Michael's Movie Grade:C
Year Released:1954
History
Right after the shooting finished on The Living Desert, shooting began on a second feature length nature documentary, to be called The Vanishing Prairie. Though The Vanishing Prairie took two years to make it was released less than a year after The Living Desert. This was because work on this film began while the other while the other was just beginning the editing process.
This would be made by much of the same crew as The Living Desert. This included director James Algar, photographer Paul Kenworthy, producer Ben Sharpsteen, narrator Winston Hibler, composer Paul J. Smith and more would return to work on this film. The crew on this film being pretty much the same probably had a lot to do with how close the two movies were being made. While it would slightly change from time to time, this is mainly the crew that would work on most of the feature length nature documentaries the studio did during the Walt era. Again you may notice some of the same people who worked on Disney's animated features in the credits here. Many of these people where surprised by this decision and didn't think they could pull it off but Walt had faith in them, so they did it. This is in contrast with Disney's modern nature documentaries which feature very little to none of the same crew you would see on an animated Disney film (the exception being producer Don Han).
The Vanishing Prairie marked one of the few times Disney had any trouble with the censors. This film had a scene in which a mother buffalo gives birth. The New York Censors hated this scene. Because of this the film was actually banned in the state of New York. Walt was rightfully shocked by this decision. The idea of censoring a Disney film shocked many people and many of them complained quite a bit about this. After enough complaints, the censors reluctantly lifted the ban. A review in the New Yorker stated, "I lived through this scene and I think you will too".
Around 120,000 feet of footage was shot for this film, but only 30,000 were used. This shows perfectly how strong Walt's Demand for perfection could be.
The Vanishing Prairie was a financial success. While there was still some of the humor critics hated in The Living Desert here it was lessened. Walt learned from the critics earlier complaints, and set out to make such improvements for this film. Because of this critics were much kinder to The Vanishing Prairie. This film once again won an Academy Award for best documentary feature.
Review
The Vanishing Prairie is a film with both great virtues, and huge faults.
The photography is still magnificent, and the ending scene needs to be seen to be believed. This incredible photography is still amazing today, and is just lovely to look at.
The narration and humor may be less intrusive this time, but they still are a big problem, though there is nothing here as cringe-worthy as the dance of the scorpions. I still feel that these films would be better off either without, or with less narration. The attempts at humor are really never that funny, and easily should have been left out. Worse though is the music that plays in these scenes. I am very rarely a fan of how films sometimes accompany what is supposed to be funny with music that tries to sound silly, but rather just sounds obnoxious.
However despite these huge faults, the photography is still amazing, and awe-inspiring. This again is quite faulted, but what works definitely makes it worth a watch.
Film Credits
Director: James Algar
Writers: James Algar, Ted Sears, Jack Moffitt, Winston Hibler
Narrator: Winston Hibler
Producers: Walt Disney, Ben Sharpsteen
Music: Paul J. Smith, Joseph Dubin, Edward H. Plumb, Al Teeter
Photography: Lloyd Beebe, Dick Borden, Herb Crisler, Murl Deusing , Warren Garst, Cleveland P. Grant, Bert Harwell, Stuart V. Jewell, Paul Kenworthy, Tom McHugh, Olin Sewall Pettingill Jr., James R. Simon
Editor: Lloyd L. Richardson
Production Management: Erwin L. Verity
Sound Department: C.O. Slyfield, Harold J. Steck
Visual Effects Artists: Ub Iwerks, Joshua Meador, Art Riley
Resources Used
The Disney Films by Leonard Maltin
-Michael J. Ruhland
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