Earth

Rated: G
Release Date: 2009-04-22
Starring: Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield, Leslie Megahey
Director(s):
Distributor:
Film Genre:
Country: USA, Germany, UK
Official Website: http://www.loveearth.es/

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‘Earth’ is the first film from Walt Disney’s new movie studio “Disneynature”. It is very similar to the documentaries that Discovery or National Geographic create except that Disney was the first to create this genre of film 60 years ago. If you have seen ‘March of the Penguins’ and ‘Arctic Tale’ along with the bevy of nature documentaries from PBS amongst many other television networks, you are not missing anything new or innovative.

“EARTH,” narrated by James Earl Jones, tells the story of three animal families and their journeys across Earth. We watch as a polar bear mother struggles to feed her newborn cubs as the sun melts the ice beneath their feet. The determination of an elephant mother as she guides her tiny calf on an endless trek across the Kalahari Desert in search of fresh water. We follow a humpbacked whale mother and her calf as they undertake the longest migration of any marine mammal—4,000 miles from the tropics to the Antarctic in search of food.

The film is released today, Earth Day, April 22, a logical marketing tactic, along with the “Buy a ticket, Plant a tree” initiative which has Disney planting a tree for everyone who sees EARTH between April 22-28. As of now, 500,000 trees will be planted.

My father loves these grandiose, awe-inspiring nature documentaries, but he would never pay money to see it in a movie theater when he can view a show similar to this on TV, in the privacy of his own home. You see, the only downside to ‘Earth’ is that television has been the propagator of the genre for a very long time. Nevertheless, seeing it in IMAX is a whole different conversation. Overall though, many won’t see or tell the difference with these nature films or its television brethren. Keep your money and rent on DVD ‘March of the Penguins’ or ‘Arctic Tale’ to get your fix of animals roaming on Earth but with a great quotient of entertainment.