Nacidos en China

While Disney Nature's Born in China is a fascinating mix of gorgeous animals and breathtaking cinematography, it does tend to feel a little too staged for my liking.

I'll always support documentaries like Born in China, especially if they provide a different viewpoint on creatures and landscapes that are unfamiliar to most of the general public. Born in China focuses on a few animals, including Pandas, Golden Monkeys, and Snow Leopards. All of which, center upon one common theme, family. Although the story lines feel entirely made up, which include gimmicky names, the scenarios aren't. It's interesting to watch different animals try and fight the elements and other competitors to provide for their family just like us humans. In that way, Born in China is for people of all ages.

But when the film adds too much fake subtext from John Krasinski's narration, it feels like something for kids looking for some silly giggles. Because it is Disney and the audience is mostly families, the film does feel a little safe. Sure, we do have Planet Earth and other documentaries that show us some of the harsher sides to animals of the wild, but I think we could have used a little more from each animal in Born in China. Either that, or just focus on 1 or 2 animals instead of a half dozen.

Does Born in China accomplish what it set out to do? Yes. It's an entertaining and at least somewhat informative look at wildlife in parts of China. However, there are several moments that feel entirely fabricated and may take away from the viewing experience. In short, if you're going in looking for a short history lesson, I think you'll come out at least pleased with what you get. I mean, who can honestly be upset after watching pandas for an hour and a half.

6.5/10

I got to see a special advance screening of this movie 6 months before its US release. I may mention certain specific moments of the movie, but I won't spoil anything.

One of the producers came onstage before the movie started and talked about how it took 4 years to film everything and then they edited everything together to form each of the stories. This is noticeable in at least one scene where it cuts back and forth between a panda and red panda to imply they're looking at each other, but that's the only noticeable instance that comes to mind.

Among all the animals they filmed, the three main stories center around families of Pandas, monkeys, and snow leopards. The narrator tries to anthropomorphicise everything the cute furry animals do. I know other nature documentaries sometimes do that, this one does it a lot, trying everything to make it more emotionally relatable, and I guess for the most part it works, but it might get a little annoying at parts.

Speaking of the narrator, I assume there was a technical difficulty at my screening since there was no narration for the first 10 minutes, then all of a sudden he started taking as if we already knew who the animals were. What's up with that?

It sorta goes without saying that the landscapes are beautiful and the footage is impressive. What really sets this film apart is how much footage they got of the snow leopards. If you didn't know, snow leopards are very rare and notoriously difficult to photograph, let alone film. Even Planet Earth didn't get anywhere near as much footage, or as close. I'd say this movie is worth checking out just for the snow leopard footage alone.

It's difficult for me to give nature films a numerical rating since they're so different from traditional movies, so all I can really say is its pretty good. I gave it a 7/10 because I ranked every movie I've seen in theaters in 2016 from best to worst, and this movie falls in the 7/10 block for me.

The cinematics were beautiful, but that was the movie's only good part. The rest just focused on the made up struggles of cubs and parents. This was so stupid though, since they made the cubs super angsty and the parents super mean. The worst part was the parts where they gruesomely focused on the deaths of the animals and then went on to recite some stupid saying about Chinese yin and yang and then that's it. Overall absolutely terrible, there are much better nature movies.

Disney: Nobody does it better, capturing nature seen for the first time by the general public. In Born in China, cuddly Pandas are featured along with a sleek snow leopard, young monkeys' business, and yak moms. Not to forget an occasional goshawk picking off careless youngun's even though more often than not the babies get away.

Yep, that's Disneyfied reality, keeping things sweet until it's necessary to do a reality check that is nonetheless about as sanitized as a Mormon cathedral. None of this visual manipulation is as distracting as the verbal honey director Chaun Lu and writers spread on John Krasinski's grade-school narration.

Touching moments abound, especially the family play and eat times. Making this documentary acceptable for the whole family are benign Darwinian search-for-food segments that may mislead children to think Tennyson was a blowhard when he called Nature "red in tooth and claw." The narration couches the rough moments in the usual Disney circle-of-life motif. It's beautifully- photographed propaganda for Mother Nature.

Regardless, it is gorgeous in a Disney way, bereft of the trauma the world faces every day. Go, if you will, just for the Chinese landscapes—they're impressive. Otherwise, it's a feel good date

The story of the animals is very touching and the scenery is beautiful.