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Where the Wild Things Die

 

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There's a scene early in the gorgeous new documentary "Earth" in which a wolf stalks a caribou calf through the grasslands of northern Canada. The chase, filmed in slow motion, feels epic. At points the calf seems on the verge of escape. Then, in a blink, its little legs buckle. The movie doesn't show what happens next, but in the theater where I saw it, everyone got the point—including the little girl sitting in front of me, who jumped into her father's lap and buried her face in his neck. She was terrified. So was I.

This wasn't a case of bad parenting. "Earth," the first release from Disneynature, the studio's ecologically oriented film division, is rated G. It's a theatrical version of the BBC miniseries "Planet Earth," only with the grisly parts lopped out to make it family friendly. At least that's the idea. "That's funny about the girl's reaction," says co-director Mark Linfield. "We thought very hard about what is the right level for children." The goal, he says, was to portray the wild kingdom honestly without having to "Disney-ify" the film. "The bottom line," says co-director Alastair Fothergill, "is that nature is rendered tooth and claw."

Just without blood and guts—and the notion that that's enough to merit a G rating is a bit too easy. The implied death of an animal, heightened with anxious slo-mo, is frightening whether it happens onscreen or off. Later, a baby elephant is separated from its herd during a sandstorm, and when the dust settles, the narrator tells us it's following footsteps in the wrong direction—toward certain death, in other words. "It may well be," says Linfield, "that the little elephant getting lost is sadder to you" than to kids in the audience. Perhaps. By that point in the screening, the little girl in front of me had already left.

© 2009

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: lolagirl @ 09/10/2009 4:09:39 PM

    point is, jaws is fake it is not realand either is any of the other movies you compared it too. We are apparently trying to help the polar bears from extinction and they watched it stuggle for days in the water just making it to land giving kids hope then letting it starve to death. I will also be writting a letter. My real statement about this movie is up top. So if anyone wishes to complain to me read what I said atop and complain on that one

  • Posted By: lolagirl @ 09/10/2009 3:52:05 PM

    I was disgusted at that. this is from disney. Polar bears are going extinct because of us! And those filmakers can just watch what our (and their) outcome has done. Starvation is a horribly painful way to die. You think because of the declining population of polar bears and for the good of their kind we could have thrown it some fish. I understand if polar bears were fine population wise, but if you have the chance to help the dwindling species, that we are anyways trying to save why dont you. I just dont get it. The movie sucked because of that. And this is not because im some animal loving tree-hugger im finee with the cheetah catching and slowly killing a baby gazelle (though i question if its appropriate to show on a disney film anyways). This is not bambi, a make-beleive deer mother dying is totally different, then seeing this poor polar bear get lost out in the ocean (because of global warming) exhausted and starving but just making it to land, giving it hope, only to slowly starve beside a abundant food source. This movie is awful and I would never show it to children. If i saw it when I was younger I would be in tears and thinking about it for days on end. We all already know these things happen everyday we don't need to see it. They should also put a warning for these scenes for parent's sakes.

  • Posted By: CCintheCity @ 06/21/2009 1:03:05 AM

    This isn't the "reality of the world." This is a snuff movie dressed up as a documentary. They could have warned me.

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