Nés en Chine

The real shame with Disney's nature documentary "Born in China" is that the potential was there for a remarkable film. The imagery captured of both the landscapes and of the beautiful and elusive animals on which it is centered is completely awe-inspiring and never less than completely engrossing and compelling. And it tells the oft-poignant story of what it is like for families and packs of animals in the vast reaches of China, including adorable pandas and stunning snow leopards. Unfortunately, the film's failing is a complete and utter lack of any real substance or information regarding these subjects, which is instead traded for often contrived schmaltz and "jokey" narration. For all it does right with the stunning visuals... all else seems forced and a tad bit trite.

The footage itself is incredible. Especially when viewed on the big screen. Director Lu Chuan and his team of cinematographers and cameramen truly do capture some compelling and beautiful looks into the lives of these animals, and it's a pleasure seeing what it's like for them as they struggle to thrive and survive over the course of just over a year. The most outstanding of course being the snow leopard referred to as "Dawa" and her cups, simply because they are such stunning creatures and they face the most adversity and tragedy throughout the film. Chuan and the rest of the crew feverishly document these wonderful creatures to the greatest of extents.

The problem is that through editing and over-written narration delivered by comedic actor John Krasinski, the entire message seems a bit undermined. I know that it wouldn't work for some, but in my mind, simply showing the footage over music or with only minimal information carefully doled out through brief bits of narration would have worked best. But you get the feeling that Disney's nature department felt they needed to add more of a "message" to the film, and it feels tacky and silly. The film starts out promising with some actual key information about China and a pleasant explanation of the symbology involving cranes taking flight... but it quickly becomes an "Ohh, so cutesy!" affair with Krasinski "speaking" for the animals and inserting odd random jokes while never doling out more than the most basic and bland of facts. This was an opportunity for education, but instead it places too much focus on talking about how much animal-mommies love their animal-babies, and throwing in some really odd references to appease the young children in the audience. (The film likes to constantly remind us that it refers to a clan of Snub-Nose monkeys as the "Lost Boys" about once every 30 seconds in certain scenes.) It's borderline condescending. I remember when I was a child watching nature documentaries in school or on television... I wanted to learn. This film instead feels the need to talk down.

Still, I can't say that this fact ruined the film as a whole. Because it didn't. There's still so much to take in through the 76- minute run-time that I'd definitely give it a mild recommendation, especially to families with young children or general nature enthusiasts. While critical facts are few and far in-between and the over-done narration does drag it down a bit, the footage enclosed is constantly and consistently enthralling and exquisitely captured. And it did save the film for me, and make it an enjoyable watch as an entire cumulative experience. Seeing pandas, snub-nosed monkeys and of course the snow leopards in their natural habitats, living and breathing is just too magical to dismiss over my squabbles with the production.

I give it a slightly above average 6 out of 10. It could have been better, but there's still just enough to make it worth a watch at least once.

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

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.

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.

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