Félins: Le royaume du courage

Disney Nature's new documentary could definitely have been more imaginatively titled, but it's still an impressively mounted experience for wildlife lovers, and feline fanatics especially. The film-makers forego an information-filled Attenborough-style narrative, instead favoring the incongruous delights of Samuel L Jackson regaling us with a 'true life adventure' like some hoary old story-teller reading from a children's tome. Some may find this non-scientific approach condescending, but there's no denying the film offers visual spectacle on an epic scale and an intimate, involving account of life for these surprisingly vulnerable killers.

Fang is an aging lion struggling to look after his pride while contending with the usurping efforts of some younger competition. His sheba is trying to do the best for her cub Mara, stuck between her loyalty to Fang and the security that the more virulent lions on the other side of the river might offer. As the two groups come to blows over food, territory and leadership, it becomes clear that Fang's days may be numbered. Meanwhile, Sita is a cheetah with five rambunctious cubs, who are prized as coveted meals for many of the animals sharing their domain. Her efforts to protect, feed and teach them put her in mortal danger not only from enemies from other species but also their own.

As the beautifully captured seasons come and go, drastically affecting the awesome landscape, we witness the cats face many hardships despite being so high up in their food chain. Motion capture and slo-mo are judiciously deployed to generate wonder and tension, with the film's narrowed focus really giving the audience time to appreciate the African countryside, while several sequences of our subjects in peril prove as heart-stopping as a well-orchestrated horror movie. The soundtrack also adds to the atmosphere despite being somewhat predictably crafted and employed. The stories of the lions and the cheetahs are nicely balanced and bring some dynamic variety to the footage; the bigger cats are as impressive and noble as you'd expect, but the cheetahs often steal the show, thanks to the cubs' undeniable cuteness and Sita's mind-boggling multi-tasking prowess and intelligence.

Jackson really does attack his narration with all the relish of a new father indulging his kids at bedtime, making Daniel Craig's po-faced voice-over for the recent One Life film seem joyless and disheartening in comparison. The use of character names does actually help the audience keep track of the cats, even though the attempts to characterize them are sometimes laid on a little too thick. Keith Scholey and John Truby's script invests proceedings with even more humor and pathos than they would already have, and for the most part directors Scholey and Alastair Fothergill know just when to let the action speak for itself. There's also a cringe-worthy but amusing credit roll, where the various animals are assigned appropriate film-making roles; giraffes posing as crane operators are just the tip of the iceberg. It's something of a novelty but also represents icing on the cake for a film that has been more lovingly assembled than you might expect.

Cynics will point to the film's release coinciding with that of The Lion King to accuse Disney of trying to fleece families, while some will find the child-friendly voice-over cloyingly sentimental, but it marks a bit of a change for cinematic nature documentaries and at least they had the good sense to stick to 2D. Cat-lovers young and old will be delighted with this release, and it truly deserves to be experienced on the big screen. By concentrating so steadfastly on such a particular topic, Disney have made a wonderfully immersive and invigorating film, even if it's not particularly enlightening. The film may gloss over its stars' violent nature and assemble footage in a way that manipulates audience sympathy while slightly toning down the harsh reality, but African Cats is an unexpected pleasure to behold, coming as a breath of fresh air in an often stuffily rarefied genre.

African cats are as dangerous as they are majestic, and one runs the risk of forgetting that when watching this documentary. Cheetahs, lions, and hyenas are lethal killing machines, that is how they live, that is their role in nature. The pictures speak for themselves; narration may not even be necessary. Watching a lion chase down a gazelle or a cheetah face down a lion requires no commentary. This is life or death. Here the narration becomes a distraction. The animals are not acting for the audience's amusement. They are doing what animals do to survive. Do lions have a sense of family? Who knows. But one thing is for certain: this documentary provides a spectacular glimpse of the brute strength and incredible agility of these creatures. Technically, this documentary is superb. But anthropomorphizing these animals for dramatic effect really trivializes what the documentary is showing. These animals are not cuddly playthings; they can and do kill, which is an aspect of their nature that cannot be played down.

2/28/18. With great cinematography this animal documentary follows the lives of two big cat families. An aging lion, Fang, eventually must face up to Kali and his 4 sons (ok, it's no contest), and Sita, a female cheetah with 5 cubs must bravely survive the dangers of the jungle. Great movie, and worth catching with kids of all ages!

Love Disney and while some of their nature documentaries are better than others, their DisneyNature documentaries are worth a look at least. 'African Cats' intrigued me straightaway, being somebody that has always been fascinated by how lions and other big cats are depicted in documentaries and who loves documentaries. It was interesting to see a different approach to stories about lions after being very affected watching 2011's 'The Last Lions' a week ago.

'African Cats' is on the most part a winner for Disney and DisneyNature. As far as their documentaries go, it is towards being one of their better ones due to the visuals and how investable the storytelling was. For anybody that doesn't like animals humanised too much, more focus on family drama and likes subtle narration, they may want to look elsewhere. But for a documentary film that makes any story of any big cat accessible for the whole family, judging without any comparison and on what it is aiming to do and the target audience, 'African Cats' more than fits the bill.

Do agree that sometimes the narration does tend to over-explain, the film would have benefitted more from more show and less tell, and while Samuel L Jackson actually does fine on delivering it there is a try too hard feel to some of his delivery.

However, there is so much to recommend with 'African Cats'. When it comes to DisneyNature documentaries, 'African Cats' has to be up there with the best looking. At its very best, the photography is just jaw-dropping in its beauty. The scenery is both stunningly beautiful and suitably unforgiving. The music is both stirring and poignant-sounding, and it didn't come over as intrusive or trying to be too cinematic.

While the narration was not perfect in writing or delivery, it at least for me entertained and interested me (even if there are many documentaries that are a good deal more illuminating in information) and Jackson clearly puts a lot of passion in his delivery. There is more of a dramatic story of the situations the lions and cheetahs have to undergo than there is documentary, but that didn't matter to me because the storytelling was genuinely moving and heart-warming without being manipulative or over-dramatised. While the approach is not the pull no punches one that 'The Last Lions' had, it doesn't get too over-cute.

It helps too that the lions and cheetahs look wonderful and are so identifiable in very human situations. The interactions are immensely charming with some appropriate tension.

Concluding, very well done. 8/10

This was (in my humble opinion), one of the better "wildlife movies" I have seen. Sure, there were not too many scenes of carnage but neither was the footage sanitized to that with what we are traditionally used to with Disney. A pretty good narration by Jackson and brilliant cinematography results in a rather good portrayal of life and death in central Africa.

If there is a little anthropomorphism so what? The overall cinematography was a great compliment to the music and I would think anyone leaving the theatre would admit to almost smelling the Masai Mara in all of its majesty. John P Nightingale