A film that gives a literally cold, hard look at arctic life from the .team that brought you .March of the Penguins.., .Arctic Tale. is set up as more of a family film with pooting jokes intact and therefore suffers a bit when compared to its more truthful-minded predecessor, but there.s no denying some powerful images here. From married filmmakers Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson - who spent six frosty years in the arctic accumulating footage of various animals, they whittled down the footage to focus on an infant polar bear, Nanu, and a baby walrus, Seela. Apparently, the footage was comprised over the course of several years and several different kiddie animals are edited together in a way...
- 4/26/2009
- by Frankie Dees
- Monsters and Critics
San Sebastian International Film Festival
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- Alistair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, two veterans of the BBC school of natural history docus (Deep Blue, about life under the waves, and the BAFTA-nominated Life of Mammals), tell the story of global warming with state-of-the-art high def cameras and spell-binding photography yet spare us a storm of statistics. Earth does not relate anything not already known about how the globe is heating up, but the ingenuity of the filmmaking should connect with global audiences.
Earth goes through a year on the planet, examining how global warming affects the migration patterns of humpback whales, the hunting abilities of polar bears, the migration of cranes over the Himalayas and the long march the elephants across a parched Africa to reach a seasonal flood in the south.
Fothergill and Linfield follow the stories of a family of polar bears, a mother humpback whale and her offspring and an elephant and her calf. If the krill that feed the humpback die off, so will the whales. If the Polar Bear has no ice to hunt upon, it will die too. Even the great white shark is important at the top of the feeding chain yet, according to the filmmakers, merciless hunting has their numbers in "freefall".
Fothergill and Linfield make an unabashed appeal to audience weakness for cute animals. They delight at watching duck chicks launch their maiden flights in slow motion or baboons churlishly crossing a marsh in Africa. The birds of paradise in New Guinea preen better than any Hollywood star on the red carpet.
Patrick Stewart in an informative but friendly tone provides the narration. The statistics involved in the filmmaking are mind-boggling: 4,500 days of shooting with 30 camera teams in more than 200 locations around the world at a budget of $47 million.
EARTH
Lionsgate
Greenlight Media AG, BBC Worldwide
Credits:
Director: Alistair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Writers: Lelsie Megahey, Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Producers: Alix Tidmarsh, Sophokles Tasiouslis
Directors of photography: Andrew Anderson, Doug Anderson, Doug Allan, Paul Atkins, Barrie Britton, Richard Burton, Simon Carroll, Rod Clarke, Martyn Colbeck, Justin Evans, Wade Fairley, Ted Giffords, Mike Holding, Mike Kelem, Simon King, Toshihiro Muta, Justin Maguire, Didier Noiret, Andrew Penniket, Rick Rosenthal, Adam Ravetch, Tim Shepherd, Andrew Shillabeer, Peter Scoones, Warwick Sloss, Paul Stewart, Gavin Thurston, Jeff Turner, Nick Turner, Jon Waters
Voiceover: Patrick Stewart
Music: George Fenton
Editing: Mark Elsbury
Running time -- 99 minutes
No MPAA rating...
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- Alistair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, two veterans of the BBC school of natural history docus (Deep Blue, about life under the waves, and the BAFTA-nominated Life of Mammals), tell the story of global warming with state-of-the-art high def cameras and spell-binding photography yet spare us a storm of statistics. Earth does not relate anything not already known about how the globe is heating up, but the ingenuity of the filmmaking should connect with global audiences.
Earth goes through a year on the planet, examining how global warming affects the migration patterns of humpback whales, the hunting abilities of polar bears, the migration of cranes over the Himalayas and the long march the elephants across a parched Africa to reach a seasonal flood in the south.
Fothergill and Linfield follow the stories of a family of polar bears, a mother humpback whale and her offspring and an elephant and her calf. If the krill that feed the humpback die off, so will the whales. If the Polar Bear has no ice to hunt upon, it will die too. Even the great white shark is important at the top of the feeding chain yet, according to the filmmakers, merciless hunting has their numbers in "freefall".
Fothergill and Linfield make an unabashed appeal to audience weakness for cute animals. They delight at watching duck chicks launch their maiden flights in slow motion or baboons churlishly crossing a marsh in Africa. The birds of paradise in New Guinea preen better than any Hollywood star on the red carpet.
Patrick Stewart in an informative but friendly tone provides the narration. The statistics involved in the filmmaking are mind-boggling: 4,500 days of shooting with 30 camera teams in more than 200 locations around the world at a budget of $47 million.
EARTH
Lionsgate
Greenlight Media AG, BBC Worldwide
Credits:
Director: Alistair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Writers: Lelsie Megahey, Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Producers: Alix Tidmarsh, Sophokles Tasiouslis
Directors of photography: Andrew Anderson, Doug Anderson, Doug Allan, Paul Atkins, Barrie Britton, Richard Burton, Simon Carroll, Rod Clarke, Martyn Colbeck, Justin Evans, Wade Fairley, Ted Giffords, Mike Holding, Mike Kelem, Simon King, Toshihiro Muta, Justin Maguire, Didier Noiret, Andrew Penniket, Rick Rosenthal, Adam Ravetch, Tim Shepherd, Andrew Shillabeer, Peter Scoones, Warwick Sloss, Paul Stewart, Gavin Thurston, Jeff Turner, Nick Turner, Jon Waters
Voiceover: Patrick Stewart
Music: George Fenton
Editing: Mark Elsbury
Running time -- 99 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/24/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Opens Wednesday, July 25
Spectacular photography of the frigid domain of polar bears, walruses and seals is the chief attraction of Arctic Tale, a new documentary which hopes to combine the appeal of March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth. Like the former film, this National Geographic production observes the mating and survival rituals of a group of imperiled creatures who inhabit the frozen wasteland at the tip of our world. And like Al Gore's lecture on global warming, Arctic Tale adds a green message to its nature photography by pointing out how climate change cracks the ice floes that mean the difference between life and death for many exotic creatures.
