatrical viewing was earned by the incredible cinematography. That’s not to say Orangutan doesn’t still look great on a television — it does — but its stunning images become fodder for background noise or substitute teachers without lesson plans, not the family moviegoing experience they deserve.

Disneynature’s ORANGUTAN. Photo courtesy of Disney. . © 2026 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The other distinguishing element of Disneynature documentaries is their celebrity narrators, and Orangutan is voiced by Josh Gad (Frozen). At this point, if you told me that Gad is being held captive in the tunnels of Walt Disney World and only being let up to work on Disney projects, I’d believe you. His work as a narrator in Orangutan is hardly the most unique, but his characteristically bubbly personality shines through in a way that is at least enjoyable to watch.

Is Orangutan worth watching?

As someone who grew up watching Disneynature’s documentary, Orangutan left me wanting something more and wishing for the heyday of the studio’s output that has long passed. Although the cinematography is great as ever and there are enough cute and heartwarming moments to keep this from being a total wash, it’s simply too similar to other nature documentaries we have seen recently to make much of a lasting impact. 

Orangutan is now streaming on Disney+.

Orangutan Review: Disneynature’s Latest Documentary Is Too Familiar for Its Own Good