Jungle Cat

I give it a high rating considering that Disney was a pioneer in nature films as family entertainment. Decades before the Discovery Channel, Disney and his filmmakers were winning awards for these films. Cinematography has come a long way in the ensuing 58 years, but this film captures close ups and action shots of the wildlife without giving the viewer headaches. Just compare anything Disney did in the 40s and 50s to the entertaining 1974 nature film "Animals are Beautiful People". I loved the jokes, but I hated the headache I got from the blurred photography that simply could not keep up with the motion of the animals. Now back to the story.

The film's main focus is a spotted female jaguar living in the South American jungle who chooses a black male jaguar as a mate and produces two cubs - one being identical to dad and one identical to mom. They are portrayed as being a family unit throughout the film, probably to humanize them so people could relate, even though jaguars actually separate after mating.

To supplement the footage of the jaguars, there is a discussion of many of the animals living in this ecosystem including the otter, the capybara ( a rodent), the monkeys - who are vegetarians and live in the treetops - who tease the sloth, and the tapir, which is a favorite prey of the jaguar. It is these other animals who, though fascinating, act as filler for the story of the jungle cat. The finale of the film shows the adult male jaguar in a face off with a giant boa constrictor, and where they fight very definitely determines the outcome of the battle.

I'd recommend this one as it is still entertaining today both in its form and substance.

This is the last of Disney's A TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE Feature. It follows a female jaguar in the Amazon as well as the wild life world she comes in contact with. There's the wild Iguazu Falls before it's over-run by tourists. The sloth is endearing and a real eye-opener back then. The lengthy battle between the jaguar and the anaconda is epic.

This is an old style nature film. Disney has been called out for manipulating footage. Certainly, they humanized the animals to make them relateable. It's an old fashion concept. Old photographs of Civil War battlefields were manipulated as much as these films. It was another era. While one can talk about some of these deficiencies, one also cannot deny the wide-spread appeal of these films and its influence on nature-conservation.

This is a famous Walt Disney documentary, on the Amazon Rainforest and its Jaguar. I found that most of the scenes were edited to make a humanized appearance of the animals. In its day, this film was something special. Today it is historic to Disney lovers. Accustomed to watching the Discover Channel and Animal Planet, it appears hokey, much like John Ford's Battle of Midway. It contains some great footage that was either staged or edited to add character to this documentary. Disney must have wanted to portray animals as humans, there is a family of jaguars that are the main characters in this film. Seems to me that Reptiles are the bad guys in most of his documentaries. Human traits are the common thread in these Disney films, more about the human way of life applied to nature. All in all it is a historic film worth an hour of your time, even for a good laugh at the voice overs.

Here we have another of Disney's wonderful True-Life adventures. This one concentrates on the wildlife of the Amazonian rain forest. It concentrates on the jaguar.

Although the cats are beautiful creatures, I found the slow-motion images of birds more engrossing, particularly the flock of flamingos taking off.

Although the Disney series is often called out for its faked footage and trained animals, they were instrumental in nurturing a love of wildlife in the 1950s and 1960s, and certainly no worse than TV shows like WILD Kingdom, in which Marlon Perkins would tell its audience "While Jim wrestles the tiger, he's a message from Mutual of Omaha." Did their life insurance policies cover mauling by jaguars?

I was a little surprised to see how low the rating for Walt Disney's Jungle Cat was. We are a little spoiled with the creation of shows like Planet Earth and the advancements in technology. In my opinion, for a film from 1959, Jungle Cat is a pretty cool documentary. In just over an hour, you are introduced to a number of different animals, and you get to observe quite a few unique situations. If you combined today's technology with the scenes that were captured in '59, I think you would have some much better viewer ratings. If you are a Disney history nerd, you've got to imagine Jungle Cat is exactly what Walt set out for in his nature films. Jungle Cat is well worth the watch (so long as you don't constantly compare it to Planet Earth).