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.
After the wonderful 'Seal Island', the True Life Adventures series triumphs again with 'Beaver Valley'. This time centering around beavers, fascinating and cute though animals with not much prior knowledge about. As far as seal documentaries go, both as focusing entirely on beavers or seeing them touched upon in ground-breaking nature documentary series, it doesn't get much better or more comprehensive than 'Beaver Valley'. It is beautiful and fascinating and despite it not being feature length (like it could have been) it is impossible to not be riveted by it.
'Beaver Valley' looks beautiful for one thing. It's beautifully shot in vivid colour and the scenery is completely natural and is gorgeous and unyielding in equal measure. The music is not used too much, fits well tonally and doesn't over-bear in terms of sound. Personally didn't detect any awkwardness.
From start to finish, 'Beaver Valley' is highly informative and found myself learning a lot about beavers (and otters). It is also accessible for all ages, with it being one of the funniest and most light-hearted of the series without being dumbed down. As well as cute without being too much so, with the otters being adorable as well as hilarious. Anybody that already loved beavers will not find themselves thinking differently. Those that don't know much about them but learned a lot, like me, are very likely to endear to them. Those that didn't like them beforehand may find themselves converted.
Will say that 'Beaver Valley' is not all comedy and cuteness. There is a little danger that shows that they do have obstacles, but it is never too dark or disturbing. Did feel that almost all the feature films in the True Life Adventures series had moments where the jokiness was overdone and that parts were a little too cute. That to me was not the case with the short films, which were more focused tonally and were more sure of their target audience. It, and all the other short films, are more serious than the feature films generally in the series, but not overly so, there are moments also of adorable playfulness. The footage is fantastic at its best and it doesn't look manipulative or staged.
Winston Hibler's narration delivery has always divided those that have watched the True Life Adventures films, personally had no problem with it in all but one. Here it is good natured and even the more deadpan delivery doesn't come over as that monotone.
Overall, wonderful. 10/10.