Always keeping the young audience members in mind though, Earth is notably and completely bloodless. That wolf does indeed – after a prolonged, slow-motion, and quite poetic chase – catch that caribou by biting into its puff of a tail – and then the editors tactfully cut away. Animals die in Earth. The circle of life holds true. But, when the narrator (James Earl Jones, as authoritative as ever) speaks of the harsh realities of animal life on the planet, we are left to fill in the harshest realities on our own.
Anyone familiar with the BBC series Planet Earth will also experience déjà vu while watching Earth. I overheard some exiting audience members saying, “I’m sure I’ve seen most of those shots before.” And I’m sure they have. Earth, the first environmentally-friendly entry under the new Disney Nature banner, is really just a repackaging of footage from the earlier series. And this theatrical version already began screening in England in 2007 with narration by Patrick Stewart.
Comprised of over 4,000 days of cinematography and boasting the highest budget – over $40 million – of any documentary ever, it is completely understandable and, given the importance of the cause, forgivable that footage has been “double-dipped” to get us to pay to see it twice and that such compromises have been made to cater to all ages.
Perhaps though, the best way to look at Earth is as a long, enthralling trailer for the full attraction, Planet Earth, available on DVD and Blu-ray pretty much everywhere you look.
Article comments