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The big advantage to having a story on the iPad is that it's fun. It's nice to have
the kids be able to interact
even though they're getting a really specific message especially in a book
like this
a chimpanzee's have been used in entertainment for so many years that I think
often people just take it for granted that that's part of our culture
they don't really understand the backstory to many of these
chimpanzees in about how the industry works
chimpanzees that are used as actors in movies and advertisements
unfortunately live very atypical life it's not a very happy life in all
in fact they're often taken from their mom at a very early age
so that will be used to working around humans unfortunately
they are dressed in clothes and train in ways it's probably not appropriate for
them it's actually a very lonely life for these chimpanzees
we work very hard to tread a delicate line to
address a very sensitive issue about chimps
being mistreated and deliver it to kids in a way that they can find
happiness and hope anytime we go into a flashback that darker or
sadder we instantly pull back up and have Louis say something really
optimistic and really hopeful
and on those pages as well we have some sort interactivity
and fun and we have chimp facts and we come back to the point that things
are going to be okay
I definitely want them to see chimps in them in terms of realizing that these
are
animals that are being treated as humans and that is definitely an okay so I want
to recognize that these are not just you know Curious George in the little cartoons
that could be
anybody so i i want them to see I guess the animal in them
in some way - when we first see po and Lulu together
you press a tree and Luluappears from behind that tree
in the next scene when they're talking you see the mist coming up the
waterfall
you don't need to have just that one image you can take the viewer through
the image
in the way that you want - when a family sits down and
reads through this book I hope that it sort of develops into a conversation
they can read about how these chimpanzees experience
some poor times and then hopefully have gotten to a place where there
feel free to exist as a real chimpanzee
but what I hope that turns into is parents and their kids
questioning really what they see when they see a chimpanzee on TV
may be dressed up and acting foolishly so what we hope from this book
is that we can continue this process of providing facts, providing information
to allow people to make their own judgments about how chimpanzee should be
housed
how they should be treated and cared for and ultimately hoping
that they'll come to the same realization that we have, that simply
chimps should be chimps