Between 1948 and 1960, Disney made fourteen nature documentary films, seven of them short subjects and seven of them full length and all narrated by Winston Hibler. Starting with 'Seal Island' and ending with 'Jungle Cat'. This series was called True Life Adventures, seen as a big fan of Disney and nature documentaries and after wanting to see some older nature documentaries. The True Life Adventures series is a more than worthwhile one and of consistently high quality (especially the short subjects) and do prefer all of them over most of the recent years DisneyNature films.
Really did want to like 1958's 'White Wilderness' so much more. It is truly frustrating, as the good things are many and the quality of the best of those good things is some of the best of the series. This could easily have been the best of True Life Adventures feature films, but actually at the end of the day ended up being my least favourite and it is the only puzzling Oscar win of the three the True Life Adventures series garnered. 'White Wilderness' is the one to contain the most controversial, and now widely criticised, sequence of the series and it is one that is so out of place (unfortunate seeing as that was not like the series) and tactless that it spoils the film. Not single-handedly, as there were a couple of other things wrong too, but significantly enough.
'White Wilderness' does have a lot that is good. It looks wonderful, the colour photography is so vivid in colour and never static. Showing the majestic scenery, both beautiful and uncompromising, in all its glory. Especially the way the rivers and glaciers are used. The music score is one of the series' best, so lush and energetic and not only adds to the action but enhances it in a way that few other entries in the series did to such an extent. Will agree that it is one of the best paced feature films in the series, tighter and more succinct and with more of a good natured feel.
Enough of 'White Wilderness' is informative and it entertains and moves. The polar bears are absolutely adorable and their playfulness infectious. Much of the footage is dazzling, especially when showing how the scenery is affected by environmental challenges. Also liked how pulling no punches some of it is, with it making some good points worth addressing and still relevant.
By all means however, 'White Wilderness' isn't perfect. Some of the most over-jokiness and cutesiness of the series is here, some of the humour in the narration particularly is forced. Usually didn't have a problem with Winston Hibler's good natured and at times deadpan narration for the series, but he is very monotone and going through the motions sounding.
The worst aspect is the lemmings sequence, very controversial at the time and still majorly criticised for good reason. No other sequence in the True Life Adventures series had this much controversy or criticism, not even the scorpion mating dance scene in 'The Living Desert'. The lemmings sequence's staging is very manipulative and excessively tasteless, it is made clear in the film what the scene was trying to say but the reasoning seemed very at odds with the way the scene is staged. Also found it very out of place within the film and the series. It didn't single-handedly ruin 'White Wilderness', but significantly brought it down and spoilt it (especially when one sees how different attitudes are regarding animal protection in documentaries).
Concluding, so many good things but very frustrating. 6/10.
Really did want to like 1958's 'White Wilderness' so much more. It is truly frustrating, as the good things are many and the quality of the best of those good things is some of the best of the series. This could easily have been the best of True Life Adventures feature films, but actually at the end of the day ended up being my least favourite and it is the only puzzling Oscar win of the three the True Life Adventures series garnered. 'White Wilderness' is the one to contain the most controversial, and now widely criticised, sequence of the series and it is one that is so out of place (unfortunate seeing as that was not like the series) and tactless that it spoils the film. Not single-handedly, as there were a couple of other things wrong too, but significantly enough.
'White Wilderness' does have a lot that is good. It looks wonderful, the colour photography is so vivid in colour and never static. Showing the majestic scenery, both beautiful and uncompromising, in all its glory. Especially the way the rivers and glaciers are used. The music score is one of the series' best, so lush and energetic and not only adds to the action but enhances it in a way that few other entries in the series did to such an extent. Will agree that it is one of the best paced feature films in the series, tighter and more succinct and with more of a good natured feel.
Enough of 'White Wilderness' is informative and it entertains and moves. The polar bears are absolutely adorable and their playfulness infectious. Much of the footage is dazzling, especially when showing how the scenery is affected by environmental challenges. Also liked how pulling no punches some of it is, with it making some good points worth addressing and still relevant.
By all means however, 'White Wilderness' isn't perfect. Some of the most over-jokiness and cutesiness of the series is here, some of the humour in the narration particularly is forced. Usually didn't have a problem with Winston Hibler's good natured and at times deadpan narration for the series, but he is very monotone and going through the motions sounding.
The worst aspect is the lemmings sequence, very controversial at the time and still majorly criticised for good reason. No other sequence in the True Life Adventures series had this much controversy or criticism, not even the scorpion mating dance scene in 'The Living Desert'. The lemmings sequence's staging is very manipulative and excessively tasteless, it is made clear in the film what the scene was trying to say but the reasoning seemed very at odds with the way the scene is staged. Also found it very out of place within the film and the series. It didn't single-handedly ruin 'White Wilderness', but significantly brought it down and spoilt it (especially when one sees how different attitudes are regarding animal protection in documentaries).
Concluding, so many good things but very frustrating. 6/10.
