"Earth" for the Happy Victim of False Advertising

I'm walking a thin line here. By writing so many blogs about Disney, one might think I have some obsession. Maybe it's true, though it so happens that Disney makes quite an example of itself lately and they've just done it again.

Disney missed an important memo - Recycling is for plastic, not wildly popular nature footage already premiered as part of one of the most successful series on TV. For those of you fans of the BBC's great achievement, Planet Earth, DON'T SEE "EARTH", BECAUSE YOU ALREADY HAVE. In a previous post I mentioned that Disney's press releases shamelessly ignored environmental sensitivity. I talked about how Disney prides themselves on a standard of morals accessible to people of all ages, and that, as a family company, Disney is liable to represent themselves with that standard of morals, putting money where its mouth is. Disney has proven even further that the main concern is money... Only a few shots of "Earth" were original shots - shots not taken from the already drooled over Planet Earth series. They took another film, changed the narration, and dropped the word "Planet" from the title. Wow.

Disney had the opportunity to do something huge. They had the chance to follow Planet Earth and really "imagineer" something historical. Well, they didn't, and they still managed to take an amazing amount of credit for another company's success. They even had the nerve to play a tribute before the film, explaining how natural footage is a heritage of theirs (which is a reference to their childhood days of parading lemmings off cliffs). No, Disney deserves no credit for re-gifting. They do, however, deserve a HUGE round of applause for one of the only original shots in the entire film...

Disney murders Bambi in slow motion. I felt: nauseous, shocked, fearful, tranquil, uproarious, rejuvenated - at the site of a cheetah chomping the neck of a small deer. When the shot begins, one would presume that the deer, despite being chased by the fastest land animal, will escape. In that moment, one might think to themselves, "Disney won't show an animal being eaten, and so the deer must escape somehow. Maybe the cheetah will trip?" As the shot continues, ever so slowly so that every detail is impactful, it becomes obvious that this deer is done for, especially when the poor thing stumbles, and tumbles, and rolls across the ground. Now, we know the cheetah has won. Fine. We're thinking, "Ok, Disney's not actually going to show the death of this deer. They'll cut the shot right about now...... ..... ...." Nope - they keep it rolling, and in slow-motion they force children to watch as the cheetah tears into flesh, and then, as it moves to the neck and sinks its teeth deep into Bambi's throat. It's not a cartoon teaching kids about death this time around, but the images of real, living, breathing animals desperate for survival - the one thing Disney gave me for my money.

Earth for the Disheartened Warhawk

Naqoyqatsi means, "War Life." The film, Naqoyqatsi, by the same geniuses that made Koyaanisqatsi, represents human life bound to technology. As the third film in the series, Naqoyqatsi explores more than our human relationship with the natural world, but also our relationship with the technological landscape we've created. The film proposes that technology and human nature are now inseparable. Computers, like the air we breathe, keep us alive. Technology is civilization.

No doubt, Naqoyqatsi is an art film. Not surprising either, that the movie asserts complex ideas about human nature, and so poetically. The basic idea is something we've been talking about in science-fiction for decades: the introduction of technology has forced human civilization into uncharted territories from which we will never escape. Where Hollywood films dilute the important questions of this kind of thinking, with romance or high-tech explosions, Naqoyqatsi makes sure to leave no stone unturned. The film asks you to separate yourself from life as you've seen it. The perspective is so startling, you'd have thought you've been brainwashed your entire life.

I find it appropriate that the film equates war and technology. As stated previously, Koyaanisqatsi was entered into the National Film Registry for its important historical documentation, and in the same way Naqoyqatsi makes significant observations, though with demanding artistic conviction. The film demonstrates the extent to which technology has become the fabric of the human universe. We build tools that build tools that slowly change infrastructure, culture, civilization, and certainly human relationships. We build tools that change the ways we perceive ourselves. We build tools that build tools that kill people. If we wanted, we could use our tools to destroy everything, all other tools, to erase all sign of human existence. We create to destroy.

Still, I think the word "war" is subjective. Naqoyqatsi means more than to say technology can be used as a weapon. "War" in this case, represents our relationship with nature, and beyond that, the grand idea of life itself. Today, to be human means something entirely different. It's a timely idea. With technology we're waging a war on the way things used to be, or the natural way of things. Technology is pure intellect, pure reason, pure humanity. We're at war with "the way of life." We're battling previous definitions of "nature."