Hope everyone is enjoying their summer with plenty of Disney Entertainment at home. If not we have the cure! Today’s Doctor Disney Home Entertainment update has so much content that we have to break it in half! The month of August brings with it a number of exciting updates including the release of two new films as well as the re-release of 5 Disney classics and lastly the extras from Disney Movies Anywhere starting with the summer fun of Pixar Sizzling Summer Secrets countdown as well as a new shorts series. To properly share all of this great home entertainment we will cover half of it this week and the other half next week.
As mentioned earlier in the summer the newest feature film releases coming Tuesday August 12, 2014 of “DisneyNature: Bears” and “Muppets Most Wanted” were released theatrically earlier this year and will hit home televisions next week. Since these films each deserve their own space I will review the “DisneyNature: Bears” film this week and Muppets Most Wanted next week.
“DisneyNature: Bears,” is the seventh film released under the DisneyNature banner, following Earth (2007), Crimson Wings (2008) Oceans (2010), African Cats (2011), and Chimpanzee (2012). This DVD/ Blu-Ray set contains a sneak peek at the eighth release coming in 2015 called Monkey Kingdom. While I can’t speak for the prior releases this one contains not only the feature film but also several entertaining bonus features on the Blu-Ray disc and Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) content.
While I was a little disappointed by the fact that these bonus features were not available on the DVD, it is yet another sign that Disney is continuing to move away from DVD and more towards the cloud content on DMA. Additionally I can only expect that a great amount of pride comes from the amazing visuals captured in this film and showing it in a lower resolution may significantly reduce the quality, but more about that later.
The film itself as you may recall from prior releases as well as the previews, documents the first year of life for two cubs, Scout and Amber, and the challenges faced by their mother Sky. While most of us, myself included, think we know about the trials and tribulations faced by animals in the wild it is amazing to bear witness to it (no pun intended!).
The filmmakers deserve deserve a ton of credit for the great lengths they went to in order to document this journey to the cubs’ first birthday as invisibly as they did. What I mean by this is that we never feel as though we are watching a movie, rather are provided with a unique window into the bear’s world. One of the great bonus features included that I had to watch as soon as the film competed was the “How Did They Film” documentary on the documentary, which was just as fascinating.
As with the prior releases from DisneyNature we have a familiar voice to help narrate us through the journey. This time it is John C. Reily, a voice familiar to Disney fans for having previously provided the voice of the title character in the film “Wreck-It-Ralph.” The danger with these types of films which are entirely narration are that it can sometimes add value and other times get in the way, here the narration does a good job of creating balance and keeping the potential emotions in check, especially during some of the more potentially tense moments. Let’s face it the reality of nature sometimes can fly in the face of good wholesome family entertainment and Disney knows better than anyone how to introduce these themes without scaring off the little ones.
I will admit that when my wife and I sat down to watch “Bears” with our 5 and 10 year old sons we wondered what questions may come from this that we would be left to explain, thankfully those questions and fears were limited to a single question from the youngest about the natural feeding of the cubs while they are still very young and hibernating. Overall the journey was fascinating to watch and does end happily, but what I enjoyed most about this film were the visuals. Put simply this film knew when to stop and smell the roses of the pure and untouched world around it.
For my money the visuals captured here along with the emotional and heartwarming journey of the bears made this worthwhile. All in all this film gets three out of five mouse ears as a great family film that brings out the best in reality television.
As I mentioned earlier I will be back next week with a full review of the other new release coming on August 12 “Muppets Most Wanted,” but for now let’s take a look at 5 films getting a Disney re-release for the first time on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital Copy.
Be sure to visit us next Wednesday for the second half of our home entertainment reviews on “Muppets Most Wanted” and the Disney Movies Anywhere extras!
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