White Wilderness (1958)

The wildlife of the arctic is explored in this true-life adventure.

Director:

James Algar

Writer:

James Algar

Stars:

Winston Hibler, Volmer Sørensen

Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Winston Hibler	...	Narrator
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Volmer Sørensen	...	(Danish narrator) (as Sejr Volmer Sørensen)

Storyline

The wildlife of the arctic is explored in this true-life adventure.

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Plot Keywords:

fake documentary | denali national park | lemming | actual animal killed | mass suicide | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Documentary | Family

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

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. It was this film that perpetuated the myth in popular culture of lemming suicide, something that's never been reported to have occurred in real life.

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Goofs

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.

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Connections

Referenced in QI: Adam (2003)

User Reviews

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.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 August 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

A True-Life Adventure: White Wilderness

Filming Locations:

Alberta, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1