JIM reviews film "OCEANS"

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Oceans

MY Rating: 9 of 10 stars (based on an advance screening of the 100-minute film).

A LIQUID “Diet” you’ll really ENJOY!

This film (a co-production from France, Spain & Switzerland) is DisneyNature’s “follow-up” to last year’s marvelous “Earth” (which, like this film, is to open on Earth Day)…

… Pierce Brosnan narrates the documentary story about the importance of oceans to our ecosystem. There are typically fabulous views of the water and especially creatures who live there at least part-time: marine iguanas, see urchins, numerous varieties of crabs, seals, fish, and numerous others…

… Early in the film, we’re introduced to the horseshoe crab — a (12-legged) creature (actually related to scorpions and spiders, & not a real crab) that go back around 250 MILLION years in time (before the dinosaurs). The movie shows how they long ago left the sea to periodically walk on the land— an action that was later followed by many other creatures, some of whom (like the whale & dugong) later went BACK into the sea to live (when life on land became too difficult)…

… A good deal of the film is taken up by recording the feeding habits of many of the creatures. There’s a fascinating section reminiscent of (& possibly “based” on) scenes in the Imax film “Wild Ocean” (which I reviewed in June of ’09): how dolphins, whales, sharks, seals, and even diving gannet birds all try to capture some of the fast-moving sardines during their run off the coast of South Africa…

… You can see that the largest sea creatures — the blue whale from the mammals & whale shark from the fishes — eat some of the smallest food, krill (somewhat related to shrimps)… Also seen are interactions (& periodically, eating habits) of the great white shark, moray eels, birds attacking newly-hatched sea turtles (only 1 in 1000 of which survive), and others…

… There are territorial-type “fights” between certain of the creatures, such as the manta shrimp, cuttle fish, a march of massive numbers of huge spider crabs off the coast of Australia, etc. Some creatures allow others to “tag along” with them, such as a blue shark allowing a fish to swim into its gills…

… In this movie, we see familiar animals such as tunas & (Nemo-like) clown fish, along with some — such as the leafy sea dragon (related to sea horses), hermit crabs {which are not true crabs}, and an unusual shark – that look positively OTHER-WORLDLY…

… There are wonderful views of gatherings of humpback and sperm whales, seldom-seen single-tusked narwhals in the Arctic, sea otters (that use rocks to crack open shells to get food), and others… The film has fascinating shots of polar bears, walruses (including a mother helping a baby), penguins, beluga whales, and others…

… In this movie, you can see scenes (especially during the credits) of the divers who went all over the world FILMING the sea creatures, & it’s amazing to see them swim with humpback whales & interact with many creatures, even supposedly-vicious ones like the great white shark (which they swim alongside of)… That also gives you a better perspective of the relative size of the animals involved…

… One of the important “points” of the film (& its affiliated song & pre-film information) is to point out how we need to take better CARE of the oceans and the creatures in them, since fish nets, overfishing and bad pollution are leading to an increasingly dangerous environment for all of us…

… The movie is a real JOY to behold, besides being educational. As one lady in the audience commented to a friend, “It makes me want to go SCUBA diving!…”