The Best of Disney's True Life Adventures

The Best of Disney True Life Adventures (1975)

Disney writer, producer, director and also actor (wow this guy does a lot) Winston Hibler narrates a compilation film put together from most of Disney’s True-Life Adventure, which won 9 academy awards in total and set the stage for many of the nature documenters that we see and enjoy today.  Winston’s narration brings life and insight into the lives of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. You learn a lot about the animals and their world and thus the series have been broken down into several educational shorts shown in schools.

Nature is filled with Drama, Spectacle, Mystery and of course Comedy. The preservation of this film is not very good as it looks grainy and blurry at times, but it represents a pioneering type of film in its genre and is worth watching for nostalgic sake as there are many other better looking nature documentaries put out since this film came out. Observing nature in the best visual quality possible is what an audience wants to see as they glimpse into a world they wouldn’t naturally see. This is a film Disney should invest in remastering. The individual films are available to watch either online or in a DVD set which includes the short films and the feature length films plus some extras.

It starts out showing clips of Walt with various animals talking about how much he loved animals and made them a part of his entertainment empire with mentions of the Mouse and the Duck. You have Walt with two tigers longing on his desk. A Lynx. A bunch of hound dogs tearing up his desk as he blows a horn with one of them leaping pretty high in the air after landing on the desktop. Walt was a lot like Stan Lee, he was really involved in the world he created, and people could see it by his weekly introductions in his anthology series. It would have been great had he had a cameo in every Disney live action production just like Alfred Hitchcock and of course Stan Lee.

It starts out with a clip from the first True-Life Adventure, the academy award winning

Seal Island (1948) in which we witness a lot of seals sliding into the ocean and two seals duking it out. This completion film is filled with many wonders and joys of the animal kingdom including lots of fights between species of the same kind and opposing species going up against one another. Next, we see a clip from the academy award winning

In Beaver Valley (1950) In which we see a clip of a beaver. Nothing exciting.  But later on we see sliding Otters in the Snow.

The Vanishing Prairie (1954) We see two Buffalo’s duking it out till a thunder storm comes then we see a stampede running across the prairie. We then see Big Horn Rams butting heads set to the Anvil Chorus.  We then witness the dancing sage grouse (prairie chickens) who may have inspired the dancing rituals of certain American Indian tribes. 

In what are clips I think are from

Water Birds (1952) we have the mystery of migration and Ducks landing on a frozen lake thinking they are landing on a nice smooth set of water, causing them to crash into other ducks. Also the mating ritual of the Whooping Crane.

Back to the Vanishing Prairie with a Falcon gunning for Prairie Dogs as they hide in their prairie holes peaking out and almost getting caught.

The Living Desert (1953) We witness the Wasp hunting for a tarantula to kill for it’s young only to confront an army of ants.  We then witness The Scorpion Square Dance. And the adventures of Skinny the Ground Squirrel   and his siblings as they hide from the squirrel eating Hela monster. The chase between an antelope and a mountain lion. Could be a great set up for a series of cartoons (road runner style).  After being too slow to catch the antelope, the mountain lion runs away from a pack of wild pigs, climbing a prickly cactus to get away from them. We then have the battle of HAWK vs RATTLESNAKE.

The African Lion (1955) We witness the lazy Lion lying around on the African plain. A pride of lion is a family and the family sticks together. So when an unwanted female lion wanders into a particular family of lions, the mother lions get into a cat fight with her. Unlike the Mountain lion, the African Lion catches his Antelope.

But unlike the title  suggests we get to witness the life of Elephants, Hippos and Crocodiles. The underwater footage of the Hippo is one of the best photo sequences of the film.

Jungle Cat (1960) We see the many animals of the Amazon Jungle with the Jaguar taking center stage. He tries to catch a monkey to no avail. No Antelopes running around in this jungle. We see mom Jaguar teach her cubs how to deal with their worst enemy the crocodile.  The best way to kill a croc we learn is too drown it. We then witness the croc’s cousin the alligators in

Prowlers of the Everglades (1953) With scenes the look like something from pre-historic times. We then see a chorus croaking frogs.

 Bear Country (1953) features the wacky antics of bears trying to scratch their backs by rubbing up against trees.

White Wilderness (1958) features our friend the Polar Bear. Walruses flee from his very presence. While the adult Polar Bear is serious and very business like , the cubs are care free and silly, sliding down mountains while trying very hard to climb up them. We witness the Adult wolves teach the young members of the pack to chase prey like the carabao. We witness the awesome force of nature of the super wild animal ‘The Wolverine’. Witness him climb a tree to eat a bird who can’t fly.  We then Witness the Lemmings and their plunge into sea.

We end with viewing some sea birds who cross the ocean to go to some nesting grounds far away. We witness them diving into the ocean at tremendous speeds. It shows more clips of various birds including the Flamingos. It ends with footage of different flocks of migrating birds.

There are supposedly clips from

Nature's Half Acre (1951)

The Olympic Elk (1952)

Which I couldn’t detect in this compilation film. The only True Life Adventure film not shown in this compilation is the only one labeled as a true life fantasy. Perri (1957) based on Felix Salten's 1938 book Perri: The Youth of a Squirrel.”

All in all this is a nice compliation and introduction to True-Life Adventure series. Although there are now better animal documentary films, some of them from Disney Nature, it is still a good look at nostalgic pioneering Disney movie magic.