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Virtue-signalling is everywhere in popular media. It doesn’t matter where you look, from movies to TV and beyond. And kiddie movies are not spared. Enter Exhibit A: Ozi: Voice of the Forest, a new animated film. Behind it is Appian Way Productions, Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company.
The movie follows a young orangutan with a topknot who takes on a ruthless corporation determined to destroy her rainforest home. Ozi fights back by learning how to use a tablet and becoming an online influencer.
Unfortunately, the film is a painful watch. Even The Guardian gave it a mere two stars. Audiences didn’t embrace it either; Ozi managed to earn only £221 per cinema during its opening weekend. But the creators likely aren’t fazed by the poor financial performance. For them, the true reward is the self-congratulatory praise they receive from their ideological peers.
Predictably, the film casts business and profit-making as inherently evil. To make matters worse, the environmental message at the heart of the story is misleading.
The villain in Ozi is a fictional palm-oil company. Palm oil, an ingredient found in about half of all packaged goods on store shelves—from chocolate to shampoo—has long been linked to deforestation. However, like many industries, palm oil production has made significant strides in sustainability over the years.
Thanks to a concerted effort in Southeast Asian countries, where palm oil is predominantly produced, 93 percent of the palm oil imported into Europe is now certified as sustainable. This has led to significant environmental benefits. For instance, research from Global Forest Watch shows that Malaysia, one of the leading palm oil producers, has seen a dramatic decline in ‘primary forest loss.’ Since its peak in 2014, forest loss has decreased by more than 70 percent. There is nothing inherently destructive about the palm-oil industry today.
But these facts seem irrelevant to the makers of Ozi. Opposing palm oil has become trendy, and that appears to be all the justification needed to center the film’s narrative on it. The movie presents children with a simplistic, black-and-white choice between living comfortably in the modern world and saving the planet. From their luxurious Californian homes, the filmmakers suggest that a better future isn’t possible.
The hypocrisy of Hollywood lecturing the public about the evils of capitalism is hard to stomach. While jet-setting around the globe in private planes, today’s cultural elites are eager to showcase their virtue by ‘raising awareness’ of ‘important issues.’ They would never dream of giving up the modern comforts they criticize.
DiCaprio, in particular, is notorious for this double standard. He enjoys the luxury of private jets but rarely acknowledges the glaring contradiction between his environmental activism and his substantial carbon footprint. Emails published by Wikileaks in 2015 revealed that DiCaprio took six private jet trips in just six weeks. The following year, he logged 8,000 miles on a private jet to cross the Atlantic and accept an award for his environmental work. The irony seems lost on him.
And it’s not just the jets. DiCaprio also once treated his girlfriend to a trip on Britain’s largest superyacht, the Vava II, which burns 300 gallons of diesel per hour.
DiCaprio is free to enjoy his private jets and maintain his contradictory views. However, it’s unfortunate that he feels the need to fill our cinemas with his preachy rhetoric. Parents should skip Ozi: Voice of the Forest and choose something truly entertaining for their children, rather than subjecting them to thinly veiled propaganda.
