Disney has a way of tugging at your heartstrings. From ""Lady and the Tramp"" to ""WALL-E,"" their movies get me every time. So when I was dished up a big helping of baby ducklings in the new movie ""Earth,"" I was delighted to be back in this adorable, fuzzy world.
This one, however, is different than its Disney predecessors. The documentary ""Earth"" embarks on an ambitious journey to show viewers the majesty of our planet. Following three animal families on their quests for increasingly scarce resources, the film attempts to show viewers how climate change is affecting life on Earth in real and serious ways.
Each animal family hails from one of the planet's many climates: A polar bear and its cubs scavenging the Arctic, a humpback whale and its offspring journey to distant seas in search of krill, and a herd of elephants hunt for water. As each family faces hardship, narrator James Earl Jones subtly stresses that these troubles are the direct consequences of global warming.
If the film is trying to trigger environmentalist sentiments in its viewers, the cinematography alone will send you to the phone to organize neighborhood carpools and composting sites. Usually a photograph doesn't do the real place justice, but in the case of ""Earth,"" the high-definition footage makes you wonder if the real place really does the photograph justice. Does an elephant really have that many wrinkles, or is it just the magic of Disney-Pixar animation?
Do expect to be awed by the film's flawless and captivating photography, but don't expect to be surprised. A significant portion of the footage has been recycled from the ""Planet Earth"" television series. If you remember a newborn polar bear cub sliding helplessly on arctic ice, a great white shark flying through the air with a seal in its jaws, or a wolf chasing down a caribou calf, you essentially have already seen this movie.
Although reused, the footage in ""Earth"" is newly arranged in a manner that shapes the main theme of climate change so that it is apparent to all audience members, young and old. The arrangement also puts the lengthy television series into concise, kid-friendly terms. The film is a brief 96 minutes, rushing through the earth's extreme climates as if desperately trying to keep its younger viewers' captive attention. ""Earth"" sugarcoats nature's more difficult topics by stating, for example, that a starving polar bear has given up in its search for food, implying its death but never actually stating or showing it.
Death is not the only glossed-over subject. Climate change is undoubtedly alluded to in each story, but the issue is never fully traced back to humans. We seem to be completely unrelated to the creatures on screen. These are wild, untouched animals roaming the remote ends of the world, far away from where we are.
Yes, ""Earth"" is pretty, but the real planet earth is pretty and free. When it comes down to it, this is a film that certainly practices what it faintly preaches. Complicated and controversial moral message? Previously used footage? Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
Grade: B
