Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, some partial nudity, disturbing images and brief strong language
Profanity:
Some strong language, one F-word
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Drinking
Violence/ Scariness:
Animals and humans in peril, sad animal death, references to suicide
Diversity Issues:
Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:
September 26, 2014
In 1977, a 27-year-old woman named Robyn Davidson took a dog and four camels and walked 1700 miles across the Australian desert. A National Geographic photographer met up with her four times to cover it for the magazine. That led to a book, the international best-seller Tracks. And now it is a film, starring Mia Wasikowska, with Adam Driver as photographer Rick Smolan, and directed by John Curran, whose previous films (“The Painted Veil,” “We Don’t Live Here Anymore”) show a gift for letting the environment be an essential part of the story-telling. The result is a journey set in surroundings of punishing conditions but spectacular beauty that manages to be meditative and internal, and all the more illuminating for it.
This is the first of two movies based on soul-restoring real-life hikes taken by real-life women that we will be seeing this fall, both based on best-selling books, with Reese Witherspoon’s more high-profile “Wild” coming out December 5, 2014. While there are flashbacks to suggest that Davidson took on the trip to deal with some family losses, in real life Davidson has not just refused to give a reason; she has insisted that it is a foolish question to ask. She walked across Australia for the same reason that Mallory climbed Mount Everest. “Because it’s there.” Her version of a response: “Why not?” It’s pretty clear why not. It is very dangerous. The terrain is blisteringly hot and with very little water. If she is injured or lost, no one will be there to help her. But she is determined to go, indenturing herself with camel dealers to learn how to train camels and earn some to take with her. When the first one cheats her out of what is due to her, she reluctantly agrees to allow National Geographic to sponsor the trip, though it means she will have to allow Smolan to meet up with her four times to take photos.
This is not the usual travelogue, with adventures that include quirky characters, daunting dangers, and lessons learned, though all are there. Along the way, she meets up with Aboriginal people, including one who serves as a guide for a part of the journey because it includes sacred land which she is not permitted to travel on without him. She comes across a farmhouse, and the couple who live there welcome her in a beautifully understated manner.
You’d also expect spectacularly gorgeous and exotic scenery, and that is there, too. And, with just one person on screen much of the time, a lot of voiceover narration, though that’s not too bad. Most of all, this is a spiritual saga, a pilgrimage. Davidson wanted to be alone — she admits that she is much more comfortable with animals than with people. And she wanted to accomplish something difficult by herself. It almost seems at moments as though we are intruding in her beautiful solitude. But mostly, we are sharing it, and feel grateful for the privilege.
Parents should know that this film includes sad and disturbing material including suicide of a parent (off-screen) and putting down animals, dangerous activities, peril, animals shot and poisoned, some disturbing images of dead animals, some strong language (one f-word), and non-sexual nudity (female rear).
Family discussion: Why was Robyn happiest away from people? What was the hardest moment of her trip and why?
If you like this, try: other movies set in the Australian desert, including “Walkabout” and “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”
The warmest, wisest, most pleasurable live-action family film of the year is “Dolphin Tale 2,” even better than the 2011 original. This really is that rare movie for the whole family.
The first film was inspired by the true story of Winter, a rescued dolphin who was able to thrive in Florida’s Clearwater Marine Aquarium after an innovative new prosthetic tail helped to protect her spine and allow her to swim. She has been an inspiration to millions of visitors in person and via webcam, especially to wounded veterans and other adults and children with disabilities. In the original, directed by Charles Martin Smith (Terry the Toad in “American Graffiti” and Farley Mowat in Never Cry Wolf, a sensitive loner named Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) bonds first with the wounded dolphin and then with the staff who care for the marine animals, especially aquarium head Clay (Harry Connick, Jr.) and his pretty daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff). Ashley Judd played Sawyer’s mother, Kris Kristofferson played Clay’s houseboat-dwelling dad, and Morgan Freeman played crusty Dr. McCarthy, who figures out how to make the prosthetic comfortable and stable.
Everyone returns for this follow-up, and this time Charles Martin Smith does triple duty as writer, director, and actor, appearing as a strict but not unsympathetic USDA official responsible for making sure the facility meets federal standards in caring for the animals. He may refer to Winter at CMA1108, but he is trying to do what is best for her.
The kids have gone from middle school to high school. They are now experienced marine animal specialists, and spend most of their time at the aquarium, much of that in the water. We see how capable and knowledgeable they are when they assist in the rescue of an injured dolphin they name Mandy and a sea turtle ensnared in fishing line they dub Mavis. And we see how deeply they care for the animals when the veteran of their dolphin population, a 40-year-old deaf dolphin who is “paired” with Winter, dies suddenly. This is more than a sad loss. Dolphins are deeply social creatures. If Winter cannot or is not willing to be be paired with another dolphin, she will die. The USDA inspector says that if they cannot find a friend for Winter in 30 days, she will have to be moved.
