Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

African Cats Blu-ray Movie Review

Lions and cheetahs and cubs, oh my...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown October 3, 2011

Moms, dads: you won't find a more misleading trailer for a family film than the one that introduced awwwwwwing audiences to African Cats. A newborn cheetah, his eyes still matted shut, yawns mid-slumber. Vega4 frontman Johnny McDaid purrs, "Life." "Is." "Beau-tee-ful." A mother cheetah lovingly carries her son by the nape of his neck. Two playful lion cubs nip at a lioness. Guitars begin to soar. Rain falls on a shivering cub. A mother and son call to each other in a field of high grass. Two brothers share an affectionate muzzle rub. A cub leaps in slow motion. The guitars crescendo and disappear. A lion stands firm as a crocodile hisses. A lioness and her cub seem to chat as they stroll across the Savannah plain. And a tiny little roar-in-the-making all but seals the deal. "What a cute trailer! I think I'll take Jimmy and Susie to see African Cats!" If you were one of the unfortunate parents of young children who fell prey to Disneynature's marketing machine, you have my sympathies. If you were waiting for it to arrive on Blu-ray, though, consider this review as a bit of a warning. Sitting in the theater, the sniffling began around the twenty minute mark and increased in frequency. One four-year-old in the front row timidly asked his father, "did all her babies die, daddy?" "No," the shell-shocked man stammered. "Just two of them." Fifteen minutes later, another little girl on the verge of an emotional breakdown started begging her parents to leave. They obliged. Three more teary-eyed tots followed soon after. Meanwhile, my six-year-old drifted closer and closer to my chest and -- after an injured lioness found a female willing to care for her cub before wandering off into the wilderness to die alone -- didn't even take the time to ask permission. He just stood up and bolted for the door.

Don't misunderstand: I'm all for kids learning about the cold, hard realities of nature. I don't think children should be sheltered from the circle of life, I don't think G-rated documentaries should be as neutered as African Cats' trailer, and I expected portions of the film to be fairly sobering. But Cats plays as if a producer watched The Lion King, paused at the scene where Mufasa dies and yelled, "That! Let's hit that note every ten minutes! And let's rope in as many kids as possible! Make me the cutest nature documentary trailer of all time!" Yes, I would have still showed my son African Cats; I would have even showed it to him when he was three or four. Would I have taken him to see it on a giant screen in a pitch-black theater? No. Had I waited until it arrived on home video, would I have warned him about the peril and predicaments he was about to witness? Absolutely. Would it have made the film's tougher stretches less unnerving? Not exactly, but he would have at least been willing to finish it. I can't even get the poor kid to come downstairs, much less watch the portions he missed in the theater. All that said, warnings having been sufficiently issued, how does African Cats stack up? In two words: pretty well. In eight more words: just not as well as it could have.

Layla and Mara cope with a grave injury...

Every event that plays out before you is a natural, wild event. No special effects. No tame animals being wheeled in, wheeled out. Nothing. This is the real thing. And yet it follows a compelling story; an entirely absorbing tale of both the lion dynasty and the cheetah family, in parallel, that every single human on Earth can empathize with and identify with. And I think, in a way, if you watch this movie and you don't, after a little while, see lions and cheetahs but you see mothers and sons and great warriors, I think it will have worked. And I believe it will. That's what we see when we're out here. We're of course looking at lions and cheetahs, but we're looking at characters and individuals that we've known for years. Grown to understand. Grown to love, in a way. And when they have a battle, our emotions are with them...

Shot over the course of two years and assembled from hundreds of hours of footage, African Cats weaves three tales of survival and perseverance in the African Savannah. The first follows a lioness named Layla and her cub Mara, the second documents the trials of a cheetah named Sita struggling to protect five newborns, and the third tracks a grizzled lion (the aptly named Fang) as he defends his territory and pride from a vicious rival (ominously dubbed Kali). And while the stories that emerge smack of clever editing and anthropomorphic assertions, they are indeed, as photography specialist Simon King puts it, compelling and, to an extent, absorbing. In fact, the film's only real misstep, aside from its adorable lie of a theatrical trailer, is narrator Samuel L. Jackson whose measured cadence and this is some serious s#!% mono-awe falls a tad flat. As an actor, Jackson is at his best when his eyes ignite, his nostrils flare and his voice climbs to a strained rage; screaming "yes I hope they die and I hope they burn in hell!" and bellowing vengeful verses from the Old Testament. Here, he's buried in a recording booth and reading (sometimes woodenly) from a script; Mace Windu waxing poetic about Big Cats. Passion is in short supply and any one of the film's photographers or crewmen (particularly those who appear in African Cats' Filmmaker Annotations Picture-in-Picture track) would have been more effective. Had executive producer Don Hahn, who also produced The Lion King, managed to attract James Earl Jones to the project, I have a feeling my bottom lip would still be quivering.

