Archives: A
- E F - N O
- Z Posters Message
Boards
Who
We Are and Why We Do What We Do
BLU-RAY DVDs:
Batman Begins
Black Hawk Down
Blade Runner
Bourne Trilogy
Cars
Casino Royale
Cloverfield
Dark Knight
the Duchess
Enchanted
Fifth Element
Hellboy
Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter years 1-5
Ice Age
Incredible HULK
Independence Day
Iron Man
Juno
Kill Bill 1 & 2
Kung Fu Panda
Mamma Mia!
Men in Black
No Country for Old Men
Persepolis
Pirates: Dead Man's Chest
Pirates: At World's End
Rambo box set
Ratatouille
Spiderwick Chronicles
Sleeping Beauty
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Terminator
Terminator 2
Top Gun
Total Recall
Transformers SE
300
Ultimate Matrix coll
Twilight
Underworld
V for Vendetta
Wall-E SE
X-Men Trilogy
Zack & Miri Make a Porno
We're Kidlet Safe
Search engine
by FreeFind
click to search site
Now in Release:
Adam Resurrected
An American Affair
Cadillac Records
Che
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Coraline
Curious Case of
Benjamin Button
Day the Earth Stood Still
Defiance
Donkey Punch
Doubt
The Express
Four Christmases
Frost/Nixon
Inkheart
The International
Milk
New in Town
Pink Panther 2
Pride and Glory
Revolutionary Road
Role Models
Sex Drive
Slumdog Millionaire
The Spirit
Taken
Two Lovers
The Uninvited
Watchmen
What Just Happened
While She Was Out
DVDs on Sale:
Alice
in Wonderland
An American in Paris
Batman
Begins
Bambi
Beauty
and the Beast
Blade
Runner
Cinderella
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
E.T.
Forrest
Gump
Gone
With the Wind
Harry
Potter yrs 1-4 set
Harry
Potter Order of Phoenix
Alfred Hitchcock set
Incredible Hulk SE
Indiana
Jones trilogy
Iron Man SE
Kung Fu Panda
The
Lion King
Lord
of Rings 12 discs
Mamma Mia! SE
Mary
Poppins 40th LE
Marx Bros set
Ultimate
Matrix set
Monty
Python - Holy Grail
Pirates of Caribbean 3
Ratatouille
Saw I - IV set
Saw III (unrated)
Saw IV (unrated)
Saw V (unrated)
Shrek Trilogy
Simpsons Movie
Sin
City
Sleeping
Beauty
South
Park Movie
Spider-Man Trilogy
Spiderwick Chronicles
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (1-3)
Star
Wars Trilogy (4-6)
Twilight
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Wall-E SE
X-Men Trilogy
Zack & Miri make a Porno
Looney
Toons
Golden Age DVD
Volume
1
Volume
2
Volume
3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD
Season
1
Season
2
Season
3
Popeye the Sailor DVD
v.1 1933 - 1938
v.2 1938 - 1940
v.3 1941 - 1943
75th anniversary coll.ed.
Star
Trek TOS (TV)
Star
Trek TNG
Star
Trek Films
by Hugo van Lawick; Mat Aeberhard, ass't camera
narrated by Sir John Gielgud.
Music by Stewart Copeland
Cranky fully admits to having developed a Jones for cable TV's Discovery Channel, from whom The Leopard Son is the first big screen release. So I was actually intrigued with the idea of the flick.
Cameraman Hugo van Lawick has spent 35 years in Africa's Serengeti Plain, photographing the wildlife and raising a son (with naturalist Jane Goodall). His "pitch" to Discovery was simple: pick an animal and follow it for two years. Nature would write the story.
The "story" they got, as voiced in the narration by Sir John Gielgud, was quite extraordinary. The life of the Leopard they chose, and the cub she was raising, show nature at its most basic. Mom teaches cub to hunt and kill, and then leaves it to fend for itself. It's more than it looks.
We are introduced to an entire pecking order of animals in the plain: the Lions, who will kill off all other predators to ensure a sufficient food supply; the Hyena and Jackals, who will steal the kill from other animals; the Cheetah who, though similar to the leopard, roam in packs; the Baboon, ancient enemy of the Leopard.
Above all else fly the Swan Eagles and, as beautiful as the photography on the Plain is, and the aerial shots are spectacular.
As the true to life story plays out, there are several moments which are truly spellbinding -- where I honestly wondered what was going to happen next. But these moments were not enough to overwhelm the failure of construction of The Leopard Son.
Now this is an entirely personal thing, so feel free to discount it if you'd like. The narration does not put words into the mouths of the animals (as in, say The Lion King) which is a plus. It does, however, make strong allusions between the Leopard raising the cub and van Lawick's raising of his own son. That's called anthropomorphism, and Cranky just doesn't like it.
The second failing of The Leopard Son is, strangely enough, the narration by Sir John Gielgud. If you don't know the name (shame on you!) you most certainly know the voice, one of the most distinctive in the entire English speaking world. That's the problem -- it is is too distinctive. It took Cranky almost an hour to shake the knowledge that he was hearing Gielgud voice van Lawick's reflections and commentary. Once ignored, for the final 20 or so minutes, the film delivers at least one edge of the seat plot twist which is left, as Nature leaves a lot of things, unresolved. It is the kind of thing that would have upset my 8 year old niece tremendously.
The Leopard Son does not fail as a big screen film. Based on the reaction of the kidlet sitting behind me, who was constantly asking his mother questions about what was going on, it will fare better as a rental.
On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price for The Leopard Son, he would have paid . . .
$3.00
If The Leopard Son is playing near you on a monstro-sized theater screen, see it for the cinematography. Everything else will fall into place just fine.
And, not that it is any consolation to Discovery or the filmmakers, The Leopard Son would have been a mother if shot in IMAX, which is particularly suited to nature shoots of this kind.