Mandy’s arrival seems providential. But then the best thing happens, which is also the worst thing. They are able to restore Mandy to health. But that means that she can no longer remain in captivity, which is just for animals who can no longer take care of themselves. The motto of the facility is three words: rescue, rehabilitate, release. “You didn’t build this place to keep animals,” Clay’s father reminds him. “You built it to heal them and let them go.” The wrenching task of weighing those competing considerations is sensitively presented as a moral issue, an economic issue, and as a part of growing up that Hazel and Sawyer must understand. It is an issue of more complexity than we normally get to see in family films, and it is presented with exceptional insight. A scene where Hazel follows Sawyer’s mother’s advice to speak to Clay the way she would like to be spoken to is a small gem that got some appreciative laughs of recognition from the audience. Smith knows his audience, though, and expertly seasons the storyline with cute animals, especially Rufus the pelican, who is back for more comic relief. Even with Rufus, though, the slapstick moments are just part of the story. His protective concern for Mavis is genuinely touching.
A storyline about whether Sawyer will accept an opportunity to take a special semester at sea is less intriguing. But Gamble’s quietly sincere and thoughtful performance grounds the film, with Zuehlsdorff (who provides a sweet song over the closing credits) more ebullient, but never less than completely real and in the moment. The completely natural performances of the two leads perfectly matches the sun-drenched naturalism of the setting, utterly at home in the water, interacting with the dolphins, or struggling to grow up. When Dr. McCarthy sits down next to the conflicted Sawyer to hand him a family heirloom, Sawyer says knowingly, “I’m about to get a lesson here, aren’t I?” He is, and we are, too, but it is a good lesson and it goes down easy. So does the film, ambitious in scope but light in presentation. And it is no disrespect to the movie to say that the best part is the closing credits, where we see Wounded Warriors and other people with disabilities coming to visit Winter and Hope for inspiration and, somehow, a sense that they are being understood and cared for.
Parents should know that this film includes mild peril, some scenes of animal and human injuries and a sad animal death.
Family discussion: What was the lesson of the watch? What were the best reasons for releasing Mandy? For keeping her? Did they make the right decision?
This year’s Disney Nature release for Earth Day is “Bears,” the story of an Alaskan bear named Sky and her twin cubs, Scout and Amber, their trek from the den where they’ve hibernated all winter to a place where they can find enough food to sustain themselves through the summer and the next year’s hibernation. John C. Reilly is the genial narrator in a highly relatable story that has adventure, humor, peril, discovery, and some very powerful maternal love. There’s a reason that we call our toughest human mothers mama bears.
As in the previous entries in this series, the footage is stunning, both the breathtaking grand vistas of snow and mountains in the five million acre national parkland on the Alaskan peninsula to the tiny faces of the brand-new cubs. And it is filled with “how did they get that” moments, with no indication until the final credit sequence of any human presence. The water sequences are especially thrilling.
The narration is less intrusively anthropomorphic than some of the previous entries in this series. While there are many dangers and some animal battles and predators, it is also less sad and scary than African Cats. Parents of younger children should know that it appears at one moment that one of the cubs has been killed, but it turns out that he is fine.
Sky and her tiny cubs wake up in the den she prepared for giving birth and dozing through the winter. She is depleted and the tiny cubs are not quite ready for the week-long trek through the snow to find a place where the salmon are running, and Sky can have access to the 90 pounds of protein a day she will need to survive the next hibernation. The trio face many threats. They reach a pack of other bears (the cubs’ are very excited to find others of their species), but Magnus, the over-1000 pound alpha male, is capable of eating the cubs if no other food is available. An outcast from the pack is also after them. The hunt for salmon takes them to the shore, where there are clams to eat, but it is also dangerous when the tide comes in.
The devotion and persistence of these animals is a powerful reminder that family connections link all species. With this peek into their world, we are more aware of our own.
Parents should know that this movie includes some peril and animal fighting. It appears at one point that one of the main characters has been killed but he turns out to be fine.
Family discussion: Why was Chinook an outcast? How does Sky teach the cubs what they need to know? Who is your role model and why is it important to have one? How would the story be different if it was from the point of view of one of the other animals or the salmon?
