Movie Review: 'Earth'
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An elephant swims in the Okavago delta in Botswana. -
A polar bear is curious about the passengers in a vehicle during filming. -
Lions wait for dark before beginning their hunt in Botswana's Kalahari desert.
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No need to go around the world in 80 days with Jules Verne when "Earth" can transport you in 90 minutes and provide James Earl Jones as your tour guide.
"Earth," the first film from the new Disneynature label, is a prestigious project with spectacular photography from the treetops and beyond, under the sea and perilously close to elephants trying to protect their calves from lions in the inky night.
Five years in the making, including three in the field, "Earth" documents 42 animal species with special attention paid to families of polar bears, elephants and humpback whales.
The polar bear segment may remind some moviegoers of "Arctic Tale," but that 2007 release went cutesy and named the critters and regularly ascribed human emotions to them.
Co-directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield do not christen any of the featured players, which is wise considering that some of the animals, mammals or birds may not be the same from scene to scene, despite the filmmakers' best efforts.
- Narrated by: James Earl Jones
- Rating: G
- Opens: Today, in honor of Earth Day.
- Web site: disney.go.com/earth
Jones' narration, which includes a soothing pronouncement about polar bears and how "their father's brave spirit will always live on in their hearts," veers but never drops into cloying territory.
Still, lines such as, "In our changing world, every new generation is precious" or "This is the circle of life that most of us in our urban lives have lost touch with," are a bit obvious. But that second statement is redeemed by being paired with images of a cheetah bringing down a gazelle.
The movie makes it clear some animals are hunters, others hunted, but it never violates its G rating. When a wolf chases and catches a caribou, we dread and know what's about to come, even as the editor cuts away.
"Earth" also features delightful footage of baby mandarin ducks flinging themselves out of nests in the trees into a cushion of leaves, of baboons wading through water like finicky toddlers in a chilly surf and of a bird of paradise in mid-preen.
Watching "Earth" instead of, say, "Monsters vs. Aliens" may make you feel virtuous -- like picking oatmeal for breakfast over a glazed doughnut. There is no rule that you cannot see both, and this deserves a big screen with crisp projection so you can be properly entertained, educated and occasionally awed.
First Published April 22, 2009 12:00 am
