Movie Review - Disney's Earth
Jun. 30th, 2009 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoFirst, disclaimer - I'm not actually 100% sure the download I watched was actually the same Disney's Earth that played in theaters. Apparently there was another version made earlier in England but had a different narrator. So, I dunno, even if it was the original film from England, everything except the narration was supposed to be the same as the actual theater one, and I didn't watch it for the narrator anyways, so I guess it still counts...
The Good:
Say what you will about Disney, but there's a couple of things they do good - the pretty, and the cute. And they definitely took full advantage of that in this film. Every, single, scene, reeked of either "ooh shiney!"-pretteh, or "wanna squish 'im and call him george"-cute, or even "zomg awesome!!1"-drama... and maybe a few splashes of "squee"-funny.
Though actually, I have to admit that for quite a bit of the scenes, I couldn't tell if it was good CGI, or they just parked a camera in a spot for a couple hours/days/weeks and then 'shopped it together at fast forward. But then just when I think a scene must've been completely computer generated, they zoom in on a critter and it's apparent it's real.
The Different:
The most marked difference between this film and your average documentary is that they also cut out all the boring parts. Boring parts being non-pretty parts in this case, what with the movie being one big eye candy.
What I found to be really interesting was the Hollywood dramatization of predator-prey scenes. This is the first I've seen that made the act of killing seem like foreplay. (Cheetah/antelope *headdesk* *brainhasbroke*) Though, I don't think that was on purpose, since this was supposed to be extremely G-rated (I think they may have went overboard since I'm pretty sure they photoshopped any of the blood out of the kill scenes. XD)
The Bad:
Well, I did mention that I couldn't tell if it was CGI a lot of the time (basically any time there was no animal on the scene). It would suck to find out all of the "nature" scenes were faked.
Other than that... Well, I found the narration kind of lacking. Now, I understand intellectually that this wasn't meant to be a "real" documentary, so it wasn't going to be like a "real" documentary where they bombard you with the 101 factoids of some species/ecosystem/etc. But still, looking at the animals, my brain keeps wondering where my factoids are. And instead we get some insipid Hollywood purple prose and quite a bit of environmentalist soapboxing. Now, I know that was probably the whole point of the show, but...
Well, just as a warning: Be prepared to turn off your brain going into this show as you would for a popcorn movie. Cuz if you're waiting for the geek factor, you're not gonna get any.
Overall: If you love shiny and cuteness, go see it. If you care about the science, go watch National Geographic instead to get it out of your system, then turn off your brain and go see it.You'll never be able to see a real documentary reach these levels of eye candy. I take that last part back, since they apparently swiped the scenes from BBC.
WTB DVD rip/BT download of BBC series...
The Good:
Say what you will about Disney, but there's a couple of things they do good - the pretty, and the cute. And they definitely took full advantage of that in this film. Every, single, scene, reeked of either "ooh shiney!"-pretteh, or "wanna squish 'im and call him george"-cute, or even "zomg awesome!!1"-drama... and maybe a few splashes of "squee"-funny.
Though actually, I have to admit that for quite a bit of the scenes, I couldn't tell if it was good CGI, or they just parked a camera in a spot for a couple hours/days/weeks and then 'shopped it together at fast forward. But then just when I think a scene must've been completely computer generated, they zoom in on a critter and it's apparent it's real.
The Different:
The most marked difference between this film and your average documentary is that they also cut out all the boring parts. Boring parts being non-pretty parts in this case, what with the movie being one big eye candy.
What I found to be really interesting was the Hollywood dramatization of predator-prey scenes. This is the first I've seen that made the act of killing seem like foreplay. (Cheetah/antelope *headdesk* *brainhasbroke*) Though, I don't think that was on purpose, since this was supposed to be extremely G-rated (I think they may have went overboard since I'm pretty sure they photoshopped any of the blood out of the kill scenes. XD)
The Bad:
Well, I did mention that I couldn't tell if it was CGI a lot of the time (basically any time there was no animal on the scene). It would suck to find out all of the "nature" scenes were faked.
Other than that... Well, I found the narration kind of lacking. Now, I understand intellectually that this wasn't meant to be a "real" documentary, so it wasn't going to be like a "real" documentary where they bombard you with the 101 factoids of some species/ecosystem/etc. But still, looking at the animals, my brain keeps wondering where my factoids are. And instead we get some insipid Hollywood purple prose and quite a bit of environmentalist soapboxing. Now, I know that was probably the whole point of the show, but...
Well, just as a warning: Be prepared to turn off your brain going into this show as you would for a popcorn movie. Cuz if you're waiting for the geek factor, you're not gonna get any.
Overall: If you love shiny and cuteness, go see it. If you care about the science, go watch National Geographic instead to get it out of your system, then turn off your brain and go see it.
WTB DVD rip/BT download of BBC series...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-01 10:13 am (UTC)So...one can't CGI a zoom on a critter?
they also cut out all the boring parts
But...that's the only reason I watch a nature documentary. ;__;
(Cheetah/antelope *headdesk* *brainhasbroke*)
*narrows eyes* Blasphemy!
You'll never be able to see a real documentary reach these levels of eye candy.
I've seen whales mating, microbes strobing, birds looking like candy, and a shit tone of amazing eye candy in documentaries. I'm hard pressed to believe that there are real eye candy out there that a good BBC documentary can't match. (In other words, I'll believe it when I see it.)
And off to bed I go.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-01 10:24 am (UTC)They can, but then it's easy to tell it was CGI.
Blasphemy!
Huh?
Er, just a quick add after watching the trailer
Date: 2009-07-01 10:19 am (UTC)If the trailer was anything representative of the film's contents, I can assure you that the film was basically a video mash up of BBC's nature documentary "Planet Earth". Only without Sir-Fucking-David-Attenborough's greatness.
/biogeek
Re: Er, just a quick add after watching the trailer
Date: 2009-07-01 10:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-01 10:53 am (UTC)Disney "cooperated" with BBC, and thus got the rights to the footage. Without spending any fucking time on it. *angry*