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By
WADE GOSSETT
An engaging family film that
will please kids and parents, as well as your
inner naturalist, "Pride" features real lions (a
Tanzanian pride in the wild and tame lions as
stand-ins) that are made to converse intelligently
through Jim Henson animation techniques. Sure, it
sounds like "Babe," but unlike that film "Pride"
plays like a nature documentary, incorporating
natural history footage in the visually stunning
plains of East Africa's Serengeti.
The voices are easily recognizable by anyone who's
paid attention to British TV stars: Robbie
Coltrane and Jim Broadbent are the two lazy male
lions, the patriarchs of the pride, Helen Mirren
is the mother to the heroes of the story, lion
cubs Suki and Linus (Kate Winslet and Rupert
Graves), and Sean Bean and John Hurt provide the
growls for Dark and Harry, the renegade lions who
want to take over the pride.
The story follows Suki and Linus as they grow up.
Suki is a rebel who ends up crossing the river
that keeps the renegades from the pride and she
falls in love with tough guy Dark. Linus is timid
as a youngster, but grows up to lead and protect
the pride.
The story sounds familiar, with elements from
"Lion King" and a dozen other fairy tales and
myths. However, one thing distinguishes "Pride":
the lions are mostly allowed to be lions. We see
them kill and eat and they have babies (no "Circle
of Life" euphemisms here). In fact, at least one
fellow reviewer has complained that "Pride" may be
too intense or sexually explicit for anyone under
6. That's hooey. There is one scene where a
playful teenage lion tries to mount a female, and
we see a little blood and the corpse of a dead
lion, but that's less than one would see in a
natural history documentary. "Pride," to its
credit, does not shy away from the fact that
animals are killed in the wild.
My only criticism is on how poor the CG mouth
animation is at times. "Babe" is a much older
film, and I would think that animation techniques
have evolved. But often while watching "Pride" I
couldn't but notice how fake the mouth movements
were.
Viewers can delve deep into the making of the film
with two behind-the-scenes featurettes (each one
about 30-40 minutes) that explain how some of the
footage in the wild was assembled (why, with a
camera imbedded in a fake boulder and manipulated
by remote control). Also included are trailers for
other natural history BBC programs. |
