There's a thin line between cute and cutesy. The Disneynature film Bears wobbles on the line of being aimed squarely at tots, while being entertaining for anyone over the age of five. Lucky for the fi…
OK, so right away when a kind pet-dad started talking about a disabled pig that he rescued, and that he named him Chris. P. Bacon, I just about had to turn off this NATURE special, because I thought, …
It's never fair to judge a children's movie by adult standards, so I'm going to consider Against the Wild from a kid's point of view, or at least from the standpoint of family viewing. When the Wade s…
For those suffering from withdrawal after the Beijing Olympics ended to folks that love armchair traveling on a rainy day, Wild China is yet another excellent documentary series profiling not only Chi…
Anyone who grew up in the 70s or 80s has a soft spot for the educational cartoons Schoolhouse Rock! Now that complete sets of all the original shorts have been packaged and re-packaged for Gen X consu…
With all the cute critters out there in the critter world, it can easily be argued that a baby otter is in the pantheon of the cute-overload department. This hour-long NATURE special follows one such …
Now, OK, just the title alone is a dead giveaway that I would weep. I have friends that refuse to watch any animal movies with me for fear of their buddy bursting into ugly crying. But this tale (or t…
Based on Marlen Haushofer's 1962 feminist novel, The Wall is a quiet mood piece, quiet, contemplative, and more than a little chilling in parts. It is also, impressively, basically a one-woman (plus d…
At last, I have watched every episode of Planet Earth, the BBC nature documentary that aired on the Discovery Channel. Except "nature documentary" doesn't even begin to describe it, because as the ext…
Narrated by James Earl Jones (taking over for Patrick Stewart) and blessed with breathtaking cinematography, the film aims to teach audiences – in as subtle as a way as possible – about the issue of c…
A large chunk of this brief 57-minute overview of urban park visionary Frederick Law Olmstead is unsurprisingly (and deservedly) dedicated to the massive and unprecedented design undertaking that beca…
When I finally watched Bambi as an adult, I was struck not only by the beautiful animation, but by the sneakily educational storyline. The film is formatted in a perfect circle-of-life arc that is als…