If you like this, try: “Chimpanzee” and “African Cats”
Dolphin Tale 2” is the sequel to the successful 2011 family film “Dolphin Tale.” Inspirational professional surfer Bethany Hamilton (the subject of the feature “Soul Surfer”) will join returning cast members Harry Connick, Jr., Morgan Freeman, Kris Kristofferson, Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble, Cozi Zuehlsdorff, and of course Winter, the dolphin. “Dolphin Tale 2” tells another true story inspired by the rescue of a new baby dolphin named Hope, who was saved and rehabilitated by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Here’s a brand-new teaser trailer.
I spoke with the humans behind the gorgeous new IMAX nature film, “Island of Lemurs 3D: Madagascar,” Drew Feldman (writer/producer), David Douglas (director/cinematographer), and Dr. Patricia Wright, about the challenges of making the film and the more daunting challenges of saving these precious creatures.
Copyright Warners
How do you get so close to the lemurs? What are some of the challenges that you face?
DD:We spent a lot of time scouting and looking for lemurs that would allow us to get somewhere near them. We obviously picked the easiest ones we could find because our gear is big and heavy and it doesn’t take well to running after lemurs. So we found places where their movement was constricted by geological or geographical limits and that helped us to get closer to them and that often meant that we were working with the same lemurs scientists were studying. Those lemurs had some experience with human beings already.
Patricia tell me a little bit about lemur families and the role of the females.
PW: There’s over 100 species of lemurs. Each is a little bit different in their social structure except for one thing: they are all female dominant. The females are the leaders. They are the ones that call the shots. When you watch a group, you can see the females are the first one to say “We’re going to move.” Then she moves off and everybody just follows. And they follow her into a fruit tree and then she starts to eat the best fruits available at the tops of the trees and the males are required to just wait outside the fruit tree until the females have eaten the best fruits and then the males are allowed in. And if they don’t obey the rule, well then they are reprimanded. Sometimes it’s a slap across the face. Sometimes it’s just a vocal sort of “Don’t do that.” And sometimes they bite them.
What other kinds of animals are unique to Madagascar?
PW: We have carnivores that are all related to the mongoose family. And they are very special to Madagascar, found nowhere else. There’s or no cats or no dogs on Madagascar. So instead, these kind of weasel-like creatures that have evolved into these much bigger predators. And most of the birds are found nowhere else either.
What is the Malagasy community doing to support the lemurs?
PW: When I first got there which now is well over 20 years ago, the Malagasy sort of had no idea that lemurs were special. And we spent, not just me but the environmental movement, spent a lot of time developing a National Park Service. There wasn’t anything like that before. We also train tourist guides and work on getting the people themselves to really value the extraordinary wildlife that they have. We have a education team that goes out to talk to the local villagers. We have a health team that helps them get healthier than they are now and we basically visit and talk and have meetings with the village elders and they get some jobs. Because at the end of the day it’s economics isn’t it? So we have been training them as artisans. We have been training them as construction, teaching them computers. The local people have really enjoyed the fruits of having a national park in their backyard.
You have a background in anthropology as well as primatology so I guess that applies to your work with the humans as well as with the primates.
PW: My first job was actually as a social worker. And then later, I got my PhD in anthropology. And I’ve always been interested in humans as well as primates. We are all kind of have the same emotions, the same goals and lives really. But to me, when I first got to Madagascar I realized that the lemurs lives are very closely related to what the humans are doing; partially because they’ve got both looking for natural resources. And if we can make some way that both humans and lemurs can live together peaceably and happily, that would be my goal for Madagascar.
Drew, tell me a little bit about how you first came to be interested in lemurs.
DF: I’ve always been fascinated about Madagascar but to be honest I never really knew that much of lemurs growing up. Maybe they are just overshadowed by monkeys and apes and they’ve never really had their moment in the sun. And right after Dave and I finished Born to Be Wild I had a chance to meet Pat kind of by coincidence at some party. And after I heard her stories about lemurs, Dave cornered her and was like, “we’ve got to make a movie about Madagascar and lemurs.”
So, she invited us out and we went and she took us all around Madagascar for a month and showed us how extraordinary, fascinating, and just adorable lemurs were.
I was so struck by the eyes of these lemurs. How do you capture that on screen?
DD: And it’s every color. The project that didn’t get done on this movie was that I wanted to do was a poster that was just pairs of eyes of those lemurs because there’s red, gold eyes and green eyes and blue eyes and every shade of in between. Crazy! Jewels! And yeah, just marvelous! So expressive also and of course because of the way they get around, they really need highly evolved stereo vision because they need very good depth perception to go blasting through the trees the way they do. They leap for long distances and actually get where they thought they were going to go. So they have a very, very well developed sight sense for sure as well as being pretty exotic and beautiful to look at in the eye department.
You had a big transition in technology between the last film and this one. How did that affect the filming?
