Michael's Movie Grade: B
Year Released:1956
History
Unlike previous Disney nature documentaries, this film was not dedicated to one specific theme. This film would show many different areas and animals.
This film has much of the same crew as the previous True-Life Adventures, including director James Algar, producers Ben Sharpsteen and Walt Disney (of course), composer Paul Smith and narrator Winston Hibler. However with much more areas to shoot there were much more photographers than there were on previous nature documentaries. While there were some photographers who had previously worked with Disney such as Robert H. Crandall, Murl Deusing, Stuart V. Jewell, and Tilden W. Roberts, there were also some who had never before worked for Disney such as William A. Anderson, Jack Couffer, George MacGinitie, and Nettie MacGinitie, and some who this would be their only time working at Disney such as Arthur Carter, Fran William Hall, Claude Jendrusch, Donald L. Sykes, and Roman Vishniac (in fact for a few of those photographers this would be the only film they worked on). This is also the very first feature-length Disney nature documentary to use time-lapse photography. This time lapse photography was done by Rex R. Elliott, William M. Harlow, Stuart V. Jewell, John Nash Ott Jr, Vincent J. Schaefer.
Like The African Lion this film has much less humor injected into it than the earliest Disney nature documentaries. This is because the humor had been was considered intrusive by many critics. and Walt look back and discovered they were right. Walt knew that he could always improve, and took the faults of previous Disney films to heart to make sure that his studio could keep making better and better movies.
Secrets of Life was a big hit with both audiences and critics. Critics piratically loved it, not only because of less humor but also because they considered the photography (particularly the time-lapse photography) revolutionary.
Review
One of Disney's best nature documentaries.
The photography in this film is down right amazing. The images of flowers blooming, volcanoes erupting, and more will stay in your mind after the film is done as absolutely amazing images. Also the time-lapse photography deserves all the praise the critics gave it and more. Technologically speaking this film was ahead of it's time.
Again I don't much care for either the narration or humor in this series but luckily it was lessened from some of the series' earlier entries. The music can be a bit distracting at times, but at other times it works very well.
Overall despite some faults this is a great movie.
Film Credits
Director: James Algar.
Writer: James Algar
Narrator: Winston Hibler
Producers: Ben Sharpsteen, Walt Disney
Music: Paul J. Smith, Edward H. Plumb, Franklyn Marks, Evelyn Kennedy
Photographers: William A. Anderson, Arthur Carter, Jack Couffer, Robert H. Crandall, Murl Deusing, Fran William Hall, Claude Jendrusch, George MacGinitie, Nettie MacGinitie, Tilden W. Roberts, Donald L. Sykes, Roman Vishniac, Stuart V. Jewell
Time-Lapse Photographers: Stuart V. Jewell, Rex R. Elliott, William M. Harlow, John Nash Ott Jr., Vincent J. Schaefer
Film Editor: Anthony Gerard
Production Manager: Erwin L. Verity
Sound Artist: Robert O. Cook
Special Effects: Ub Iwerks, Joshua Meador, Art Riley
Researchers: Rutherford Platt, Tilden W. Roberts
Resources Used
-Michael J. Ruhland
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