Lions d'Afrique

It's an early Disney nature documentary as part of the award winning series True-Life Adventures. The opening text declares that this was three years in the making. This looks at the animals of the mysterious interior African lands. It starts at Mount Kilimanjaro. It's not only the Lions, the king of beasts. It's also giraffes, elephants, baboons, hippos, ostriches, wildebeests, and many other animals. The lions do return from time to time. It ends with a plague of locusts.

There is no denying the beauty of these animals and Disney is there to capture it. The cinematography is great especially considering the era. Nature docs don't take another giant leap until the days of HD. The most questionable narration is the little bird cleaning up the hippos. The narrator claims that it's pulling out hairs or eyelashes as beauty treatments but that may be done with tongue fully in cheek. The pictures are so beautiful and the nature is so epic. Any complaints are minor in comparison.

Another Disney Plus documentary, near the top alphabetically is "The African Lion" an addition to the "True Life Adventures" documentary series that was originally released in 1955, when animal documentaries were perhaps not as ubiquitous as they are now - indeed you can only imagine that for many this was their first ever look at African wildlife in their natural habitat.

Alfred and Elma Milotte spent three years filming the African Wildlife in three countries in Africa, Kenya, Tanganika (Now part of Tanzania) and Uganda. Their film focuses on African Lions and their behaviours but widens to show the rest of the ecosystem and how the animals interact with one another. Though the film is edited to provide a narrative of sorts, it's (thankfully) not the same cloying method as utilised with "A Tale of Two Critters".

Honestly, despite its age, I found myself sticking with "The African Lion" through to its conclusion and appreciating a lot of what I saw. It was edited to a really impressive orchestral score that I enjoyed and had some truly stunning visuals. The sky so full of locusts they reflect the sun and look like a flowing silver sea is something I hadn't seen before and that will stay with me.

Hidden cameras and High definition have, of course, surpassed this film in terms of showing the animal kingdom, but this was impressive for it's time and still retains some of that power today.

Really a superb nature documentary, a captivating watch. I can't think of a better film on the wild kingdom. Why isn't this available on video? This is not specifically a film about lions as it's title implies, this is a film about the African wild, untouched, with fascinating looks at the life and times a full variety of species including elephants, rhino's, giraffes, antelope, monkeys, leopards, and more..

Near the beginning, the narrator says; "This is Africa, The Lions Realm.." which would have been a more appropriate title. The film covers a lot of different species, and it does so in a way that enables the viewer to both absorb specific insights into the daily existence of individual creatures, while at the same time experience the essence of the wild as a whole.

Now admittedly, I love nature and wildlife type shows; and my opinion is that this production made over 50 years ago, is amongst kings of nature films.

Feature length documentary, part of Disney's True-Life Adventure series.

This was the best reviewed of the series – both at the time of it's release and in more recently reviews - and it really is quite good. While the music is over-the-top, and some of the narration is a bit Disney 'cute', a lot of the narration is really informative, and a lot of the wildlife photography is amazing, especially considering when it was done.

It's not really about Lions as much as the whole African world they lord over. There's some footage of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and a locust swarm that's flat out breathtaking.

NB: On the same disc is 'Bear Country', an Oscar winning 30 min short.

Disney documentary is one superb piece of work! Chronicles wildlife in Africa, centering on the King of the Beasts but also includes fascinating glimpses of rhinos, hippos, vultures, and even locusts(whose swarm is vividly captured). Three years in the making, film is an excellent primer for curious children, also terrifically entertaining for the adults.