It’s time to monkey around. 🐒 The Disney movie – based on the Newberry Award-winning novel by Katherine Applegate – The One and Only Ivan releases next Friday on Disney+.

The film is about a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lives in a cage at the mall and stars Bryan Cranston, along with the voices of Sam Rockwell, Angelina Jolie, and Helen Mirren.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD4DAunnqN8/

What’s the Lakeland connection? Back in 2018, the movie was filmed at several local locations, bringing $134,000 to Polk County in economic impact.

Filming locations include:

Silver Moon Drive-in
Dixieland Elementary
West Palm Drive
And Southgate Shopping Center (which saw quite a few changes during its transition to the Big Top Mall)

Want to experience the film’s magic for yourself? We collaborated with local artist Josh “Bump” Galletta to create a map, featuring these film locations for you to drive by for a visit. (Fun fact: Bump created the map with the help of his kids.)

Check out a few other “Reel-y” cool flicks that were shot in Lakeland here.

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