FilmBlather.com

"The lions can bide their time. It's the cubs they're after."

Earth is probably a must for inquisitive children (and their parents). This gorgeous, big-budget documentary, produced by the BBC several years ago and distributed under Disney's new "DisneyNature" label, contains images of such stark beauty and awe that it should pique kids' curiosity while reducing adults to tears. As a movie made with kids -- and mass consumption -- in mind, Earth labors under some frustrating, if understandable, limitations. But as a palatable, engaging reel of incredible nature photography, it has few equals. That there is no IMAX option is sort of a crime against humanity.

The booming, immortal voice of James Earl Jones narrates some dozen hit-and-run "stories" of various creatures struggling to stay alive in our planet's varied habitats, with the film occasionally returning to a couple in an attempt to create a semblance of structure. The imagery is astonishing and sometimes hauntingly foreign, though Jones anthropomorphizes like it's his job, in ways that sometimes seem like a stretch. If a surfeit of cuteness scares you, it might help to know that there's actually a nice balance here. The movie does linger on the unbearably adorable polar bear cubs, but will occasionally pause to show us something creepy: a lynx prowling through the frozen tundra, for example, looking like a housecat from another planet.

The movie flirts with darker material -- the circle of life in all its brutal glory -- but always pulls its punch. We see truly incredible slow-motion footage of a cheetah hunting an antelope, and a suspenseful sequence of wolves stalking and finally cornering a baby caribou, but the film invariably cuts away at just the right moment; wouldn't want to give the little ones nightmares, or threaten the G rating. On the other hand, Earth somehow manages to get us rooting for a polar bear to eat an adorable baby walrus, which is remarkable and surprisingly harsh.

There's a threat of an environmentalist message, but the film never pulls the trigger. It suggests that a character who meets an unpleasant fate does so partially because the arctic ice is melting faster each year, without connecting the dots. I suppose it's no great loss; God knows there is no shortage of environmentalist documentaries out there right now. To have the film feint at the issue and then so pointedly avoid it is a bit frustrating, though.

Earth's biggest stumbling block is its frantically episodic construction. Some segments get slightly more comprehensive treatment, but often the film will just show an animal, dispense a fact it thinks is interesting, and move on. This, combined with the movie's general unwillingness to broach unpleasant subjects and Jones's too-cute-by-half narration, makes the experience feel a bit shallow. (Often I felt that the images would have been more powerful had Jones shut up.)

There are more serious nature documentaries out there, but this one serves its purpose: intriguing kids and awing adults. And its point, ultimately, is non-trivial. Where most environmentalists make their appeal on the ground that the diversity of life on this planet is incredible and beautiful and precious, Earth reminds us that it's also something else: humbling.

--Eugene Novikov