Whereas Penguins enlisted Morgan Freeman as narrator, this new film employs Queen Latifah as "storyteller" to recount the lovable exploits of Nanu, a young Polar Bear, and Seela, a baby walrus. This new picture seems guaranteed to attract a family audience, but it might not match the impact of those two earlier Oscar-winning docus. Sometimes it hurts to be second -- or third. The novelty is definitely gone.
The narration is the weakest element in the film. Written by Linda Woolverton, Mose Richards and Al Gore's daughter Kristin, the voice-over sometimes resorts to blatant message-mongering. Just as problematic is the cutesy tone that infects Latifah's chronicle of the mishaps of Nanu and Seela on their journeys across the ice. The use of music is also a bit heavy-handed, like the choice of Sister Sledge's We Are Family to celebrate the camaraderie of a herd of walruses.
The film would be more enjoyable if one could turn off the soundtrack and simply revel in the stunning visual evocation of this white-on-white world. Co-director Adam Ravetch is also the principal cinematographer, and he is aided by a crack team that caught amazing footage above the ice and underwater as well. The animals' search for food as well as their struggle to survive their enemies makes for a fascinating Darwinian adventure.
Children will be mesmerized by the animal footage, and adults will glory in the landscapes and respond to the sobering reminders of climate change. While the film shows bears hunting seals and walruses, it discreetly averts its gaze from the most savage animal attacks. It's probably even a little less graphic than the Disney true-life nature documentaries that were popular with families in the 1950s.
The gradual melting of the ice makes it far more difficult for these Arctic creatures to find the food they need to survive, so Arctic Tale adds to our understanding of how the balance of nature is being upset by human abuse of the environment. But most viewers will find the ecological manifesto less eye-opening than the lovingly rendered tableaux of animals romping and foraging at the North Pole.
Spectacular photography of the frigid domain of polar bears, walruses and seals is the chief attraction of Arctic Tale, a new documentary which hopes to combine the appeal of March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth. Like the former film, this National Geographic production observes the mating and survival rituals of a group of imperiled creatures who inhabit the frozen wasteland at the tip of our world. And like Al Gore's lecture on global warming, Arctic Tale adds a green message to its nature photography by pointing out how climate change cracks the ice floes that mean the difference between life and death for many exotic creatures.
Whereas Penguins enlisted Morgan Freeman as narrator, this new film employs Queen Latifah as "storyteller" to recount the lovable exploits of Nanu, a young Polar Bear, and Seela, a baby walrus. This new picture seems guaranteed to attract a family audience, but it might not match the impact of those two earlier Oscar-winning docus. Sometimes it hurts to be second -- or third. The novelty is definitely gone.
The narration is the weakest element in the film. Written by Linda Woolverton, Mose Richards and Al Gore's daughter Kristin, the voice-over sometimes resorts to blatant message-mongering. Just as problematic is the cutesy tone that infects Latifah's chronicle of the mishaps of Nanu and Seela on their journeys across the ice. The use of music is also a bit heavy-handed, like the choice of Sister Sledge's We Are Family to celebrate the camaraderie of a herd of walruses.
The film would be more enjoyable if one could turn off the soundtrack and simply revel in the stunning visual evocation of this white-on-white world. Co-director Adam Ravetch is also the principal cinematographer, and he is aided by a crack team that caught amazing footage above the ice and underwater as well. The animals' search for food as well as their struggle to survive their enemies makes for a fascinating Darwinian adventure.
Children will be mesmerized by the animal footage, and adults will glory in the landscapes and respond to the sobering reminders of climate change. While the film shows bears hunting seals and walruses, it discreetly averts its gaze from the most savage animal attacks. It's probably even a little less graphic than the Disney true-life nature documentaries that were popular with families in the 1950s.
The gradual melting of the ice makes it far more difficult for these Arctic creatures to find the food they need to survive, so Arctic Tale adds to our understanding of how the balance of nature is being upset by human abuse of the environment. But most viewers will find the ecological manifesto less eye-opening than the lovingly rendered tableaux of animals romping and foraging at the North Pole.
- 6/18/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As the nature documentary March of the Penguins continues its relentless march on the boxoffice with a gross of more than $76 million, Paramount Classics has acquired rights for all English-speaking territories and Latin America to National Geographic Feature Films' next natural history docu, Call of the North. The deal was in the low-seven figures. Wild Bunch is selling the rest of the world at the American Film Market. Arctic zoologist and cinematographer Adam Ravetch (On Thin Ice) and filmmaker Sarah Robertson have been filming with Super 16 cameras for six years in the frozen Arctic, where temperatures can drop to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 11/4/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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