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.
