Disney’s got the greens

Watch Earth’s secrets unfold on the big screen courtesy of the US’s most iconic studio. By Chris Garcia



Animals, both real and imaginary, have played a major role in the success of the Disney empire, but the launch of two new nature documentaries, Earth and Crimson Wing, marks a new “green” phase for this company.


Back in the ’50s, Disney’s so-called “True Life Adventures”, like The Vanishing Prairie and The Living Desert, were extremely popular. They made 17 of these documentaries between 1950 and 1960 and won numerous Oscars, one of which was for the spectacular use of time-lapse photography, which was very much a novelty back then.


But soon the widespread reach of TV sounded the death knell for wildlife documentaries on the big screen. They had become the domain of TV and Disney closed down True Life Adventures.


But the growing concern about the environment revived interest and the turning point came with the blockbuster success of March of the Penguins, the 2005 documentary that cost about R30-million to make and took over R1-billion globally at the box office.


The Disney executives saw the possibilities and created a new brand, called Disneynature, their first new production label in 60 years.

President and CEO Bob Iger says: “We love balancing heritage and innovation... Disneynature is a concept we will build across the company and we hope these films will contribute to a greater appreciation of the beauty and fragility of our natural world. ”


It’s not a purely altruistic move. The first thing they did was to freshen up the prints of those 17 True Life Adventures, and release them in 2008 on DVD, where they proved extremely profitable.

“Disney has been an inspiration to wildlife documentarians for generations,” says Iger, “and it’s a genuine thrill to advance our great legacy under this new label.”


Their first Disneynature full-length production was done in association with the BBC. It’s called Earth, and it was made by the team behind the award-winning BBC series, Planet Earth.

“We were so blown away by that TV series and we wished the Disney name was on it,” Iger says, explaining why he signed Alastair Fothergill, the director of Earth, to a multi-picture deal.


Earth follows the migratory trail of three different sets of animals — polar bears, whales and elephants. It is made up of material from the BBC series as well as never-before-seen footage with a new narration recorded by James Earl Jones. It weaves together three stories in three different locations — the ocean, the African savannah and the Antarctic.


The second film from Disneynature is Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos from German directors Matthew Aeberhard and Leander Ward. It offers the first detailed record made of the birth, life and death of these crimson-winged flocks. Shot against a dramatic backdrop of landscapes, these secretive birds survive and breed in Lake Natron in northern Tanzania.


Beyond that film, production has begun on Orangutans: One Minute to Midnight due out in 2009, followed by Big Cats (2010); Naked Beauty: A Love Story That Feeds the Earth (2011) which deals with animals that are instrumental in the pollination process, including bees and hummingbirds; and Chimpanzee (2012). — © New York Times Partner Publications

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