Secrets of Life

Disney True Life Adventure chronicles the lives of plants and animals using special photography techniques. We watch plants grow through time lapse and we see animals do their things thanks to micro photography and special cameras. Its pure eye candy. To be sure you can see similar stuff on cable TV's Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel, but there is still something neat about seeing the "hidden" world of nature right before you that never gets dull. Lets face it, in the 50 years since this film was first released we still haven't stopped marveling at ants up close, fish shooting their prey, and the motion of stationary plants. The photography here is incredible and in most cases hasn't been improved upon despite five decades of technological improvements. No matter how jaded a nature documentary snob you think you are, odds are you'll find something here to make you go "Oh Wow". Granted the film isn't perfect. The opening sequence about geology isn't all that great (I'm guessing its there just to book end the film with the volcano at the end) and the narration leaves a great deal to be desired, but it doesn't matter since the animals and plants in motion are enough to over come the poor extras. Absolutely worth a look for anyone who likes nature.

I don't know when I first saw this Disney documentary. I certainly remember seeing some of the time-lapse photography of plants and the closeup insect footage although it's possible that Disney repurposed them in later movies. It's very probable that I saw this in grade school.

The movie starts with a bit of animation about the birth of the world and animations form breaks between sections of the movie. The time-lapse photography is memorable. The seeds moving around is a wonder every time. The montage is beautiful. Winston Hibler's narration is old timey. The close up footage of insects are amazing. This is an early nature film from Disney. It is truly the wonderful world of Disney. This is definitely educational but also beautiful to behold. The ants battle is gruesome. There is no Disneyfying the dog eat dog nature of the world. It is eat or be eaten. This movie doesn't shy away.

Enchanting, the detail about the life of bees and ants (especially that of sugar ants) perfect images, zoom with unimaginable details, passionate, and the importance of these little animals... Magnanimously perfect nature... Insects feeding, to the sound of the sonorous tila , captivating... Completely awed by the insects' intelligence, it can't be just instinct, wow... Shocked and in love...

A Walt Disney TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE Feature. Ants, bizarre ocean dwellers & the remarkable history of the honeybee are among the SECRETS OF LIFE revealed in this splendid documentary. Time-lapse photography is highlighted in a fascinating ‘bloom bolero' sequence. The film ends with eye-popping views of volcanoes. `This is an authentic story of nature's secret world...of her strange and intricate designs for survival...and her many methods of perpetuating life. The intimate and unusual scenes were made possible through the development of new photographic techniques...and through the skill and patience of many scientist-photographers.' Winston Hibler is the narrator.

Between 1948 and 1960, Disney made fourteen nature documentary films, seven of them short subjects and seven of them full length and all narrated by Winston Hibler. Starting with 'Seal Island' and ending with 'Jungle Cat'. This series was called True Life Adventures, seen as a big fan of Disney and nature documentaries and after wanting to see some older nature documentaries. The True Life Adventures series is a more than worthwhile one and of consistently high quality (especially the short subjects) and do prefer all of them over most of the recent years DisneyNature films.

1956's 'Secrets of Life' is the fourth of the feature films and is another very good one. Whether it is one of the best of the series' feature films is debatable, the subject matter is not one of the series' most appealing conceptually and there are not as many memorable scenes in my view as some of the other films in the series. It is one of the better looking ones, is one of the more illuminating ones and is actually more serious than most films in the True Life Adventures series, so all those ticks a few more boxes.

'Secrets of Life' perhaps could have been longer, personally do think that some of the geology could have gone into more depth. While it is more serious than some of the series' other films, some overdone jokiness can occasionally be heard.

Also did not find the opening sequence all that interesting and it didn't seem unnecessary.

It looks absolutely beautiful however, with very vivid photography capturing the majestic beauty yet at times uncompromising cruelty of the scenery. Especially when underwater, underwater always looks incredible in documentaries and it has held up beautifully here. The music has energy and atmosphere, not spilling out the emotions too much.

Much is informative here, 'Secrets of Life' is one of the ones where a lot of information was pretty new to me and any familiar material felt fresh. The subject matter is not one of the more appealing ones of the series in my view, but when it comes to learning of insects and underground this was the most illuminating documentary seen since David Attenborough's 'Life in the Undergrowth' (released a lot later but seen first). All the underwater sequences captivate and educate and in regard to the more biological elements this viewer learnt a lot more from 'Secrets of Life' than any of her school biology classes. The ant battle is one of the more hard hitting sequences of the series.

The narration entertains and teaches very well on the whole and although there is some jokiness here it's not as much as some of the other True Life Adventures outings. Winston Hibler's delivery is good natured and at times deadpan without being inappropriately so.

Overall, very good. 8/10.