The idea of mixing education with entertainment to create an
informative and enjoyable final product may seem paradoxical, but it is a
concept commonly put into practice by the Walt Disney Company. Nowhere, perhaps, is it more evident than in
the company’s series of True-Life Adventure films - 13 of the first ever nature
documentaries, and winners of eight academy awards for the equivalent of today's Best Documentary category. From 1948-1960, the nature films were shot,
edited, and released, and received great public and critical acclaim.
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| The Title Card [1] |
For my final research paper, I am considering discussing, in
some way, how the education-entertainment product succeeds and how it has
evolved over time. To begin, and after
watching all 13 of the True-Life Adventures, I will focus on a few of the elements I
noticed that helped bring entertainment and enjoyment to a subject that was otherwise rather dry.
Structure:
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| The Paintbrush Introduction to all the films - in this particular case, White Wilderness [Personal Screenshot] |
All the films begin with animation: a paintbrush drawing out
geographic details of the globe as the narrator begins to speak, and as a specific
area is eventually designated as the topic of the film in question. Moving from the general to the specific, from
colorful animation to film shot in color (new for the 1950’s!), draws the
audience in to the film subject while setting the scene for the habitat and ecosystem
about to be explored.
Music:
All of the True-Life Adventures are scored, most of them by
Oliver Wallace (who wrote the music for 1950’s Cinderella). The music
consistently set the tone for the films: becoming foreboding and stilted
whenever danger was nearby (usually a predator), light and quick when matching
the movements of the more agile creatures like foxes and rodents, or noticeably
low and slow when showing footage of such large animals as walruses, buffalo,
and sloths.
The score also kept time to wing flutters or chirps of
birds, and often added humor when doing so.
For instance, during a sequence showing the courtship ritual of the
western grebe, which can be best explained by posting a link of a sequence here, bright, slightly silly music trills to match the fierce paddling of the
grebes. Interestingly, this sequence
shows the important and influential role music plays in such genres of
film. When I first saw the grebes
dancing in the True-Life Adventure film, Water
Birds, I thought it to be just as silly as the music suggested. However, the sequence I linked for you above
(because the True-Life Adventure sequence isn’t available to the public) has
very different musical accompaniment: soft, and beautiful, and almost
spiritual, and from listening to that music and watching that sequence I began
to think of the western grebes' dance in an entirely different, more solemn light.
In all, the music, whether playing an instrumental “Home on
the Range” in time to the yapping of prairie dogs in The Vanishing Prairie, or cascading into classical crescendos to
the accompaniment of a series of collapsing glaciers in White Wilderness, definitively colors how the audience interprets
the footage and can go a long way towards adding humor and heart to a
completely non-fictitious subject.
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| The Dancing Western Grebes [2] |
Narration:
All 13 films were narrated by Winston Hibler, a writer and producer
for the Walt Disney Company with a pleasant-sounding, rich voice. At first, I thought his voice was somewhat
monotonous, but after watching the films for a while I realized it was the
perfect choice when paired with the gentle, quaint mockery he often employed
against the creatures on screen. The
sardonic, yet kind and compassionate, tone of his voice can of course best be
understood when it is heard, but unfortunately there are no True-Life
Adventures publicly available to show to you.
The best I can do is link you to the introduction of this compilation,
which hints at Mr. Hibler’s rhythmic voice and quiet sense of humor. After hearing his voice in the clip, you may
be able to imagine how charming it sounded for him to say such phrases as these:
- [Describing a giraffe]: “To match his height, nature put his dinner table in the attic.” From The African Lion
- “Well, it's been simply grand, this monumental mud bath, but all this splashing around has posed a sticky problem: how to hoist six tons of elephant up the slippery banks?” From The African Lion
- [Upon the meeting of two jaguars]: “So, when an accidental meeting occurs without proper introduction and presentation of credentials, there's sure to be a fight.” From Jungle Cats
- “An otter's an otter no matter where you find him, and true to type, this one loves to play.” From Jungle Cats
Even though this way of talking was rather common in the
1950’s (on TV, at least), the calm, reliable rhythm of Winston Hibler, and the
appealing way in which he characterizes the behavior of the animals he
describes, are two qualities that add color and laughter to the True-Life
Adventures. As an addendum, the reliable
narrator made the more troubling scenes – animals eating each other or fighting
furiously – a little easier to stomach, with his voice guiding the audience
through those darker aspects of nature and the possibility of a light joke
always imminent.
