Secrets of Life

 

Release Date: September 4, 1956

Watch Date: March 5, 2023

"Survival and reproduction. Two dilemmas confronting every form of life on this planet. How are these problems solved by microscopic organisms? By marine creatures? Insects? Plant life? What causes the restless Earth to continually shape and reshape itself? Eighteen expert Disney photographers use innovative and state-of-the-art film techniques to bring you the fascinating answers."

    My hope was misplaced because, unfortunately for everyone involved, True-Life Adventures did get worse. I think there's only one left after this, and I doubt very much that the momentum will be picked back up sufficiently this late in the game.

    Look, I don't know what was happening in documentary film back when this was originally released. Maybe time lapse photography and super minute close ups was new and exciting technology. It had to be at some point, right? But it's not today and for better or for worse it is through the lens of a modern day viewer that I must watch these films. So, as a modern day viewer:

    No one needs what feels like thirty minutes of plants rapidly growing in a sterilized studio set to music. No one wants that, no one needs it. It's pretty and kind of miraculous for the first few minutes but then it drags and your mind wanders and it just sets on extremely negative tone for the rest of the film.

    Then the ants. Look, I like ants as much as the next person, which is to say that unless they are invading my home I don't really think about them but I'm sure they are very important to the planet, and ecosystems and such. Close up, they're gross. Close up with giant swollen butts they're even worse. And insect or not, I'm not sure how entirely ethical it is to introduce two different species of ant in the same environment in the hopes of getting footage of them killing each other.

    As long as we're talking about ethics there's no way the studio didn't start a fire to get footage of a beehive nearly burning, right? Everyone of these True-Life Adventures, two of them, have featured a forest fire and either forests catch on fire a lot more than I ever thought or Disney is trying to inject some drama into the film.

    This documentary also shows it's age, specifically in the bee section, with multiple statements being made and then immediately being followed up by the explanation that no one knows why or how. I do, however, respect them just saying 'we don't know' rather than falsifying info.

    The True-Life series started off with a bang, but it is ending on a whimper, which feels tragic. This addition is completely skippable, and if you want to take my advice, you will.