The recent spike in the popularity of 3D movies has been driven by the audience’s desire to be completely immersed in our entertainment. We want to plug in. Oceans, the new underwater documentary from Disneynature, is a marvelous two-dimensional reminder of how effectively a film can transport you completely to a foreign world without the use of special effects. The only special effect on display here is Mother Nature in all her splendor.
The film begins with a question. “What exactly is the ocean, what is the sea?” French directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud‘s film spans the Earth’s waters showing us the answer. It is a world populated by a huge variety of creatures, of which Océans presents the most bizarre and beautiful. We meet the blanket octopus that moves through the water like a sheet swaying in the wind. There are spider crabs that scuttle in herds and resemble legions of warriors clashing on the battlefield. My favorite is the footage of the mantis shrimp as he protects his home. No spoilers here, I will merely say the mantis shrimp knows kung fu.
The documentary is a companion piece to last year’s Earth Day release, the appropriately named Earth. Both are a bit of a throwback to Disney’s old documentary series “True-Life Adventures,” a collection of short, two-reel films that Walt Disney produced and presented with his films and television shows from 1948 to 1960. Disneynature is carrying on this tradition by making these first-rate documentaries an annual occurrence, already announcing next year’s installment, African Cats.
The narration by Pierce Brosnan is serviceable, but a tad weak. These nature docs are better suited for a standard crisp British accent guiding us through our odyssey — Morgan Freeman is pretty good at it too — but Brosnan continually comes off as pedestrian.
The film also has a terrible tendency of presenting mankind as a menace to the planet and its inhabitants. The main idea presented here is that the human race has thrown nature out of whack, a grim point of view that makes the film a little too preachy.
Perrin and Cluzaud’s footage contains some of the most amazing cinematography ever captured in a documentary, including a scene where the filmmakers were somehow able to keep pace with a pod of dolphins racing through the water at incredible speeds. Sections of the documentary are exhilarating and astonishing while other moments lull you into an almost hypnotic state. There’s also a delicate balance of the cute and cuddly mixed with the fanged and ferocious.
See Oceans on the big screen. Take the kids. Learn the secrets of the deep and meet the wondrous beasts that call it home. And don’t forget: the mantis shrimp knows kung fu.
3.5 out of 5
