Warning: Lots of gushing ahead.
Yesterday, our family finally went to see African Cats. Now, you know I am a former zookeeper, right? And my husband is still in the field. So we are pretty critical when it comes to animal movies. Neither one of us is an easy audience when it comes to nature films. But I have to say, that this movie was beautiful. I couldn't get over the footage. Almost every frame could have been frozen and sold as a portrait of nature.
The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, and he does an incredible job. I was worried that the storyline would be too anthropomorphic (too "human-like"), and it does, in fact, revolve around two families - a lone cheetah mother with 5 cubs and a pride of lions. But the storyline does exactly what I imagine Disney wants: It provides a way for regular people, far removed from the wild African savanna, to emotionally connect with nature. My children were completely engrossed by the movie (okay, so was I). And yes, we cried, and worried, and breathed sighs of relief at various points in the movie.
It is rated "G" and I think that this is pretty much accurate, for although the film shows scenes of the cheetah and lionesses hunting, there is no gore, and I don't really remember any shots of the cats actually killing their prey. And while the movie is suspenseful, there are not really any scary scenes - but the lions' growling does get a bit LOUD at times. My son covered his ears but didn't shut his eyes. Wow. Now that's power.
Now, on to the good part. Disney, in its wisdom, has put together a few printables to supplement this film.
The Educator's Guide is a more comprehensive download with over 120 pages of lesson plans and activities. I have downloaded it and am looking forward to using it in a mini-unit study this summer. It meets many of the National Science Education Standards. It is primarily geared for students in grades 2 - 6 and includes a lot of detailed information about the African continent with a special emphasis on the savanna ecosystem. It then goes on to focus on the big cat species of Africa. It is awesome.
You can also find these files and much, much more over on the Disney site for this movie.
Enjoy!
Con mucho cariño...
Disclosure: Although Disney has allowed me to share these activity guides with you, I was not compensated for writing this post. All the praise is purely my own!