Otherwise, African Cats is quite powerful. The all-too-human tribulations of Mara, Sita and Fang may be much too overwhelming for younger children, but the documentary has real heart, the filmmakers seem genuinely connected to every shot and scene (even if integrity forbids them from interfering), the lions and cheetahs are fascinating subjects (even if they're often portrayed as characters rather than zoological subjects), the sheer beauty of the film's Maasai Mara photography is nothing short of breathtaking, and the majesty of the beasts who roam the National Reserve grounds is undeniable and undeniably moving. There are moments when Cats earns its keep and then some. There are even moments, rare as they are, that directors Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey capture behaviors and interactions typically left on the cutting room floor. And there are certainly moments when the true nature of the natural world reveals itself. It's hard to keep your emotions in check when Sita calls for missing cubs that will never return; when a lioness ensures her daughter is adopted before accepting her cruel fate; when Fang's kingdom is overrun by Kali and his sons; when Mara realizes how dangerous isolation can be; when a mother leaves her sons, her work completed.

Ironically, though, Oceans is a far more potent Disneynature documentary, and it lacks both in-depth science and Cats' multi-pronged narrative. Cats wants to be a legitimate documentary but, in some ways, it also wants to be The Lion King. Frankly, a film can't have it both ways; it can't be a scrupulous nature documentary and a stirring animal kingdom epic. The two are mutually exclusive. Imposing a manmade story on a true-to-life documentary will always diminish the end product in one way or another, whether audiences realize it or not. African Cats wants to have its wildebeest and eat it too and, gorgeous photography and arresting Big Cat drama aside, never quite accomplishes everything it sets out to accomplish.

African Cats Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Disney's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is a beautifully rendered beast that captures every strand of hair, blade of high grass and distant wildebeest in a thousand-strong herd with spectacular clarity. Colors are warm and natural, black cheetah spots and sunbeat shadows are deep and satisfying, and the plains of the Savannah are brimming with suitably baked (at-times inherently bleached) earthtones, be it by way of a muddy river bank, rustling tree leaves or bristling mane. Detail is also quite extraordinary and hardly a shot goes by that doesn't revel in finely textured fur, crisp underbrush and sharp, wonderfully defined edges. Moreover, it all comes to glorious high definition life without any ringing, aliasing or smearing to speak of. Nighttime scenes are few and far between, yes, but those that find their way into the mix suffer from the usual oddities associated with under-cloak-of-darkness documentary camerawork (increased noise, reduced clarity and the like). And I did notice the slightest hint of banding. But nothing else about the presentation left in me in anything less than complete awe. I can't imagine African Cats and its jaw-dropping photography looking any better than it does here.

African Cats Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While African Cats is, for all intents and purposes, a more traditional documentary that hinges on seemingly omnipresent narration, Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and the subsequent soundfield it creates boasts a surprising fullness; an untamed realism that rarely falters. Samuel L. Jackson's voice is strong and well-centered throughout, no matter how much hushed intensity he brandishes. The rear speakers embrace the difficult lives of the lions and cheetahs as well; desperate mothers careen through wind-whipped grass, lionesses bear down on fleeing zebras in a fantastic display of deadly channel-to-channel speed and ferocity, herds of wildebeest thunder past and pour in from every direction, cubs roll and frolic across the soundstage, and the rising murmur of the Savannah surrounds the listener at almost every turn. Directional effects aren't astonishing but they are convincing (Sita's search for her missing cubs is worth the price of admission alone), pans are slick and stealthy, and dynamics are quite impressive on the whole. The LFE channel is given plenty of opportunity to pull its weight and does so with tremendous ease. Hooves shake the ground, roars dominate, a violent storm earns its keep, surging rivers sound rightfully dangerous, Nicholas Hooper's score has a hearty kick, and each lion hunt and showdown is a powerful sonic show-stealer. Suffice it to say, African Cats' lossless mix doesn't disappoint.

African Cats Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Filmmaker Annotations (HD): The only worthwhile extra to be had is Disneynature's excellent Picture-in-Picture "Annotations" experience, complete with photographer and crew member interviews, accessible featurettes and additional clips, pop-up trivia and factoids, and more. It's a bit hidden, though. An option to engage the track appears when selecting "Play" from the main menu; it doesn't appear in the "Bonus Features" menu.
• Disney & Nature (HD, 4 minutes): A look at the conservation projects and theme park attractions Disney supports and offers.
• Save the Savannah (HD, 5 minutes): This short EPK soon transforms into an overview of the fund-raising associated with African Cats and the efforts to preserve lands in the Savannah.
• Music Video (HD, 4 minutes): Jordan Sparks performs "The World I Knew" while taking a midnight stroll.
• Sneak Peeks (HD, 11:37 minutes): Previews and promos are included for Disneynature's Chimpanzee, Cars 2, The Lion King 3D, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Lady and the Tramp, The Lion King on Broadway, Tinker Bell and the Pixie Hollow Games and Treasure Buddies.

African Cats Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While African Cats may be a bit tough on the kiddies (parents of young children beware), Disneynature continues to produce documentary features with riveting storylines and magnificent photography. A different narrator would have gone a long way, sure, but considering the number of nature documentaries that make it into theaters, beggars can't be choosers. There's no need to beg or choose when it comes to Disney's Blu-ray release, though. With a marvelous transfer, an enveloping DTS-HD Master Audio mix and a terrific Filmmaker Annotations PiP track, African Cats should survive and thrive on store shelves.