Bisbiglio, elefantino coraggioso

1st watched 12/14/2001 - 4 out of 10 (Dir-Dereck Joubert): So so tale of an elephant from birth to young adulthood and all his wonderful adventures.(aka. Losing his mother, losing his best friend, getting attacked by lions, getting attacked by the takers[human hunters] etc.) There is so many rough times for this elephant named Whispers that when you're done watching you're glad you're not an elephant. But seriously, this movie uses the same basic storyline of many better kids movies(Aka. Land Before Time, Homeward Bound etc.), a quest for a better place which for this elephant would be with his mom whom he lost early in the movie. No matter where they go they are stalked by lions and humans so I'm not sure there is any safe haven which is the point of the movie(family is the answer no matter where you are) but despite the attempt to have a genuine positive ending the movie still leaves you depressed, but not ready to stop elephant killers(which I think was the 2nd reason for making the movie). The bottom line is that this movie is ok, but I don't even think it's done well enough for even kids to get through even though the movie is only 72 minutes long.

Being an animal lover, I decided to watch this film but it offers nothing new. The plot has been done countless times before. The storyline is thin. The voices do not match the characters. It's actually as if the voices were added to a documentary. The film really drags and fails to engage which eventually leads the viewer to lose complete interest. Voice actors Bassett, Derryberry and White do a competent job but the rest sound uninterested. Richardson's voice-over was quite annoying. 'Whispers: An Elephant's Tale' is filmed like a documentary (with unimpressive camera-work) and one is better off watching a documentary instead because at least they'll learn something and perhaps even enjoy the realness more.

I have a three and a five year old. They both love this movie. I think adults that try to rate kids' movies need to take into account that they are not the intended audience. Kids don't care if the plot and theme have been overdone. They don't care if the voices and the animal movement done sync up perfectly, although I actually think they did a pretty good job with this movie. I am actually always impressed when anyone can pull off a movie like this with wild animals. In fact, although I've seen lots of movies with cats, dogs, cows, etc. I haven't seen many with what are essentially wild animals, even if they'r from a zoo. I don't know where or how they filmed this, but I thought they did a great job, and again, my kids love this movie. It's definitely oriented toward kids, it's not too scary and it's got just enough action in it. I totally disagree with the harsh reviews above, and I'm not an easy sell. It's perfect for young ones.

In this live-action film, an orphaned baby African elephant named Whispers wanders alone in the desert. Fortunately, he finds a mother figure in Groove (Angela Bassett), an older female elephant who often travels alone. The unlikely pair of pachyderms roam various dangerous environments and do their best to avoid lurking predators. As they search for a legendary riverside safe haven, Whispers and Groove gradually form a close bond.

This footage of animal life always enchants and intrigues me, I wonder how much time I spent in the middle of the savannah to acquire perfect images, I've already watched a documentary about it, the difficulties faced by these cameramen, and when creating a cute little story/script and fantastic that makes everything more passionate and captivating... Adorable...

When still very young, little elephant Whispers gets separated from his mother while they both flee from hunters. Whispers gets found by a group of elephants and forces himself under the wing of Groove - who wants to be more independent and find herself. The two set off on their quest to find Whispers' mother but the dangers of the jungle are never far away, whether they be man or beast.

Stuck with several options for children's' movies on a UK bank holiday, I plumed to put this one on simply on the basis of the voice cast involved. The plot is the usual fare with `cute' baby elephant hunting for mother with a bigger, more cynical companion. The thin plot is only used to show the obstacles facing elephants in the wild and to do so in a cute sort of way that will win children over to the animals. In this regard I had to wonder why anyone would turn to this film for this purpose alone. A National Geographic show will look as good as this does and also show the elephants without having to give them voices and comedy characters. If I had the choice over I'd pick a different movie for children or pick a wildlife show for stuff about elephants. The material is not very funny and doesn't really engage, thus leaving it's value as one of the footage - something that a wildlife programme would do as well.

The footage doesn't really fit with the voices and there are no animatronic touches to help it mix. The result is that the voices feel very separate from the animals and takes away from the characters again making it harder to really care about them or get into the story. The very Babe-like Whispers is played by Derryberry (who's name alone deserves a mention!); she plays it a bit too cutesy but it's fitting for a Disney film. Bassett deserves better than this but her voice work is good even if it doesn't fit with the images (true of all the characters). Lumley thinks this is below her and you can hear it in her voice, Archer is hard to catch, White is a weird addition but not as strange as Rivers, Tone Loc and Di Maggio. None of them manage to connect with the images onscreen and it is a problem that weakens the whole film.

Overall this is not a very good film as the plot is basic and the voice work is separate from the images, making the characters difficult to engage with. The film looks great and has tonnes of good nature footage but there are better places to go to get this, leaving the film rather lacking in any specific value and only having the stars and the name Disney to attract those to it.