Saturday, April 25, 2009

Review of Disney Earth

Last night we saw Disney's Earth.

It was a feast for the senses.

The movie showed the Arctic, the Antarctic, forests, rain forests, mountains, deserts, savannahs rivers, waterfalls, and the ocean.

There were gorgeous shots that panned over vast expanses of land.

James Earl Jones provided the narration. He has such a wonderful voice and the narrative lines were at times very light and humorous. Other times the reality of the effects of climate change on the lives of animals caused a more serious tone to be adopted.

It was beautiful. Well worth the cost of admission to see areas of our world that unless you had aerial transportation and an unlimited personal budget you might not otherwise ever see.

One of my favorite parts was seeing various exotic birds of paradise in the equatorial rain forest and their mating dances.

It was spectacular to see slow motion photography of a great white shark jumping out of the ocean water and consuming a seal in one snap of his jaws.

There is also a slow motion chase by a cheetah and a night vision scene where a pride of lions goes up against a herd of elephants. I did not realize that lions working together could take down a full grown elephant.

Yikes. It serves as a reminder of just how powerful the Queen of the Jungle can be. (I say this because lionesses are the ones who actually do the killing. Ye Olde King of the Jungle is waiting until the food is brought to him and then he eats first.)

One more thing, be sure to stay and watch the credits. You will be rewarded by seeing some of the camera crews getting various shots. Some are in the Arctic, others in the ocean and one has a close encounter with his helium balloon and a baobab tree.


The movie is suitable for all ages. Even little ones.

And a quick announcement before I end this post. I am guest blogging on my friend Lee Lofland's blog again. Today's topic is gardens and art in Paris. Please feel free to stop by there, take a look at some beautiful travel photos and say hi!

4 comments:

Terry Odell said...

Loved your pictures at The Graveyard Shift.

Speaking of the movie, Thursday night I was at a fundraiser for our local Adult Literacy League and Michael Connelly was a guest speaker. He mentioned that the day before, his daughter had insisted on seeing Disney's Earth, and she convinced him to go along because they promised to plant a tree for every ticket sold on opening day. During a tense spot in the movie, he bit down too hard on a popcorn kernel and chipped his tooth.

Linda C. McCabe said...

Thanks Terry. I'm glad to know you liked the photos I chose for that guest post.

Hmmm, I wonder which part of the movie the dental damage occurred.

Perhaps it was the lions v. elephants, To me that was the tensest part of the movie.

They have another movie due out next Earth Day about oceans. The trailer they showed for that looks just as impressive as the movie "Earth." You can find that trailer online here:

http://disney.go.com/disneynature/oceans/

Have a great weekend and thanks for leaving a comment.

Linda

Terry Odell said...

Linda, I think he said something about a cheetah.

Linda C. McCabe said...

There was a slo-mo scene of a cheetah bringing down a small animal. I don't remember if it was a gazelle or what it was.

Cheetahs are my son's favorite animal. They're the fastest land animal and he likes to go with the winner.

Disney Nature is also producing another film due out in 2011(?) called "Big Cats." It will focus on three families again: lions, leopards and cheetahs.

I'm sounding like a paid advertisement for Disney.

The movie was so cool. Last night at home my son watched "Born Free" for the first time. I had seen it years ago, and found the DVD at my local grocery store on sale for $6. It was something I couldn't pass up and he loved it as well.

There's just something about watching live animals on screen that touches your heart.