Disney's "Oceans"

I took my nephews to see Disney's "Oceans" this afternoon. This was actually a planned event, but no one but me was in on the plan until all the pieces slid into place. I had no idea my nephews would be coming over for a visit until they were almost here, and I had no idea they would be able to go to the movies until a few minutes after that. But I checked the movie times yesterday, and scheduled our sole after-church activity - a trip to pick up Chinese food for dinner - to allow sufficient time to make the 2:40 show. (The movie was showing in Moosic, some twenty miles from my house.)

We didn't get into the theater as early as I would have liked, so we had to sit fairly close to the screen - not such a bad thing when the movie is a literally immersing experience. The movie itself was quite beautiful, except for the parts about pollution, which were appropriately ugly. As this is a movie targeted towards children and being distributed by Disney, there was little about mating activities, save for a single shot of two turtles apparently riding piggyback, which brought laughter from the children in the audience. There was quite a bit of violence, however, including almost an entire hatching group of sea turtles getting picked off one by one as they race to the ocean in broad daylight, and a seal apparently swallowed whole by a shark. (I say "apparently" because it is possible that the shark subsequently spit out the seal and did that tear-and-rend thing with its rows of serrated teeth.)

The past few years have seen an explosion in the number and quality of nature documentaries on television, in the movies, and on home video. This one holds up quite well. At no point in Pierce Brosnan's narration did I think "Hey, it's that Remington Steele / James Bond guy!" I did not detect any trace of boredom in any of the adults or children packing the theater - though I must confess I personally found the movie very relaxing at times. I look forward to getting a copy on DVD to see those parts I might have missed.


See also:
Oceans Disneynature
Disney's 'Oceans,' A Bewitching Homage To The Sea : NPR
Window Into Wonders of the Oceans - ABC News
Oceans - Movie Trailers - iTunes