Zambezia

Zambezia is an animated adventure set in a bird city of the same name, perched beside Victoria Falls in the heart of Africa. Kai, a young and somewhat naive falcon, lives in the desert with his father, Tendai, who forbids him from going to Zambezia. Against his father's wishes, Kai leaves for the city anyway, hoping to join the Hurricane, an elite flying squad that patrols the skies and keeps the settlement safe. His arrival sets off a chain of events that leads him to uncover the truth about his own origins, while a scheming monitor lizard named Budzo plots an attack on the city. Defending Zambezia alongside its residents forces Kai to understand what belonging to a community really means.

The film was directed by Wayne Thornley, who wrote the screenplay with Andrew Cook and Raffaella Delle Donne, and was produced in South Africa on a budget of about 20 million dollars. Its voice cast includes Jeremy Suarez as Kai, Samuel L. Jackson as Tendai, Abigail Breslin as Zoe, Leonard Nimoy as Sekhuru, Jeff Goldblum as Ajax and Jenifer Lewis as Gogo, among 27 credited performers. Releases came in June 2012.

Audience responses were middling: on IMDb the film holds 5.7 out of 10 from more than 7,500 votes, and on TMDB it has 6.2 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 5.2 out of 10, based on eight reviews, places professional appraisal slightly below the audience scores.