History and Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland
Michael's Movie Grade:B
Year Released:1955
History
In Disney's 3rd feature-length True Life Adventure, and their 10th True Life Adventure of any kind, the series took it's first trip out of the U.S. and went to Africa, and is given the appropriate title of The African Lion.
This film featured much of the same crew who had worked on the two previous feature-length True Life Adventures. This includes director (and writer) James Algar, narrator (and writer) Winston Hibler, Producers Ben Sharpsteen and Walt Disney (of course), writers Ted Sears and Jack Moffitt, and composer Paul J. Smith. However this did not feature the same photographers as those two previous films. The photographers for this movie were husband and wife team Alfred and Emla Milotte. Alfred had previously been a photographer for some of Disney's True Life Adventure shorts. However Emla had not done photography for Disney before by helped with researching on Disney's first True-Life Adventure, Seal Island. This is the first time either of them had worked on a feature film (for Disney or anybody else). These two photographers spent 3 years getting the footage needed for The African Lion.
The African Lion differed from previous Disney nature documentaries in more ways than just taking place outside the U.S.. This was the first True-Life Adventure not to feature any staged footage. While the previous films had been mostly honest footage, they also contained some footage that was faked rather than found in nature. However that is not true of The African Lion, where all the footage was completely real. Also the humor was toned down a lot. Critics had complained a lot about the comedy element in previous Disney nature documentaries. Walt didn't just brush off this criticism, he took it to heart, and therefore The African Lion has much less comedy than previous entries in the series.
Unlike Disney's previous two feature-length nature documentaries The African Lion was not nominated for an academy award. However it did win for best documentary feature at the Berlin International Film Festival. When released this film was a box office success, and critics loved it and some felt that it was the best Disney nature documentary yet. Bosley Crowther for The New York Times called it "The purest of Disney's Nature Films". This isn't the last time the studio would visit Africa and it's wildlife for a nature documentary. In 2011 the studio would make another feature-length nature documentary called African Cats.
Review
Very good True life adventure and one of the best of the series.
What really works about this film is it doesn't talk down to it's audience, but treats them with respect. Though there is some humor, much of the film does not even try to sugarcoat reality, or hide just how cruel nature can be at times.
The photography is incredible. It is amazing and beautiful to look at. It really is awe inspiring to think how the Milottes manged to capture what they did on camera, and it is easy to assume none of their three years in Africa were wasted.
As I've said before I'm not a fan of the humor in this series, so I'm very happy that there is a lot less of it here, and when it does appear it doesn't distract to much from the rest of the film. I could still do with less narration, but it is done much better here. Though it can sometimes be a little dry. It tries hard to sound exciting, without resorting to too many bad jokes, and it succeeds at this more often than the film's predecessors. I still however think Paul J. Smith's music can be too over the top and distracting at times (something that happens in these nature documentaries that doesn't seem to happen in other films he scores), and this still is a pretty big fault.
Overall this is quite a good movie, and one of Disney's best nature documentaries.
Film Credits
Director: James Algar
Writers: James Algar, Winston Hibler, Ted Sears, and Jack Moffitt
Narration: Winston Hibler
Producers: Walt Disney, Ben Sharpsteen
Music: Paul J. Smith
Editor: Norman R. Palmer
Photographers: Alfred Milotte, Elma Milotte
Production Manager: Erwin L. Verity
Sound Director: Robert O. Cook
Effects Artists: Ub Iwerks, Joshua Meador, Art Riley
Resources Used
-Michael J. Ruhland
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