Tiger King director’s new series is as bonkers as you’d expect

Chimp Crazy
★★★★★
Binge, August 19, new episodes every Monday

An undercover clown, a woman who breastfed a premature baby chimp, actor Alan Cumming and, at the centre of the story, a Missouri woman who calls herself the “Dolly Parton of chimps”. This four-part docuseries has everything.

Exotic animal broker and “chimp mom” Tonia Haddix in Chimp Crazy.Credit: Binge/HBO

Tiger King ’s Eric Goode has again mined the uniquely American, and morally dubious, subculture of exotic animal ownership, this time delving into the world of “chimp moms” – people (mostly women) who raise chimpanzees as “real” members of their families.

The series opens with “exotic animal broker” and chimp mom Tonia Haddix (the aforementioned “Dolly Parton”, whose parade of wigs gets progressively more demented in each episode), explaining that “monkey love” is much deeper than the bond you have for your own “natural” children. This sets the tone for the rest of the series, although it’s not the wildest thing you’ll hear.

Goode says that after Tiger King he fell out of favour with the animal community he had been part of (as well as a former nightclub impresario, he’s the founder of the Turtle Conservancy, which preserves ecosystems for turtles and tortoises), so for this series he uses a “proxy director”.

Haddix with Tonka, who co-starred with Alan Cumming in the 1997 film Buddy.Credit: Binge/HBO

He hires Dwayne Cunningham, a former circus clown and animal sanctuary worker (who also happens to have a criminal record), to get close to the chimp community. Specifically to Haddix, a longtime capuchin monkey owner, who fell in love with chimps when she began volunteering at a facility known as the Missouri Primate Foundation, run by chimp breeder/dealer Connie Casey.

Casey raised many famous chimps who worked in the entertainment industry, including Hollywood primate celebrity Tonka, who starred in television commercials and ’90s films including George of the Jungle and Buddy, alongside Alan Cumming, who developed a strong bond with his hairy co-star – hence the actor’s prominent role in this bizarre story. (Casey also “raised” the chimp Travis who, in 2009, made global headlines after the horrific attack on his owner’s friend in which he ripped off her nose, eyelids, lips and hands.)

Haddix grew close to the 32-year-old Tonka, who she eventually referred to as her “kid”, much to the bewilderment of her human son. Among her highly quotable claims about her relationship with Tonka, the standout might be when she tells Cunningham (who is still doing kids’ parties in clown garb between filming) that Tonka was very respectful. “Sometimes I would see him masturbating, but he was always very tactful about it,” she says.

I can’t reveal what happens, but the doco takes a bonkers turn once PETA gets involved, having been tipped off about the chimps’ living conditions at the Primate Foundation (pretty sure they were also less than thrilled with Haddix’s regular deliveries of McDonald’s Happy Meals), and Haddix finds herself at the centre of a years-long legal saga.

Goode, who knows how to spin an entertaining tale (did he really need to hire a clown as his “proxy”?), has created another car-crash doco. There are some scenes that will disturb animal lovers, but it’s not as tawdry – or distressing – as Tiger King. And while Goode knows how to exploit the eccentric characters of this world, he and his crew end up doing some good.

And in Haddix, he has found this year’s Carole Baskin. Strap in.

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