Daily Buzz

Topic: Earth by Disney

“Earth” is the first feature-length nature documentary from Disney’s new production banner, Disneynature. Earth is a revamped version of BBC/Discovery Channel’s “Planet Earth”.  The difference lies in the subject matter.  Whereas “Planet Earth” spoke to and illustrated the effects of global warming, Disney took a different approach and focused more on animal’s behavior in their habitats.  When it comes to today’s tweens, animals are an important part of their lives.  And as box office sales prove, tweens take great interest in animal-oriented films (March of The Penguins, Marley & Me, Madagascar, Bolt, etc.).  Early reviews of the film stated that Disney focused too much on animals behavior and soft-pedaled any reference to climate change. I believe Disney had the right approach here… for when it comes to environmental concerns, today’s youth takes more of an interest in the preservation of animals, than they do with other global warming concerns (the glaciers melting in Antarctica does not pose as much of a concern to them as the polar bears drowning due to less ice for them to rest on).  They have more of a personal connection and investment in animals than they do the environment.
 
In watching the trailer, the cinematography looks incredible and is sure to capture this audience’s attention.  Though global warming is said to be mentioned only a couple of times throughout the film, the directors let the visuals speak for themselves.  Again, thinking about what this audience responds to most, they’re more impacted by what they see, as opposed to what they hear.  
 
We received a lot of posts on the boards in the past couple of days about ‘Earth’.  Many of the tween community members plan’s for Earth Day revolved around going to see this movie.  Tween Insighters mentioned that their Earth Day plans consisted of going to see this with their friends after school and others were mentioning going with their class at school.  

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Generate Insight Daily Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.