Has it really come to this? Are we so out of touch with our home that the only way we can interact with nature anymore is to cram into a darkened room and stare at a glowing screen for two hours? Movies serve as a portal into the fantastic; an escape into the wondrous, strange, grand, mythical, and foreign. Who would have thought that the earth would become something so foreign?
Essentially an abridged version of the BBC’s spectacular documentary, “Planet Earth,” this Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield directed picture is loaded with some of the most astonishing footage ever committed to film. Even if much of what we see it simply re-purposed from “Planet Earth,” it’s worth the ticket price alone to see it on the big screen.
Written by Leslie Megahey and narrated by James Earl Jones (“Star Wars,” “The Lion King”) the film is organized into a trio of parent/child narratives: A mother polar bear caring for her cubs while the “father” frantically looks for food amidst rapidly melting sea ice, a humpback whale and her calf swim 4,000 miles to the bountiful waters near Antarctica, and a mother elephant and her calf brave the treacherous heat, violent dust storms, and predators of Africa’s Kalahari desert on their quest to reach the paradise of the Okavango Delta.
Complimenting these stories are several similar subplots, and images of the most breathtaking beauty imaginable. Dramatic, rainbow-kissed waterfalls dot the jagged terrain of the greenest forest you’ve ever seen. A chilling mist permeates a silhouetted tropical paradise. Stunning time-lapse photography details the life of a flower. Death-defying demoiselle cranes soar over the frigid Himalayas. The otherworldly aurora australis dazzles in the night sky.
I’m not bothered in the slightest that its basically an hour and a half long advertisement for “Planet Earth.” The content is still there and is so powerful that only the most cynical of audiences won’t be inspired.
The natural beauty of it all is so engaging that by the closing credits when we’re shown some behind the scenes footage, the video camera touting humans feel strangely out of place almost ruining the experience. This clever insertion further articulates the underlying message of the film: The earth is a special place, and humans are destroying it. If you don’t buy into Disney’s proposal to plant a tree for every ticket sold, this film just might inspire you to plant one yourself.
