Crazy Chimpanzee is a four-part docuseries, directed by Eric Goode (Tiger King) about people who keep chimpanzees as pets, despite the dangers these wild primates pose, especially when they grow into large, powerful adults. Goode profiles several chimpanzee owners and goes back to past cases where chimps attacked and seriously injured the people caring for them. But she centers the story around Tonia Haddix, who is the self-proclaimed “Dolly Parton of chimpanzees.”
CRAZY CHIMPANZEE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: We pan to see a group of chimpanzee dolls and stuffed animals, then see a baby chimpanzee, dressed in a jumpsuit and diaper, hugging one of the stuffed animals.
The essence: We see Tonia Haddix, her hair wild to the sky, playing with the baby chimp in a very pink bedroom. The former nurse took over the care of seven chimpanzees from Connie Casey, the owner of a former chimpanzee breeding center in Festus, Missouri, now called the Missouri Primate Foundation; one of Casey’s businesses was called Chimparty, where she rented chimpanzees to go to children’s parties. Casey also provided chimpanzees for film and television productions and photo shoots, and housed retired chimpanzee actors. One older chimp, Tonka, came to MPT after an acting career that included starring in a movie with Alan Cumming, whom Goode interviews for the series.
Haddix, a nurse from St. Louis, started out as a volunteer at MPT but fell in love with the chimpanzees she cared for and ended up working there full time. The chimps lived in pretty atrocious conditions, with limited space, and Casey, who was aging, had trouble keeping up with cage maintenance. When an MPT volunteer reported the conditions to PETA and provided video evidence, the organization sued Casey in 2017. Haddix arrived soon after and made things better, but she tells Goode that PETA was never satisfied with her improvements, which she says cost her $500,000 — something a PETA representative finds hard to believe.
PETA eventually obtained a court order to relocate the chimps to Haddix’s care, and Goode and her team are showing the recovery via hidden cameras. The whereabouts of all the chimps are known except for one; Tonka was somehow missing.
What shows will it remind you of? With Tiger KingGoode proved that he can find almost crazy stories in the world of exotic animal owners, and he does the same in Chimpanzee StoryThere is also a bit of Roar: The Most Dangerous Movie Ever Made Here too, that docuseries was about the making of Roarthe 1981 adventure comedy starring Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith, in which numerous cast and crew members were injured by wild lions on set.
Our opinion: Tiger King It made us laugh, get angry, and get incredibly sad all at the same time. Crazy Chimpanzee It also gives us a rollercoaster of emotions, but anger and sadness seem to come out the most in us with this story. Maybe it’s because chimpanzees are the most genetically similar to humans and display traits we recognize in ourselves. It may also be because, while Joe Exotic saw the tigers in his care simply as a way to make money, Tonia Haddix has a genuine affection for the chimpanzees in her care and considers them her children.
There are times when Haddix is completely delusional, such as when she thinks the improvements she made to the MPT would be enough to satisfy PETA, when all she really did was give it a coat of paint, feed the chimps fresher food, and clean their cages like she should have. She doesn’t realize that these adult chimps are going crazy in their tiny enclosures, even as the chimps bang against the bars and the floor while she’s being interviewed by Dwayne Cunningham, a former exotic animal breeder who is serving as Goode’s representative, which was necessary to gain access to Casey and Haddix.
We watched the first episode knowing that there have been incidents in the past where people who owned chimps were suddenly and violently attacked by them, and Haddix casually mentions that one of the chimps bit off Casey’s husband’s nose in Chimparty/MPT. It’s a good thing that’s acknowledged in the first episode, because watching Haddix playing with these adult chimps made us feel nervous knowing what we know about what they’re capable of. We know that at least one or two of those past cases will be examined in the series.
But what Goode is interested in is a sensational story, and what Haddix did with Tonka is exactly the kind of story he can make something dramatic out of. Haddix faked Tonka’s death to keep him with her after PETA relocated the rest of the chimps, and that’s the story Goode will dip in and out of as she talks to other chimp owners and trainers, as well as examines those old cases.
He certainly tells the story well, and manages to endear himself to Haddix through his clever use of Cunningham as a proxy; his solution to obtain footage of PETA rehoming the chimps despite the judge in the case ordering MPT’s cameras to be removed during the recovery period was a beautiful thing to see.
But we wonder how much juice we can squeeze out of the strangeness of Haddix and the other chimp owners she interviews, and whether we’re going to get angrier and sadder the longer the series goes on.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting shot: We see Haddix playing the slots at a local casino, and we hear her talk about how she’ll do anything to keep the chimps in her life, which we imagine includes keeping Tonka out of PETA’s clutches.
Sleeping Star: Alan Cumming grabbed this role as soon as we saw him on screen. He formed a bond with Tonka when they both worked on the films. George of the jungle and Buddy together, and you can hear his affection for his chimpanzee co-star as he speaks, as well as his disdain for people like Haddix.
Pilot’s most typical phrase: We see archival footage of Casey’s husband handling a young chimpanzee at a birthday party, and Goode just casually shows off a bump sewn into its nose like that’s what it’s supposed to have. We understand why he does it, and as mentioned above, Haddix explains that bump, but that bit of handling did bother us a little.
Our calling: PASS IT ON. Crazy Chimpanzee It’s a docuseries that adds narrative drama, but also evokes strong emotions in us, which is what a good docuseries should do.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he makes no mistake: He’s a TV addict. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company, and elsewhere.