DD: This is a big thing. There’s three minutes in an IMAX film magazine but we’ve now transitioned to digital. It makes an enormous difference; especially in 3-D because a 3-D film camera is almost a 300 pound instrument. Two cameras built into one, enormous cost and weight and everything and in ways everything and noise. But now we’ve come up with a camera which is about 50, 55 pounds. So that’s like our old 2-D film camera and it’s a new kind of 3-D actually. We could put it on our backs and carry it down into the jungle as a single unit and put it onto a tripod and use it in a way that seems familiar. The other thing that it has is the capacity to not run out of film. When you’re working with wildlife, that’s a really good thing. The likelihood is if they do it and are pointed that direction, you’re going to get it. And that lets you plan for things and it also lets the crew relax. One of the things that I notice is that when the crew is all working, the crew is tensed up hoping an animal is going to do something in the near future that you want. Everybody gets a bit tense because once you can that big camera on, you’re basically spending a thousand bucks a minute as that camera is running and hoping that before three minutes, before $3000 goes by, that they did something that you like and they somehow ignored that floundering machine that you are standing with. And not while you are changing magazines, which is the normal time for them to do things.
Drew, how do you go about imposing a narrative on this story?
DF: David and I spent a lot of time talking about that. Our first trip to Madagascar, I remember at the very end, we had some pretty interesting conversations about the just trying to piece together what this story is like about at its core; because obviously it’s about lemurs and the lemurs are amazing and all that but we are trying to make films that aren’t necessarily straight wildlife films that are more cinematic that have a sort of real cinema story to it. The thing we kept coming back to, really the defining characteristic of the lemur story is that they are really these accidental creatures in a sense. They came to Madagascar by accident. They found this Garden of Eden with no snakes and no apples and they flourished there for 40 million years before predators showed up. It’s kind of this alternate reality of what happens, primate development in Africa. And the danger has finally reached them. All the troubles in the world after millions and millions and millions and millions of years have finally reaches their shores. And how are they dealing with that? And how are we going to deal with that?
What have we learned about humans from studying lemurs?
PW: We have learned a lot of things. First of all, being primates, they live very long, maybe 30, 35 years in the wild. So we begin to look at old age, what is old age in the wild? Does it slow them down? Are the older ones out-of-favor? Are they good grandmothers? It was very charming to see they have great respect for their elders. They don’t cast them aside. So that’s good and we’ve learned a lot about different kinds of social systems because some of that lemurs are monogamous pairs and others are kind of groups of males and females in one group. And we’ve learned about parent-offspring conflict and growing up.
Lemurs are good parents but they do it in different ways. I originally studied father care. I was very interested in that and we saw that a lot of these animals that lived in pairs and the father wasn’t doing anything at all for the first month. But then suddenly, when the baby got to be a certain weight then the dads chipped in and started carrying the babies which was very nice. And then if there was twins or triplets then they helped, so that’s definitely true. The black and white lemur, the one that relaxes on that branch, they actually have day care, like kindergartens; where all the mothers come together and they put all the babies into this one nest and they let dad watch it while they go out and have food and have a good time and then they come back in a few hours. We’ve never seen that in other primates. This is the first time it’s been described so that’s major news.
Anybody who sees this movie is going to be utterly enchanted by the dancing.
PW: Lemurs are extraordinarily leapers. I mean they are just really going from tree to tree and then if there is not a tree, they just come down to the ground very gracefully. But it is the music that makes them seem to be dancing. They are basically getting from one place to another and that’s just natural for them. They are just natural acrobatic dancers, just the way they move. It’s beautiful!
DF: Music choices are totally fun and we certainly threw a lot of choices up against that to see what stuck. I mean we went through James Brown and all sorts of things. I remember asking one of the researchers in Madagascar who works with (19:45 inaudible), “what type of music do you think they would dance to?” She was like, “Jazz, they would dance to jazz.”
In 1977, a 27-year-old woman named Robyn Davidson took a dog and four camels and walked 1700 miles across the Australian desert. A National Geographic photographer met up with her four times to cover it for the magazine. That led to a book, the international best-seller Tracks
, a sensitive loner named Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) bonds first with the wounded dolphin and then with the staff who care for the marine animals, especially aquarium head Clay (Harry Connick, Jr.) and his pretty daughter Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff). Ashley Judd played Sawyer’s mother, Kris Kristofferson played Clay’s houseboat-dwelling dad, and Morgan Freeman played crusty Dr. McCarthy, who figures out how to make the prosthetic comfortable and stable.
. Parents of younger children should know that it appears at one moment that one of the cubs has been killed, but it turns out that he is fine.