Narrated by Tina Fey; directed by Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill; 85 minutes; G

“Monkey Kingdom,” Disneynature’s latest Earth Day offering, is an intriguing peek inside the social structure of macaque monkey society in Sri Lanka.

So while it’s got plenty of cute macaque monkeys, playing and cavorting, there’s also a little social commentary in the mirror the monkey movie holds up to us.

It’s about Maya, a young female trapped, by birth, among “the low born.” The alpha male and three testy red-faced queens, “the sisters,” get the dry sleeping quarters, the ripest figs in the top of the tree, first pick of the mushrooms and assorted other fruits that make up the diet of their tribe of 50. Maya, as Tina Fey narrates, “gets the scraps. This is what it means to be last in line.”

When she has a baby by a displaced male looking for a community to join, her story becomes a single mom’s tale, protecting tiny Kip from a monitor lizard and other external dangers, and the cruelty of “the sisters” and an unjust social hierarchy.

“Monkey Kingdom” begins cloyingly, with frolicking set to “Hey Hey We’re the Monkees.” The arrival of Kumar, Maya’s monkey-love, prompts a cover of Salt-n-Peppa and En Vogue’s “Whatta Man.” But entertainment value and catering to their young audience aside, filmmakers Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill never stray far from the overarching mission – capturing natural worlds and animal behavior at its rawest.

The gorgeous flora and fauna of Sri Lanka are well-represented, even as the monkey business ranges from cute to cutesy.

Roger Moore, Tribune News Service

A young monkey mother raises her new baby in the wilds of Southern Asia in the documentary, “Monkey Kingdom.” Courtesy Walt Disney Pictures.

Suman Tyagi