Critic Reviews
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Derek Adams, Time Out
Hats off to the camera operators who have captured some astonishing wildlife imagery.
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Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle
Anyone with a fondness for bambinos of any species should melt at the sight of mamas with nuzzling cubs.
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Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Not coincidentally, African Cats opens on Earth Day. Meeting these magnificent fellow creatures might be a fine way to celebrate.
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Sandie Angulo Chen, Washington Post
"African Cats" prefers less preaching and more heartstring-tugging. It works, of course, especially if you're trying to raise your own cubs to adulthood.
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Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
No doubt, life is tough in the wild but, this being a Disney flick, it's loving too and even comes with a kiddie-friendly narrative that's easy to summarize and hard to dispute.
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Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Kids will love "African Cats," which is full of "aw" moments. Their parents will appreciate that narrator Samuel L. Jackson keeps things from getting too schmaltzy in this true-life depiction of the circle of life.
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MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher
[G]orgeously photographed, astonishingly intimate... We have never seen lions and cheetahs like this before; you won't believe it can have been possible for cameras to get so close without disturbing the animals they're watching...
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Graham Young, Birmingham Post
The clarity of the footage is often breathtaking; watching the mother cheetah setting off on a run will have your own heart pounding in expectation.
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Philip French, Observer [UK]
It's Kiplingesque nursery ethology, and one distrusts the editing.
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, This is London
A great story, shot throughout with infinite patience.
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Alex Zane, Sun Online
It is beautifully shot - the super slo-mo scenes of Sita running are amazing.
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Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
Some nice moments here, but this is a film that looks like a kids' TV featurette from an earlier age.
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Antonia Quirke, Financial Times
Of course the photography is second to none - no sense of hidden cameras here, more a feeling of cranes and on-set catering.
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David Jenkins, Little White Lies
An attempt the dramatise the animal world which just feels cheap and unworkable. A drag.
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Elliott Noble, Sky Movies
Providing a feast of kills, confrontations and capering cubs while keeping on-screen gore to a minimum, nature lovers of all ages will get their fill.
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Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express
Narrated by Patrick Stewart, this is beautifully shot if a tad toothless. Nothing to upset tots.
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Siobhan Synnot, Scotsman
The wildlife is beautifully photographed, and the film is stentorianally narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart.
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Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
A wealth of visually stunning, strikingly intimate, and intensely dramatic footage of these creatures in their beautiful natural habitat.
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James Plath, Movie Metropolis
The first entry in the DisneyNature series that's pitched at youngsters rather than a general audience, despite some intense footage.
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Phil Hall, Film Threat
In the animal kingdom's kill-or-be-killed world, the predators and prey are framed with a clarity and precision that would serve as an invaluable lesson to any aspiring cinematographer.
Read all 22 critic reviews
Featured Audience Ratings
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An attemp to bring back the wildlife disney adventures of 1960, that said, this movie can't hold a candle to those movies. 1 star
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A decent family movie for parents to bring their kids to the theaters. This documentary doesn't offer anything about these felines that we haven't seen before on the Discovery Channel, but it is good fun, with nice imagery and sound design.
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This year's Earth Day nature documentary from Disney is a heart warming tale about two mothers, a lion and a cheetah. The film follows them as they raise and protect their young cubs from predators. Of course, the camera captures incredible footage of the packs, the environment,… More
This year's Earth Day nature documentary from Disney is a heart warming tale about two mothers, a lion and a cheetah. The film follows them as they raise and protect their young cubs from predators. Of course, the camera captures incredible footage of the packs, the environment, and these creatures in action. Every shot is edited together to create a story, almost like a scripted film, and it's quite wonderful.
My only complaint is that the film focuses a lot on hunting and the mothers protecting the young, not much else. I think in trying to create an actual narrative for the animals, one cannot help but feel the film does not depict the true reality of the environment. Oh well. All animal lovers, as well as those families looking for a good film to see over the Easter weekend will be pleasantly entertained. And Samuel L Jackson narrates, giving the film a Pulp Fiction type flavour - just kidding. But his voice commands the words and makes the story that much more compelling.
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I bless the rains down in Africa.
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I think the aspect I enjoyed most about Disneynature's third major Earth Day release, African Cats, is how they tried to create a narrative through line for it. A lot of nature documentaries simply present the facts, while showing you some shots of creatures and environments,… More
I think the aspect I enjoyed most about Disneynature's third major Earth Day release, African Cats, is how they tried to create a narrative through line for it. A lot of nature documentaries simply present the facts, while showing you some shots of creatures and environments, but this film (even if it cheats a bit) has a lot of fun with actually presenting a storyline to keep you specifically involved with the 'cats' that are presented in this film. It also helps that you have the cat's pajamas of acting talents (Samuel L. Jackson) narrating the film. 'Nuff said.
read more at thecodeiszeek.blogspot.com
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Another Disneynature success, African Cats may lack the narration quality or ooing and ahing moments from Earth and Oceans, but African Cats stands on its own. Plays almost like an African thriller, the film has some suspenseful scenes but it is also compassionate. Too bad the overly… More
Another Disneynature success, African Cats may lack the narration quality or ooing and ahing moments from Earth and Oceans, but African Cats stands on its own. Plays almost like an African thriller, the film has some suspenseful scenes but it is also compassionate. Too bad the overly cheesy and sentimental music occasionally puts the film in sappy territory. Overall Rating: 72
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African Cats tries to blend the storylines of a pack of lions and a mother cheetah and her newborn cubs with mixed results. Much of the storylines with the cheetah's are unoriginal and unentertaining in an "if you've seen one documentary about cheetah's… More
African Cats tries to blend the storylines of a pack of lions and a mother cheetah and her newborn cubs with mixed results. Much of the storylines with the cheetah's are unoriginal and unentertaining in an "if you've seen one documentary about cheetah's you've seen them all" kind of way. The lions however have a fascinating account where a pack of numerous male lions decide to invade the domain of another male lion, kill him and take his land and females for his own. African Cats has some incredible footage but largely promises more than it delivers as its always hinting at danger or violence with it rarely coming to fruition. It also suffers from a tacky attempt at a "they all lived happily ever after" style of ending. Again, this annual Disney naturedoc is more style than substance with the strong visuals and camerawork carrying your interest than anything else.
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"African Cats" was my first outing into the world of Disney Nature and their series of documentaries about wildlife and the parts of the planet we live on that we know little about. While I was somewhat unsure what to expect going in, the result was pretty much what I might… More
"African Cats" was my first outing into the world of Disney Nature and their series of documentaries about wildlife and the parts of the planet we live on that we know little about. While I was somewhat unsure what to expect going in, the result was pretty much what I might have guessed it would be and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. This is, by all definition, a documentary. What the makers have done to Diney-fy this film though is to place a story behind this footage that no doubt took months if not years of just waiting for a single event to happen. The animals are given names that are representative of their physical traits and the story line is something out of what was probably a draft of a "Lion King" sequel at some point. Parts of the film are fascinating and others drag. It's a mixed bag, but an entertaining experience and consistently an educational treat for the whole fam.
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A documentary filled with lovely images and nothing much else. There's nothing much to learn here, the writers have tried to create a story from these lions and tigers of Africa which is it's problem. When a story begins, you expect it to go places, and this never really… More
A documentary filled with lovely images and nothing much else. There's nothing much to learn here, the writers have tried to create a story from these lions and tigers of Africa which is it's problem. When a story begins, you expect it to go places, and this never really does, it's just full of weak facts. It's been done before to better effect.
Read all 9 featured audience ratings
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