 |
Narrated
by John Krasinski. Directed by Lu Chuan. (2017, 79 min).
Born
in China
is the latest film in the DisneyNature series, sort-of the 21st Century
version of all those True-Life
Adventures
they used to make.
Some
of you might remember those: Most
of them were theatrical short subjects which occasionally showed up
on ABC‘s Wonderful
World of Disney
on Sunday nights. They were cheerful - sometimes humorous - looks at
various critters and their environments, accompanied by cornball narration from Winston Hibler. These movies were always
fun, but not always documentaries in the truest sense. As we
grew older and wiser, it was obvious many scenes were
staged and scripted for the sake of entertainment.
The
big difference is the DisneyNature films are big, sprawling and
gorgeously shot. And while they attempt to turn their subjects into
"characters," none of the animals are manipulated into
performing. They usually round up an actor to provide narration -
John Krasinski this time - which is created to manipulate the
audience instead.
 |
| Not amused. |
In
my household - with two daughters - two animals rule the Cutieverse:
Cats and pandas, especially baby cats and pandas. Born in China
has both, meaning every time they happened to be in the room when the
trailer showed up on TV last spring, I saw this:
Predictably,
there's more cute in Born in China than
the Surgeon General recommends, and not just panda and snow leopard cubs. We also follow a family of golden
snub-nosed monkeys and a migrating herd of chiru, both with their own
fair share of doe-eyed darlings. Watching this disc with my
daughters, they patiently waited through those segments, which have
their cute moments, but what they really wanted were more pandas,
more kitties. So whenever the narrative returned to them...well...
But
cute isn't all Born in China has to offer. It's the best
looking DisneyNature film to-date and these "stories" are
more interesting. One is even surprisingly poignant, which usually
never happens in these movies (though the narrative does try to
sugarcoat tragedy by rambling about the circle of life). Without giving
anything away, when one of my daughters remarked how sad one animal's
story was turning. I reassured her, "Don't worry, this is
Disney. These things always end happy." However, once it was
over, she turned to me and quipped, "Thanks a lot, Dad."
While
the film does have its unexpectedly heart-tugging moments, it's also
quite funny at times. The male chiru's courting dance had us laughing
until it hurt, as did a lot of the unused footage that plays during
the end credits, especially when the snow leopard cubs engage in the
nature film version of breaking the fourth wall.
Born
in China is another impeccably-crafted entry in the DisneyNature
series, and the most engaging one since 2014's Bears. It's
charmingly narrated, filled with beautiful imagery and, of course, dishes up an abundance of cute.
EXTRA
KIBBLES
FEATURETTES:
"Panda Suits & Bamboo Shoots"; "Walking with
Monkeys"; "Masters of Camouflage"; "Wading
Through Wetlands" (All four are behind-the-scenes shorts about
the painstaking efforts by the crew to capture these animals on
film).
MUSIC
VIDEO: "Everything Everything" by American Authors
PROMO
VIDEO: "DisneyNature: Get Inspired, Get Involved"
DVD
& DIGITAL COPIES
KITTY CONSENSUS:
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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