Meerkat Manor returns!
Posted on May 25, 2008 at 11:18 am
“Meerkat Manor: The Next Generation” starts on Animal Planet June 6. And tonight, families can prepare by watching “Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins,” a feature film narrated by Whoopi Goldberg about the early story of Flower, before she became the Manor’s famous first lady, from her birth and early years as a young, inexperienced meerkat to a family leader, guiding her mob (family) in one of the harshest deserts on the planet.
As with March of the Penguins and other nature documentaries, some of the harsh realities of life and death are confronted by these wonderfully alert little creatures. Parents should be prepared to talk to children about these issues and about the way that the meerkat mob (a community of families) works together to take care of each other.
I watched the movie-it was a disappointing departure from the series. I like Whoopie, but I love Sean’s narration. And the script Whoopie was given was sentimental nonsense- nothing like the dispassionate information of the series. The movie was a re-creation of Flower’s life, and it seemed there were commercials every 30 seconds. Why they re-created her life, when they should have tons of footage of the real thing is something I will never understand. A recap of Flower’s life should have been done using existing footage of her, and her whole life story told, not just the first part.
The preview of the new season was also not up the standard of previous seasons. Sean was not doing the narrative, and the script was trite and contrived.
Why change when the original was perfect?