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| Winston Hibler |
Characterization and
Narrative:
Oftentimes, the narrator would give names or personalities
to the featured animals: some rather cliché, like the beaver characterized as impossibly busy in
Beaver Valley, others slightly more
original, like the young kangaroo rat “Skinny” from The Living Desert, who tries and fails to find comradeship with the
healthier-looking members of his species.
Naming or giving personality to the animals helps the audience identify
with them, and it is important to note that none of these singled-out animals
are ever shown dead or eaten or bloodied up, though many other animals are. Bringing the audience closer to an animal or
two helps draw them into the feature, and it is a tactic that is so successful
it appears to have been resurrected for the new series of Disneynature films. I haven't seen any of them, but from the indication of the previews, each has the audience follow one
specific animal family (with all the members given names and personalities) for
a year or two, developing the emotional connections that were experimented with
in the True-Life Adventures.
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| A promotional poster for Beaver Valley, presumably picturing the beaver singled out in the film [4] |
Cinematography:
Even with the best narration and music, the films would not
have done as well as they did without their excellent cinematography. The scope of the shots ranged from filming
giant groups of South American waterfalls and a herd’s worth of deer antlers
outlined in sharp black against an orange sunset, to tiny insects and their
nests and eggs. The camera was even able
to go underwater to film sea creatures, and underground to film burrows (I
still don’t know how they accomplished that!). Such shots, incredible even today – much less
the 1950’s – surely played a major role in the public’s fascination with the
True-Life Adventures.
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| The opening shot of The African Lion, featuring Mt. Kilimanjaro [Personal Screenshot] |
Controversy:
While the above sections have described positive qualities
of good educational-entertainment ventures, one aspect of the True-Life
Adventures is blackened by the lure of shock and thrill. According the official Walt Disney Family
Museum, some of the sequences in at least one of the films were
fabricated [1]. Of course, as I mentioned
earlier, some of the featured animals were named, given personalities or even
family histories – all fictional, but done to provide some story and emotional
connection in an entirely innocent way.
However, in White Wilderness,
some of the film crew actually interfered with the animals and harmed them in
order to provide exciting footage for the camera. It was in White
Wilderness that the myth of mass lemming suicide by cliff-jumping was first
propagated. In fact, the film crew placed the lemmings on a turntable that effectively pushed them off a cliff
into the sea. With the presence of the American
Humane Association, I expect such a horrible use of animals is no longer
possible in any professional film, including those of the
education-entertainment genre.
Nonetheless, the knowledge that such circumstances did occur in the past is a reminder of the immense importance of never sacrificing education – truth –
for the advancement of entertainment.
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| The lemmings "jumping" into the sea [5] |
Based on my study of the 13 True-Life Adventures of the Walt Disney Company, these early documentaries showcase many of the attributes helpful when producing a work designed to educate while entertain. Relevant music and a competent narrator, intriguing hooks that lead the audience into the material, innocent backstory and humor given to non-fictitious anecdotes or situations, and a dedication to presenting the truth are a few of these important elements. With further research, I will likely learn more about how these and other qualities relate to the presentation of an effective piece of educational entertainment.
Walt Disney, Seal Island (1948)*
Ibid., Beaver Valley (1950)*
Ibid., Nature's Half-Acre (1951)*
Ibid., The Olympic Elk (1952)
Ibid., Water Birds (1952)*
Ibid., Bear Country (1953)*
Ibid., Prowlers of the Everglades (1953)
Ibid., The Living Desert (1953)*
Ibid., The Vanishing Prairie (1954)*
Ibid., The African Lion (1955)
Ibid., Secrets of Life (1956)
Ibid., White Wilderness (1958)*
Ibid., Jungle Cats (1960)
(* = Academy Award Winners)
Images Cited:
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