Disneynature’s 2010 Earth Day release, Oceans, takes the audience on a fascinating underwater journey.
Artwork by Rebecca Holt
In April 2008, The Walt Disney Company announced an independent film label, Disneynature, which releases nature documentaries in theaters. Their first documentary, Earth, was released on Earth Day of 2009. Mainly focusing on three species’ migration journeys over a year (the polar bear, African elephant, and humpback whale), I was a bit surprised to find out Earth was basically just re-edited footage of BBC’s nature documentary, Planet Earth. This 2010 Earth Day’s Disneynature release was Oceans, which consisted of extraordinary footage one has to see in order to truly appreciate.
Produced in France, Oceans explores the Earth’s five oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic), getting spectacular footage of the creatures that inhabit them along the way. I’ll start out by saying Oceans has only one con: Pierce Brosnan’s (Die Another Day) bland narration. For a film that consists of amazing underwater footage, Brosnan does not seem to be the least enthusiastic, and instead talks like he is drifting off to sleep. Listening to his humdrum narration, I wondered if Brosnan even got see the film, or if he was just simply reading from a script, which I am strongly against, as Oceans is a film one needs to see before applying narration.
While Brosnan may have not been the best choice when selecting a narrator, the footage captured is so breathtaking, it really does make up for his lack of personality. The film opens with a boy admiring the ocean, just staring out into the vast waters. The boy is not present for that long, as he is just a simple way to introduce and conclude the movie’s main subject: the creatures that inhabit our oceans.
I was surprised Oceans was able to cover every underwater species in a time period of an hour and a half. There was not much information on many of these creatures and some were not even defined. As a group of birds were swiftly diving into the water to feed on an enormous school of fish, I kept on hoping these birds’ specific name would be mentioned, as I did not know what birds actually did this feat (they sort of resembled seagulls, but I do not think they could dive into the water that fast) because they seemed to swim as well. Like much of the underwater footage captured though, there was no specific description, as the wildlife for the most part, was supposed to speak for itself.
While all the footage is spectacular, there are some scenes that stand out. There is a fight scene between a hermit crab and a shrimp, and even footage of ships catching fish with their nets (which becomes really depressing, as the audience not only sees species get caught and discarded, but water pollution which is so awful, the ocean water looks brown and dirty with lots of debris), but one of the best (and cutest) scenes is of baby sea turtles hatching out of their eggs and making their way towards the ocean. However, a flock of seagulls soon arrive, swooping down and catching the little guys. When Brosnan says few baby sea turtles make this journey each year, I couldn’t help but feel depressed, as they no sooner are born than they become something’s meal.
Disneynature’s celebration of Earth Day 2011: releasing Oceans, is a party everybody should attend. The footage is truly breathtaking and although Pierce Brosnan lacks in narration personality, the spectacular camera shots really make up for it. After watching Oceans, I just waned to get some scuba gear and dive into our oceans, experiencing all the wonders they have to offer.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
