Where wild things are

Most Disney fans associate the circle of life with the lessons young Simba learns in “The Lion King,” usually as a celestial chorus swells in the background. It’s all very dignified and respectful.

However, in the new Disney documentary “Earth,” ratty-looking lions are shown attacking an elephant, ready to make a meal out of him. There’s nothing orderly or life-affirming about it.

“We’re going to be very real,” says Disney Chairman Dick Cook. “Nature is going to write the story. What we find, what we get, that’s what we’ll use.”

This is not to say that “Earth,” which will be released in theaters on Earth Day (April 22) and is the first entry by the new Disneynature production and distribution arm, is all tooth and claw. In fact, the film does not depend on TV-nature-show-style bloodletting to grip viewers. Instead, it brings the venerable Disney nature documentary into the digital age. Elephants on the Kalahari Desert are viewed from high in fanatical detail. A great white shark sucking down a seal is aestheticized by extreme slow motion.

These cinematic feats are made possible by high-definition cameras, which produce startlingly clear images at a variety of speeds, and a new stabilization system called the Cineflex, which allows wildlife scenes to be shot from great distances. And while these images are amazing, they aren’t simply the documentary equivalent of a car chase. There’s a point to them.

“If you want to understand the problem that a polar bear has, you have to see that in spite of the fact that it’s the world’s largest carnivore, it’s a tiny white dot in a big Arctic Ocean,” says “Earth” co-director Alastair Fothergill.

Also, these visuals fit within the narrative framework of the film, which follows the migratory patterns of three animals: the polar bear, the African elephant and the humpback whale. Each stage of their respective journeys illustrates the hazards presented by nature and man, though the filmmakers were careful not to push the environmental message too hard. James Earl Jones narrates, but they let the footage do much of the talking. (Disney marketing had no such qualms -- the company said it will plant a tree for every moviegoer who sees the film opening week.)

“There’s a real danger in beating people up,” says co-director Mark Linfield. “If you tell them too often that we’re going to be living in a frying pan in 20 years, it’s actually a good excuse for them to give up and not bother: ‘I may as well go buy my four-wheel drive.’ But what ‘Earth’ shows is that there’s still plenty left worth caring about.”

This makes “Earth” a convenient introduction to the rest of the series, which is a reboot of True-Life Adventures, Disney’s classic nature documentaries of the ‘40s and ‘50s. Cook says that Disneynature has been brewing for a while, inspired by technological advances, a renewed cultural interest in the environment, the success of such docs as “March of the Penguins,” as well as the company’s own DNA.

Each upcoming entry will investigate a specific species or ecosystem. Among those on the horizon are “Oceans,” “Big Cats,” “Chimpanzees” and “Naked Beauty.” (Cook says that last title, which refers to pollinators, may be changed because it “sounds like a porn film.”) These films will be in the $5-million to $15-million range and be repurposed across the Disney ecosystem, including the Disney Channel and theme parks.

While most of these documentaries will be original productions, some will have had previous lives or parents. “Earth” evolved from the Emmy-Award-winning “Planet Earth” series that was co-produced by the BBC and aired on the Discovery Channel. However, the film is not merely a distillation or a big-screen bookend. About 30% of the footage is new, and the narration was rewritten. In fact, there are even several versions of “Earth” itself. The iteration Americans will see differs from the British in all-too-familiar ways, starting with the decision to replace Patrick Stewart’s reserved narration with a warmer one by Jones.

“The one big change they asked for is they wanted the happy ending,” says Fothergill, who is quick to say that he had a “fantastic experience” working with Disney and that the changes were appropriate. “Disney felt that it wasn’t quite uplifting enough for their audience. So they added a curtain call with a nice big score and some wonderful images from the movie.”

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