You’d think for as much as our 2 year-old son makes us watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, I’d have a better idea of how to draw Mickey Mouse. I guess I was in a rush. To see Mickey as the leader of a post-apocalyptic dystopia, vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics.
Under the branch of their new Disneynature studio, the planetary documentary Earth comes out today. I’m actually very excited to see it despite the fact that it was originally released internationally 2 years ago as an accompanying cinematic experience to the popular television series Planet Earth The series, which was shot by the BBC, aired on The Discovery Channel during that time as well.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a sucker for for animals. Maybe I fell in love the minute they played “Hoppípolla” from Sigur Ros in the trailer. Either way, it looks great. A fantastic cinematic experience.
Disney is catching a little guff from critics, believe it or not. Jesse Ellison from Newsweek suggests that the film is too harsh to be rated G because it implies (but doesn’t show) the death of a few animals at the hands at of the elements.
On the other hand, Jeffery Wells from Hollywood Elsewhere suggests that the film doesn’t go far enough and obscuring the harsh reality of nature coddles children too much.
I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. Certainly I don’t derive much entertainment value from watching wild animals die on screen. I wouldn’t seek it out. As the parent of a young child, I can see how such scenes could be upsetting.
But at the same time, I agree with Wells that you can’t shield children from everything. The challenge of being a parent isn’t measured by your ability to protect them from everything that might upset their limited world view. Rather, I feel it’s my responsibility to arm my kids with information in context so they can make sense of their own feelings and opinions to interact properly with the world at large.
But I shouldn’t presume to tell anyone how to raise their kids. Fundamentally, you have to be aware of what you think your kid can and can’t tolerate and be prepared to help them make sense of things if it’s too intense for them.
At least, that’s what my common sense tells me.
Is anyone else excited to see Earth this weekend or do you think it’s redundant 2 years after Planet Earth aired on The Discovery Channel? Are you concerned about the realities of nature being toned down or “Disney-fied” to meet the standards of being a family friendly film?
Leave your comments below!
Let's see something nice for a change. Something like that Earth movie.
You mean that nature film Disney produced?
Yeah, that looks good. Let's see that.
IT IS THE NATURE OF THE EMPIRE TO RULE THIS EARTH!
SUBMIT TO THE EMPIRE!
That... wasn't what I was expecting.
THAT WAS AWESOME!
In UK so don’t think it’s coming out over here again, especially seeing as it didn’t too well last time, probably due to people not knowing whether it would be any different to the tv series.
Was just on the wiki for it though, and it seems the US version is being narrated by James Earl Jones while the UK version was narrated by Patrick Stewart, this strikes me as odd, Patrick Stewart has an easy to understand voice so unless they’ve actually changed the script or something this seems kinda pointless.
“Hoppípolla” is commonly known in the UK (or among my friends at least) as the song that the BBC use when they can’t be bothered to find anything else, after it’s use in the Planet Earth trailer they’ve used it in so many shows/trailers and end of sporting event compilation clips its made me suspect that someone had a vested interest.
Also, your Mickey reminds me of King Leonidas.
I know what you mean about the trailer, Hoppípolla gets me every time.
I am interested in seeing the movie, since I’ve yet to see the tv show (so it’ll all seem new to me). Still, I’ve been hearing the show was much better (especially narration wise), so I may just go with that.
It really feels to me like Disney is trying to pass “earth” off as something they made themselves. Even though they mention the Discovery Channel and the BBC in the trailer, they’ve still got the Disney label stamped all over it and that “DISNEYnature” logo to boot. It just doesn’t sit right with me for some reason.
I know what you mean, Orpheus. “Earth” looks good on the surface, but if you do a little digging and find out anything about it, you learn that it wasn’t really Disney doing the grunt work. They’re the distributor and that’s about it.
I think there is confusion between Disney “proper,” which produces it’s own content and DISNEYnature which is really more like an independent studio like Fox Searchlight or something nestled within a larger corporate shell.
I can understand not wanting to subject kids to the harsh realities of nature, but I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and I remember that getting pretty harsh at times. I turned out just fine. My aunt saw this on Earth Day and said it was totally worth it. I’ve watched Planet Earth…I think I’ll stick with that.
Seems Disney is making this a yearly thing now…Oceans is set to be released next year on Earth Day.
Disney putting their name on it means it will make more money and therefore be seen by more people. I thought it looked fantastic, I just do not pay to see documentaries.
The last time Disney did a nature documentary of any real impact, they flung lemmings off of a turntable. I have my doubts.
Have to agree with the above sentiments. I didn’t realize it wasn’t an ACTUAL Disney product until recently. And of course, shame on them for stamping their name all over it as though they were the primaries for the 5 years it took to produce. Likewise, Who doesn’t love Patrick Stewart; I mean, (insert joke here) Who do you want narrating your nature documentary, Captain Picard or Darth Vader?
But What really gets me is your final line, as someone who grew up around farms, and seeing dead dear along Iowa roads, I really would never want to subject any child of mine to a Disney’fied version of the natural world. Decide whether or not your child can handle the concept of one animal eating another, or an animal dieing in general, and turn on the aforementioned discovery channel.
“Fundamentally, you have to be aware of what you think your kid can and can’t tolerate and be prepared to help them make sense of things if it’s too intense for them. At least, that’s what my common sense tells me.”
Hear hear!
My dad and I went to see a movie just about every saturday afternoon, starting when I was nine. Many of these movies were rated R, but my dad never made the determination of if I should watch something based on the age lines in the rating system, but by knowing me- he wouldn’t have taken my sister (four years older) to see the same movies he took me to.