Disney Compiles a Beautiful Earth
The thing about Earth that not many people know is that the majority of it isn’t exactly new. The documentary, the first for Walt Disney Studio’s new Disneynature unit, is actually a re-edited feature-length version of the 2006 BBC/Discovery Channel miniseries “Planet Earth” complete with new narration by James Earl Jones (Patrick Stewart got the duty for the European release). It is a film culled from the body of a much bigger one, blown up to pristine 35mm and supped up with a digitally enhanced soundtrack guaranteed to enthrall.
A scene from above in Disneynature's Earth
In other words, even though it’s nothing new I still enjoyed the experience of watching it immensely. Did I offer up anything I couldn’t turn to on Cable? No. If I were not reviewing the film would I have paid to go see it myself? Probably not. Be that as it may, I can think of few motion pictures out there right now whole families will be able to get so much out of, the beauty and power of nature in all her glory spectacularly on display from the very first frame onward.
Covering a year in the life of our planet the movie is basically broken up into four distinct segments, all of them interwoven back together as the 12-month cycle comes to an end. We begin things by traveling with polar bears in the North Pole, move along to watch the caribou make their trek along the Artic tundra, take up the journey with an elephant mother as she struggles to guide her child across the dangerous dust beds of the Kalahari Desert and follow a humpback whale and her calf make the 4,000 mile journey from the tropics to Antarctica. Along the way we view the mating rituals of Birds of Paradise, spy a wolf pack hunting for its prey, catch a Great White Shark munching down on a sea lion and bare witness as a pride of lions join forces to bring down gigantic trophy.
I give directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield huge props for being able to so concisely whittle down their massive 11-episode magnum opus into such a delightfully entertaining and visually stimulating streamlined version. While this 96-minute effort can’t help but feel a bit like extremely well-constructed highlights of the previous documentary, the whole thing moves well and features captivating enough narration that I really didn’t mind that fact at all.
What I will admit is that this movie didn’t change my life or transcend the genre in any particularly new or profound sort of way. While some of the footage is new, roughly 60-percent culled from “Planet Earth.” As that effort was a massive success both on DVD (even more so on Blu-ray) and on Cable television, I imagine a heck of a lot of people have already seen it and convincing them to pay to see a shortened version in the theater when they probably already own the original is kind of a tad silly.
For those who haven’t seen “Planet Earth,” however, viewing this one could be just what the doctor ordered. Earth is a visually dynamic effort that constantly kept me wanting to see more which was more than enough as far as I was concerned. As for whether or not audiences are going to feel the same that’s one lifecycle at the multiplex turnstile I can’t begin to predict.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
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