In real life, Massa was sold to the Philadelphia Zoo after he attacked Lintz,[1] while Buddy/Gargantua died young as a circus attraction and his remains are now on display in a museum.

Returning home to her grand estate, she greets her varied animals: kittens, horses, a cheeky talking green parrot, her prize-winning champion pack of briards, a raccoon, a porcupine, a tortoise and a flock of geese.

A couple come to visit the mansion, the man convincing Trudy to bring the apes to show in the Chicago World's fair.

Buddy has constant flashbacks of the incident, leaving him traumatised and making things even harder for him at home.

After he goes on an aggressive rampage, causing a lot of damage to their home, Trudy finally takes Buddy to an ape sanctuary to live among his own kind in peace.

The story is loosely based on a real life socialite, Gertrude Lintz, who bred dogs and collected apes in her Brooklyn mansion in the 1920.

[2] The "real" Buddy owned by Lintz was sold to Ringling Brothers Circus at age 7 and was displayed as Gargantua the Great.

In spite of the film's message, animal rights activists objected to the depiction of chimpanzees as docile pets, happily carrying on wearing human clothes.