White Wilderness (1958)

Director:

James Algar

Writer:

James Algar (writer)

Release Date:

12 August 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Family

Tagline:

From The Top Of The World! A fabulous new adventure in exciting entertainment

Plot Keywords:

Mass Suicide | Fake Documentary | Nature | True Life Adventure | Lemming

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Winston Hibler

...

Narrator

Also Known As:

A True-Life Adventure: White Wilderness (USA) (long title)
Large Animals of the Arctic (USA) (cut version)
The Lemmings and Arctic Bird Life (USA) (cut version)

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #18892) | Finland:S | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Alberta, Canada

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

This picture was filmed in Alberta, Canada, which is not a native habitat for lemmings. They were imported from Manitoba for use in the film, and were purchased from Inuit children by the filmmakers. The Arctic rodents were placed on a snow-covered turntable and filmed from various angles to produce a "migration" sequence; afterwords, the helpless creatures were transported to a cliff overlooking a river and herded into the water. The entire sequence was faked using a handful of lemmings deceptively photographed to create the illusion of a large herd of migrating creatures.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Contrary to popular belief repeated in this film, lemmings do not commit suicide en masse by jumping off cliffs into the sea. However cyclical population explosions do induce lemmings to migrate to unfamiliar territory where they are crowded and prone to accidents such as falling off cliffs or drowning but these are not considered suicide in any sense.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Robot Chicken: Nutcracker Sweet (#1.2)" (2005)

Beautifully shot, watch this for the visually glorious surroundings and try to ignore the occasionally silly narraion

This documentary is one of the best ever produced by Disney and has both the strengths and weaknesses of most Disney documentaries-excellent visually and technically but with narration that is all too frequently vapid, silly and boring, with the added difficulty that the narrator's droning monotone almost puts me to sleep. The visuals more than make up for any shortcomings. Recommended.