Opens
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Opens
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Thursday, April 22
In this well-intentioned celebration of nature and traditional ways of life, giant-screen images feel generic when they should inspire wonder. With unwieldy large-format equipment, the filmmakers have ventured into places mainly untouched by Western technology, but the fruits of their labor are devoid of drama or urgency.
"Sacred Planet", which the Walt Disney Co. is bowing on Earth Day, has family appeal but will click especially as an educational item. It would be a worthy discussion-sparker in elementary school curricula. On the other hand, Imax aficionados -- and filmgoers who like a good, or any, story with their natural history lesson -- will find far better examples of the genre in such current offerings as the 3-D feature "Bugs!" and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea".
One of the powers of large-format film is its ability to immerse the viewer in otherwise inaccessible environments, presenting the smallest details in glorious magnification. By contrast, "Planet" suffers from its survey approach. Traveling to five regions -- California/Utah/Arizona, Namibia, Thailand, coastal British Columbia/southeast Alaska and Borneo -- the film follows a seemingly arbitrary course from one to the next, begging many questions along the way about the endangered communities it visits.
The husband-and-wife team of director-editor Jon Long, who made the 1999 Imax feature "Extreme", and writing-producing partner Karen Fernandez Long don't identify the groups of indigenous people they've filmed. The docu often shows them looking into the camera, in long takes that lose their charge after the first two or three times they appear.
Voice-over narration, whether by longtime environmental activist Robert Redford or tribal elders, is, like the film as a whole, lacking in specificity. "Native voices" -- unattributed to particular tribes, traditions or people -- wax eloquent on the interconnectedness of all life, the animating force of spirit and the healing power of storytelling and art. But however laudable, and important, it is to listen to people who still live in close harmony with the earth, helmer Long distances rather than involves the viewer. The intent might be a sense of mystery; the effect is didactic vagueness.
DP William Reeve and his intrepid colleagues have captured picturesque, occasionally breathtaking, views of exquisite places: primordial forests, desert rock formations, paradisal waterfalls and mist-enshrouded jungles. There are disappointingly brief glimpses of rock pictographs, totem poles and rituals, and the planet's fauna make cameo appearances. The most exhilarating sequence is shot at treetop level, alongside giraffes galloping across an African plain. Time-lapse scenes of a frenetic city (Bangkok), meant to strike sharp contrast with the serene settings, are repetitious interruptions that add little beyond visual echoes of "Koyaanisqatsi", without the impact.
SACRED PLANET
Buena Vista Pictures
A Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a New Street/Allied Films production
Credits:
Director-editor: Jon Long
Writer-producers: Karen Fernandez Long, Jon Long
Executive producer: Jake Eberts
Director of photography: William Reeve
Native voices: Arapata McKay, Tsaan Ciqae, Mae Tui, Cy Peck Jr., Mutang Urud
Narrator: Robert Redford
Running time -- 46 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 4/22/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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