April 24, 2009 -- Opening on Earth Day, a movie called “Earth.” That is either clever, or represents a lack of imagination. Either way, the cinematography is stunning and voice-over work by James Earl Jones is what you would expect from one of the best-known voices in the business, although sometimes he sounds just like Darth Vader. Disney is one of the best studios in the business when it comes to wildlife films and this has the quality of work audiences have come to expect from Disney. The production values of this film are very good, but it wanders away from its three main storylines often enough that it may not hold the attention of children. The film follows several wildlife families on long, perilous journeys of survival.

The genesis of this film apparently goes back several years. Some of the footage originally appeared in the TV series “Planet Earth” in 2006. The film was originally released in Europe in 2007. For some reason it was just recently released in the United States under the new Disney division name Disneynature. The film follows three wildlife families: Polar bears, humpback whales and elephants as they all make perilous journeys of survival during the course of one full year. The film follows the seasons from the spring thaw in the Arctic, when the mother polar bear and her two cubs come out of their den, to winter in the Antarctic, where the mother Humpback whale and her calf end up after swimming 4,000 miles from the tropics. The other migration follows a herd of elephants, specifically a mother and her calf as they trek across the Kalahari Desert to find water.

One of the saddest parts of the movie follows a polar bear, the father of the two cubs. Due to global warming, polar bears are endangered. The ice that provides their hunting platforms is melting. Starving and exhausted, the polar bear, the mightiest of all land predators, lies down to die after swimming across of miles of open ocean to find land, but nothing to eat. The elephants face their own peril as lions stalk them in their journey across the desert. In one remarkable scene, a pride of lions is shown trying to bring down a young elephant that is much larger than a lion. Another remarkable shot shows a great white shark leaping high into the air with a fur seal in its mouth. Sailfish cut through the water at nearly 70 miles per hour, hunting their prey. The film also has remarkable slow-motion footage of a cheetah chasing prey at around 70 m.p.h.

The film also has its share of cute animals, and none are cuter than the polar bear cubs. The mating displays of a Bird of Paradise in Papua New Guinea look like something from another planet. Mandarin duck chicks leap from their nest in tree some 30 feet down to the ground, before they have the ability to fly. It is an amazing leap of faith. A troop of Chacma baboons can be seen delicately and comically wading on their hind legs through the flooded Okavango Delta in the Kalahari Desert. A group of whales is shown using the “bubble netting” technique of herding shrimplike krill into a small area bounded by bubbles to make it easier for the whales to feed. There are amazing wide shots of thousands of land animals and huge flocks of birds that cover the sky. It is amazing stuff. At the end of the film, stick around for the credits to see skilled photographers in action who made this film. It shows how some scenes in the movie were filmed. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2009 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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