Life on planet Earth Disney and animals have been inseparable
since Uncle Walt built an empire around animated ducks and mice.
In 1948 the Disney studio expanded its scope with a series of
"True Life Adventures" that brought drama and comedy to
beautifully photographed, full-color travelogues of nature.
Earth, a BBC/Disney co-production, updates those old nature
pictures, with the resonant voice of James Earl Jones narrating
a thematically linked series of vignettes shot in the wild.
Earth begins in the arctic, where a mother polar bear and her
cubs surface from their den as the spring sun begins to warm the
polar ice. Alas, the temperature in the arctic, warming a little
each year, threatens to melt the bears' habitat from under their
feet. From there, Earth hops between continents and climate
zones, and peers into the sea at the underwater ballet of whales
and swordfish. At times the story lines are cute and imposed on
the animal subjects; at others, the creatures unwittingly
collaborate in the narrative, t