Michael's Movie Grade:B
Year Released: 1958
History
This True Life Adventure used 11 photographers. 5 of these photographers had previously worked for Disney nature documentaries (Lloyd Beebe, Herb Crisler, Lois Crisler, James R. Simon, Tom McHugh) but for the rest working for Disney was new (Hugh A. Wilmar, Dick Bird, William H. Carrick, Cecil Rhode, Rickard Tegströ, Carl Thomsen). Some of those new to Disney would continue to work for Disney (Hugh A. Wilmar would for instance also work on The Jungle Cat), but for most of them this was their frist and last time working for the studio. These photographers spent nearly 3 years getting the footage for this documentary. Some of the photographers were dubbed specialists and sent on their own assignments. For instance Hugh A. Wilmar shot footage of the polar bears, Herb and Lois Crisler shot footage of wolves and caribou, James R. Simon worked on footage of lemmings and Llyod Bebe shot footage of the caribou and oxen. This film includes some of the earliest film footage to be shot in Antarctica.
Like the previous True Life Adventures this film was directed by James Algar, who started work at Disney as an animator, he also directed The Sorcerers Apprentice segment in Fantasia. White Wilderness includes much of the same crew that worked on previous Disney nature documentaries including producer Ben Sharpsteen (another person who started working at Disney as an animator, he also was the supervising director for Pinocchio, and Dumbo), and narrator Winston Hibler.
The lemming suicide scene was actually faked. The particular lemmings that appear in the film, not only don't commit suicide, but also don't even migrate.
This film received mixed reviews from critics, however it was a big hit at the box office, and won an academy award for best documentary, and was nominated for best music.
Quite good nature documentary.
The photography in this film is absolutely incredible. Every scene is just lovely to look at. Much of the footage, leaves an audience in awe, wondering how the photographers could get these beautiful images.
Again I am not a fan of the narration or comedy of this series. Here though it is much less distracting than it is in earlier Disney nature documentaries. The problem really is that the humor and narration are just unfunny, and unnecessary.
This film features probably one of the best scores of the True Life Adventures. Unlike many previous True Life Adventures, the score here complements the action rather than distracts from it. While during some of the comedy scenes the score can still get distractedly comedic, unlike other True Life Adventures this is much rarer in White Wilderness. More often then not in this film the score represents the majesty of nature than the comedic parts of this film.
Overall a quite well made film.
Film Credits
Director: James Algar
Writer: James Algar.
Narrator: Winston Hibler
Producers: Walt Disney, Ben Sharpsteen
Music: Oliver Wallace, Evelyn Kennedy, Clifford Vaughan
Photographers: Lloyd Beebe, Herb Crisler, Lois Crisler, James R. Simon, Hugh A. Wilmar, Dick Bird, William H. Carrick, Tom McHugh, Cecil Rhode, Rickard Tegström, Carl Thomsen
Editor: Norman R. Palmer
Production Manager: Erwin L. Verity
Special Effects: Ub Iwerks
Effects Animators: Joshua Meador, Art Riley
Sound Artist: Robert O. Cook
Resources Used
The Disney Films by Leonard Maltin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052389/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
http://www.thedisneyfilms.com/search/label/White%20Wilderness
-Michael J. Ruhland
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