The Meerkats

"The Meerkats" is the last film Paul Newman made, as he narrates this documentary about the Meerkat. He died the same year the film debuted. Unlike many TV documentaries, "The Meerkats" tends to use the same style as many of the big screen Disney nature documentaries from recent years. It has gorgeous and breathtaking cinematography but also tends to humanize the animals, attributing human characteristics like love, fortitude and the like to animals. It also supposedly follows one meerkat, Kolo, through life...though I suspect Kolo is actually several different meerkats. The average person will probably like the narration, though I am sure biologists watching won't. I wasn't impressed by it...but I cannot in any way fault the great cinematography and wish I'd seen it on the big screen. I noticed one reviewer said they thought it was better than "The March of the Penguins". I would say they're roughly the same quality and think the reality is that you'll like whichever one features animals you like best. I prefer penguins...but that's just me. Overall, a lovely documentary the shows parts of the world and animals you might not otherwise see. I have spent about a month in South Africa...and I didn't get to see this desert portion, so I'm glad I watched the movie. By the way, as I watched this with my aunt and she made a comment I wholeheartedly agree with...that when they show other creatures, they should identify what they are...either in captions or the narration. Often we saw birds of prey in the film and they were never identified...something which isn't just a problem in this nature documentary.

source: The Meerkats

This beautifully photographed wildlife movie anthropomorphises a group of meerkats. The fact that so much meerkat behaviour appears so deceptively human aids this approach although, personally, I felt that attributing human motives and relationships rather cheapened the absorbing and eye-catching visuals (I appreciate that allocating names is helpful for purposes of identification). Paul Newman delivers the narration in what was probably his final professional work. It is perfectly satisfactory, if a little cold. But this film stands on its visuals, and it transcends criticism on that basis alone.

I LOVED this movie. I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I got was surprising and fun and enjoyable. This is the story of a Meerkat family in Africa, a story of survival. The cinematography was breathtaking,the film was beautifully shot and arranged. Paul Newman is the perfect person to narrate this tale. You will fall in love with this family of Meerkats in the first 5 minutes and love them until the very end. Hey, even my friend admitted to having a tear in her eye at the end! Highly recommended.

This is a "must watch". Even if you aren't a nature film fan, this charming well made movie is worth the investment of time. It clocks in at a sprightly hour and a half, which flies past like an eagle chasing its prey. I generally find Alexander McCall Smith's novels 9and the series made from them - No. 1 Ladies Detective Club) a bit too precious. No question though that he knows, and loves, South Africa. His script for this mock documentary, narrated by Paul Newman in what seems to have been his final performance, teeters on the edge of cliché and sentimentality, but never topples over. The narrative line of personalizing the story of one young meerkat to tell the tale of the Kalahari, of dessert life, and the cycle of life, works effectively, and to my mind, makes this a superior and more accessible movie than March of the Penguins. The excellent score sets a tone, and a pace, which matches the story perfectly, and gives a sense of place. No soaring Beethoven or Mahler here. Real sounds of Africa. Done by a young English folk singer. Amazing. What blew me away most though was the cinematography and editing. I can't get over the shots that James Honeycombe and his crew captured in their six month mission, and condensed into a stunning visual. Please, watch this movie.

Let the wildlife documentaries roll in. I suppose it's lucrative enough to make a film based on animals both in wildlife, or in captivity, protecting them from the threat of extinction. You can name such films with ease, starting from the award winning March of the Penguins, to the fictional story The Fox and the Child and to the latest screened here in Panda Diary. The Meerkats took a bow at last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, and while we may not be that familiar with this species, the story weaved into this documentary has universal themes going back to basics on survival. The filmmakers had spent some 6 months to observe the meerkats' breeding period in their natural environment in the Kalahari desert, and the footage they obtained is nothing less than stunning, though I suspect for certain shots they had recycled perhaps from some earlier moments, and juxtaposed them in place to make a more logical narrative. Still, it's no mean feat deserving of kudos for Alexander McCall Smith because it certainly takes tremendous man-hours to craft a drama narratively from what is essentially footage of animals going about their own thing. Narrated by the late Paul Newman, The Meerkats have all the ingredients necessary to engage an audience throughout its brisk 83 minutes. We have an identified flawed hero Meerkat, Kolo, from whose eyes we will witness events from. And it's like a life-cycle, coming of age tale, with Kolo's birth, the life lessons he has got to learn fast if he's to survival in a harsh habitat with predators and the environment both threatening his family's very survival, a tragedy, an accidental exile and the return of the prodigal son. For the uninitiated, we get to learn a little more about the meerkats just as how one watching a nature documentary would pick up from, such as their diet, their underground abode, as well as their chief enemies, and director James Honeybornes ensures we get ringside seats in the thick of the action whether it's the battling against swooping eagles, cunning snakes, or even against fellow meerkats of a different tribe. Personallly I dislike snakes, and watching one slither about on screen and up close, isn't really my cup of tea. But the "action sequences" were an eye-opener, with a very natural and real sense of danger because it's not crafted, but is exactly as what nature intended – the laws of the food chain amongst the vast African plains. So for documentary lovers out there who are on the bandwagon for more wildlife films, then The Meerkats would be your automatic choice. Recommended.

Don't let the cutesy cover picture deceive you—this is a phenomenal film. Far beyond a mere wildlife documentary, this is a full feature film with a storyline, action, and drama. Heroes and villains. Family. Culture. War. Play. It's all remarkably human. Or—rather it's that the human experience is understanding of the universal. It's the feeling that we are animals, too. We are one with the life around us, part of a huge family, clearly related, that our similarities remain after eons of evolution. Meerkats of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa are the spotlight of this film. But you are absorbed into the Kalahari—not only the macro world of the meerkats (only about a foot/30cm tall) but also the surrounding community of scorpions, cobras, eagles, rhinoceroses, lions, and more making their lives in the dust and scrub of the beautiful landscape. Supported by a full team of expert scientists, the film offers amazing insights into both meerkats and the surrounding life of the Kalahari. We learn about their language and behaviors. Their struggles. We watch them teach and raise their young. The film makes the beauty of nature and life so accessible that one feels a swell of respect for life of all kinds. The Meerkats gives us a hint of the coming films that capture the stories existing in nature around us—now with the support of a Hollywood-level budget. Innovative filming techniques bring us right in with amazing cinematography. Infrared lighting systems convey us into underground burrows at night, watching the meerkats sleep and wake up as well as a cobra's dramatic underground tunnel attack. Brilliant ground-breaking audio gives us not animal calls but the fine detail of movements, even that of walking insects. Together with the magnetic main characters, alluring score, and an excellent script with a moving storytelling by Paul Newman and you've got one pleasant movie experience.

source: The Meerkats

This beautifully photographed wildlife movie anthropomorphises a group of meerkats. The fact that so much meerkat behaviour appears so deceptively human aids this approach although, personally, I felt that attributing human motives and relationships rather cheapened the absorbing and eye-catching visuals (I appreciate that allocating names is helpful for purposes of identification). Paul Newman delivers the narration in what was probably his final professional work. It is perfectly satisfactory, if a little cold. But this film stands on its visuals, and it transcends criticism on that basis alone.

I LOVED this movie. I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I got was surprising and fun and enjoyable. This is the story of a Meerkat family in Africa, a story of survival. The cinematography was breathtaking,the film was beautifully shot and arranged. Paul Newman is the perfect person to narrate this tale. You will fall in love with this family of Meerkats in the first 5 minutes and love them until the very end. Hey, even my friend admitted to having a tear in her eye at the end! Highly recommended.