Living with Leopards

This is an exceptional documentary. I had to pause it if I had to leave the room because I didn't want to miss a moment of it. The story surrounding the leopards was intriguing. To form your work into a family of growth and adventure of the leopards is what makes it so interesting. You show how we can relate our own lives with the lives of a leopard upbringing and family. Also, you absolutely know how to capture the beauty of the environment. I wanted to be there with you watching and filming these animals. Please continue your work with documenting animals and creating the stories to coincide. I look forward to see it! I hope you guys win awards for this piece. Well deserved.

Mother Nature is one of the scariest things I've ever seen in my life, but at the same time it's so unbelievably interesting and beautiful that I cannot help but be entranced when a documentary about it comes out; this one being a prime example of that because this is definitely one of the most entertaining nature documentaries I have seen in my recent memory. That could either be because I am a man who's favorite animals mainly include cats and especially those of the big variety, such as leopard.. or it could be due to the fact that I found this to be very well told, shot, and it has a banger soundtrack to add onto that.

For a movie that literally just follows the lives of a leopard family, including both the mother and the father plus their two adorable ass cubs, this is surprisingly intense and drama filled - which I suppose does make sense as nature is an inherently wild place but these have to be one of the most interesting leopard families these people could've chosen to document because the stuff they get up to is exhilarating, intense, and depressing all at the same time. I think if I were to rank all the differing big cats based on how cute they all were leopards would have to stack pretty high because they're really adorable, mainly due to their unique pattern which is actually the same pattern present on my blanket, also I love the kittens present here.

Easily my favorite part about this entire documentary has to be how gorgeous it all looks, which is half due to just how strikingly beautiful nature already is as a whole and it gets shown in all its glory here, but also due to just how well these people utilize their camera equipment being able to get such visually impressive shots that absolutely make a much more immersive experience. There are some truly stunning landscape shots present here that are usually during the time jump segments and I was in awe every single time one would appear on my screen, genuinely amazed by how good it all looked. Plus there were some really good dynamic shots following the leopards themselves here which are equally as impressive and visually entertaining.

And the final thing that I really enjoyed about this short documentary other than it's excellent display of the animal kingdom and more specifically leopards inside of said animal kingdom, was it's really great soundtrack and score. There were some really fantastic songs that played in this thing that really uplifted the entire mood, especially whenever something incredibly depressing or unexpected had just happened - these songs mostly play during the aforementioned interlude periods where we have gorgeous cinematography and a time jump and they perfectly set the tone for the overall feeling of the entire thing. Excellent choice of music for this thing here and it absolutely helped it as a whole quite a bit.

"Living with Leopards" isn't exactly a nature documentary that's reinventing the wheel in any spectacular way or something out of the ordinary with what you would expect from a documentary like it... but it is thoroughly engaging and really well made and definitely one of the better documentaries I have seen come out of Netflix so I have to give it props for that. If you're in the mood to spend just about over an hour watching a leopard family do leopard things and grow up, hunt, fight, and ultimately end; then this is the perfect thing for you. Personally I had a really fun time with it and despite it making me feel really sad just because nature did what it does, I definitely think it's more than worthy of checking out for yourself if you have the chance and are slightly interested in a big cat family. It's nature and it's awesome, beautiful, and of course sad.. but it's in the sadness present that you find the most vital pieces of beauty.

Absolutely loved this program. The dedication of these people is incredible. The photography was amazing, have never seen anything like it before. The only negative aspect was sometimes the accompanying music was a bit overwhelming and though I understand the purpose it actually took away from the commentary at times.

Otherwise this type of programming is just so wonderful and inspiring. Really makes you appreciate all living beings and the hope that one day everyone will feel like these people and become mindful of their daily activities to minimize the impacts that wildlife is subject to daily.

As "Living With Leopards" (2024 release from the UK; 71 min.) opens, we are in the "Okavango Delta, Botswana", and Brad is following and filming a female leopard named Mothuma. The leopard freefalls from 40 feet high into a tree onto an unsuspecting prey. Why would she take such a risk? Soon we understand as she has 2 cubs to feed and protect, "unknown to the world for the initial 3 months". At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from award nominated British director Alex Parkinson ("Last Breath"). Here, he brings the tale of a group of photographers in Botswana who are following the trace of one leopard family. They spend wees, months, years to capture the incredible footage that this documentary contains (it was filmed over a period of 2 1/2 years). And when I say "incredible footage", I mean this documentary brings to the screen various scenes that I never imagined could be caught on tape. Then again, think of it this way: it took the film makers 30 months to capture this on tape, and we are seeing this distilled into 71 minutes... Kudos also the the top-notch original score for this documentary.

"Living With Leopards" recently started streaming on Netflix, and I caught it last night. So glad I did. If you are in the mood for a top quality nature documentary, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

The jazzy funky music destroys the beautiful filming, and the cameramen miss the best parts of the action every time. Something big is happening and it suddenly cuts to the aftermath. In particular, when the adult Leopard males engage in a fight. They film them engaging with each other, then completely lose them when they fight and cut to them just being wounded afterwards. They also miss the cheetah chasing the young male. 2 major points of the narrative completely missed by the cameramen. This shows how unprepared the film crew are. Shame, because it's generally filmed well when slow moments are occurring. The main issue for me, however, is the shocking choice of music which distracts you from the narrative and beauty. Whoever signed off on the funky pop music should be embarrassed. It would have been so much better if the music was more ethereal and intense. I just found myself getting frustrated by it.