Earth (the movie)

**Kristofor** · 04-22-2009, 12:55 PM

By all means. The photography on the documentary was great, so even if he's only kind of into the story(?) he should like it.

Now, the fact that the little guy made it almost to 5 without going to a movie is a little sad. Our little guy doesn't watch TV but At 16 months he has been to at least 20 movies in the theater. And, no, he didn't bother other patrons. Most of those were showings where we were alone in the theater (about half were after-hours, private showings (it's good to be nice to the owners/managers) the others just dead afternoon shows, or several week old shows).

**Ed62** · 04-22-2009, 01:30 PM

If he doesn't want to go, can I take his place?

Ed

**eccentrictinkerer** · 04-22-2009, 03:00 PM

It is a stunning movie, but be prepared to have a discussion related to "global alarming".

Last weekend I happened to hear a conversation between my 8 and 10 year old grandsons. The younger of the two was explaining that since California was going to be under water in 10 years 'Auntie Nikki' would have to move out of San Francisco where she lives.

It seems that their teachers have badly interpreted, and passed on, the stuff that Gore, et al. are selling to drive his companies' stock price up, IMHO.

Kids deserve a huge portion of truth with their entertainment.

**scmhogg** · 04-22-2009, 05:54 PM

Alex,

Be aware that even as a G, it contains some scenes of nice little animals being eaten by bigger animals. It's life, but also the stuff of nightmares.

Steve

**Kristofor** · 04-22-2009, 08:29 PM

Sure, but those are the good kind of nightmares... The ones that keep your kids from jumping into the polar bear pen...

**Alex Franke** · 04-22-2009, 09:15 PM

Originally posted by scmhogg

Be aware that even as a G, it contains some scenes of nice little animals being eaten by bigger animals. It's life, but also the stuff of nightmares.

I was wondering about that, actually. Are those scenes in the actual movie, or just in the documentaries?

We talked again tonight about what many animals eat and how they get their food. But of course seeing it is a lot different than just knowing about it.

**BobSch** · 04-23-2009, 07:18 AM

A review on NPR yesterday said that the movie cuts away sooner than the Discovery documentary's footage did. No blood shown.

**Alex Franke** · 04-26-2009, 01:22 PM

Well, we just got back from the movie. It was pretty good and I think he liked it a lot, even though "some of it was scary."

In the predator/prey scenarios, they did not show any blood, but they pretty much all focused on the darker side of nature -- they all ended with death or doom. (This was a disappointment in my opinion.) For example, a wolf caught a baby caribou, a pack of lions caught a baby elephant, sharks caught a bunch of seals, and a polar bear lay down to die (suggested) after being unable to bring down a grown walrus. There was nothing (unless I missed it in a bathroom break) that told the story of one that got away that didn't leave the predator in such dire straights.

In most cases, it was the animal they were telling the story about that ended up losing his life, and that was a little sad and scary for my son. Even though he knows that animals have to eat other animals to survive, I think we would have liked to see one of the animals that they featured in a hunting scene actually escape. I think they should have added one -- not every predator that misses a meal ends up dying of hunger, and I'm quite certain that predators do miss from time to time, so I think that's worth telling, too.

Re global warming/alarming, they do mention it a couple of times, but it seems to be rather apolitical. For example, when talking about the polar bear, the narrator (Darth Vader

) says something to the effect of "each year of his life there has been less and less ice," which was stated objectively. I don't remember anything that implied any human cause, either -- only that Earth seems to be changing, for whatever reason. (Note: I'm not suggesting that anyone debate this issue. I'm just stating how I felt the movie presented it, right or wrong.)

The cinematography was great, as I expected. We especially liked the "over the waterfall" shots, and many of the slow panoramas shot over time (e.g. spanning months while slowly panning from right to left to show change of seasons, growth of plant life, etc.)

My boy's first comment during the movie was, "WOW! I've never seen Earth that big before!" He was the very definition of wide-eyed.

**jackellis** · 04-26-2009, 02:45 PM

Alex, the following link is a well known amateur YouTube video. You might want to view it before deciding whether to allow your son to see it but for adults it is a truly amazing scene. Not the same quality as Earth but spectacular in the sense that a) a croc appears and unsuccessfully tries to take the baby water buffalo away from the lions, b) a very angry herd of water buffalo herd comes back to chase of the lionesses (one gets badly gored), 3) the little guy does manage to escape, though it's not clear that he ultimately survives.

I saw this not long after visiting Africa for the first time and I was very surprised to see the lions chased away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

**Kristofor** · 04-26-2009, 08:23 PM

Originally posted by Alex Franke

In the predator/prey scenarios, they did not show any blood, but they pretty much all focused on the darker side of nature -- they all ended with death or doom. (This was a disappointment in my opinion.) For example, a wolf caught a baby caribou, a pack of lions caught a baby elephant, sharks caught a bunch of seals, and a polar bear lay down to die (suggested) after being unable to bring down a grown walrus. There was nothing (unless I missed it in a bathroom break) that told the story of one that got away that didn't leave the predator in such dire straights.

That's pretty much the way of the natural world... I've seen a handful of wolves in the wild (both in northern Minnesota, and out in Montana). They were large, but even when told by a ranger that they were healthy to me they appeared rather scraggly/scruffy looking compared to how well filled out a large domesticated dog looks. It would not be hard to imagine them starving to death in a harsh winter if they were unlucky taking down prey.
When Thumper manages to escape from the hawk/coyote/whatever that may be a "happy" story for that moment but that predator still needs to eat or starve, and that rabbit is still almost certainly going to croak from something other than old age.

**LinuxRandal** · 04-26-2009, 09:06 PM

When I saw the title, I couldn't get this out of my head for two days now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3cRi7GlJig

**Alex Franke** · 04-26-2009, 09:21 PM

Originally posted by Kristofor

That's pretty much the way of the natural world... I've seen a handful of wolves in the wild (both in northern Minnesota, and out in Montana).
[snip]
When Thumper manages to escape from the hawk/coyote/whatever that may be a "happy" story for that moment but that predator still needs to eat or starve, and that rabbit is still almost certainly going to croak from something other than old age.

I don't think I'm being naive here. I can't imagine that every predator/prey situation results in the death of either the predator or the prey -- and that's mainly my point. In the movie, either the prey dies (for obvious reasons), or the predator starves to death -- there's no in between. I think it would be perfectly reasonable (if not even more accurate) to include something in the middle.

So what if Thumper managed to get away? Then good for him -- he'll go on to live another day. And the hawk? Well maybe he bats a 400 or even better. He's disappointed, but he's not going to just go off an die somewhere. He'll go eat Thumper's brother.

Sure animals eat and get eaten in the natural world. I don't think they should hide that fact (and they didn't). But I think that including an example of a failed attack that didn't result in the death of the predator would have been more representative of the real natural world.

As it is, I felt I needed to explain to my son something the the effect of, "That bear probably made a kill or two, and probably failed a couple times too. He didn't just try once and then decide to give up and go die because it didn't work out the way he wanted..."

**Kristofor** · 04-27-2009, 12:23 PM

You're right, of course, often they do get away, and I wouldn't say it would be wrong to include those scenarios (most of the PBS stuff does).

My point was just that when the polar bear (or whatever) is hunting it's not the same as you or I and our kids going fishing. It really is a life and death struggle (from both sides) for those animals. Does a five year old need to fully understand that? No, of course not. On the other hand by 10 I'd like to think they're past believeing that steak "comes from" a grocery store...

Earth (the movie)

Earth (the movie)

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