Mother Nature is one of the scariest things I've ever seen in my life, but at the same time it's so unbelievably interesting and beautiful that I cannot help but be entranced when a documentary about it comes out; this one being a prime example of that because this is definitely one of the most entertaining nature documentaries I have seen in my recent memory. That could either be because I am a man who's favorite animals mainly include cats and especially those of the big variety, such as leopard.. or it could be due to the fact that I found this to be very well told, shot, and it has a banger soundtrack to add onto that.
For a movie that literally just follows the lives of a leopard family, including both the mother and the father plus their two adorable ass cubs, this is surprisingly intense and drama filled - which I suppose does make sense as nature is an inherently wild place but these have to be one of the most interesting leopard families these people could've chosen to document because the stuff they get up to is exhilarating, intense, and depressing all at the same time. I think if I were to rank all the differing big cats based on how cute they all were leopards would have to stack pretty high because they're really adorable, mainly due to their unique pattern which is actually the same pattern present on my blanket, also I love the kittens present here.
Easily my favorite part about this entire documentary has to be how gorgeous it all looks, which is half due to just how strikingly beautiful nature already is as a whole and it gets shown in all its glory here, but also due to just how well these people utilize their camera equipment being able to get such visually impressive shots that absolutely make a much more immersive experience. There are some truly stunning landscape shots present here that are usually during the time jump segments and I was in awe every single time one would appear on my screen, genuinely amazed by how good it all looked. Plus there were some really good dynamic shots following the leopards themselves here which are equally as impressive and visually entertaining.
And the final thing that I really enjoyed about this short documentary other than it's excellent display of the animal kingdom and more specifically leopards inside of said animal kingdom, was it's really great soundtrack and score. There were some really fantastic songs that played in this thing that really uplifted the entire mood, especially whenever something incredibly depressing or unexpected had just happened - these songs mostly play during the aforementioned interlude periods where we have gorgeous cinematography and a time jump and they perfectly set the tone for the overall feeling of the entire thing. Excellent choice of music for this thing here and it absolutely helped it as a whole quite a bit.
"Living with Leopards" isn't exactly a nature documentary that's reinventing the wheel in any spectacular way or something out of the ordinary with what you would expect from a documentary like it... but it is thoroughly engaging and really well made and definitely one of the better documentaries I have seen come out of Netflix so I have to give it props for that. If you're in the mood to spend just about over an hour watching a leopard family do leopard things and grow up, hunt, fight, and ultimately end; then this is the perfect thing for you. Personally I had a really fun time with it and despite it making me feel really sad just because nature did what it does, I definitely think it's more than worthy of checking out for yourself if you have the chance and are slightly interested in a big cat family. It's nature and it's awesome, beautiful, and of course sad.. but it's in the sadness present that you find the most vital pieces of beauty.
