Disney Earth Movie

NYT: Disney Earth Balances Cuddliness and Reality

Posted on 11. Apr, 2009 by Disney in Disney Earth Reviews

The New York Times has posted its Disney Earth movie review for the upcoming movie. The movie is set to be released on Earth Day (April 22nd).

A baby elephant is separated from its mother and dies. A cheetah eats a peppy little gazelle. The father of two cuddly polar bear cubs bleeds to death after a close encounter with a walrus tusk. Such scenes would not stand out in a standard wildlife documentary. But Disney Earth Movie is not routine: This G-rated movie heralds the Walt Disney Company’s high-profile return to the nature genre and presents it with a difficult balancing act.

Disneynature is Disney’s new film label that is meant to capture some of the “green” movie market the has sprung to life. It’s goal is to produce the next generation of nature documentaries. The film is narrated by James Earl Jones and consists of footage from the Planet Earth miniseries. The film focuses on three animal families as they try to survive.

Disney, because of its huge influence on children and culture, is a target for criticism no matter how carefully it fashions its entertainment, and is trying to walk a line cautiously with “Earth.” The company wants to depict nature in an unflinching manner, partly to attract top-notch documentarians to future projects and partly to foster environmental awareness.

Disneynature has carefully edited the film in order to keep its G-rating and not scare children. The baby elephant dies off camera and the audience is simply led to believe that the cheetah ate it.

But the success of “Planet Earth” could actually prove a stumbling block for “Earth,” as the Disney project contains a large amount of repackaged footage from the Discovery Channel mini-series. Indeed, about 60 percent of “Earth” has already been shown repeatedly, free, on Discovery Channel. A sequence in “Earth” showing great white sharks breaching as they feed on sea lions, for instance, will be familiar to anyone who has seen “Planet Earth.” “It’s a totally different way of seeing the footage,” Mr. Camilleri said, brushing off concerns about repetition. “To see that great white on the movie screens of today is truly astonishing.”

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