Whispers - An Elephant's Tale

Rating:
Summary: Very Heartwarming!
Review: I don't generally like Disney's straight to video movies, but since my family bought it, I decided to watch it. It was surprisingly good! It's about a little elephant who wasn't even named when a group of pochers attacked causing he and his mother to seperate. With her promise to find him someday, he joins with a not so kind elephant, Grove, who teaches him how to stay clear of poachers and lions. Giving up hope of his mother still being alive, he accepts grove as his mother, who names him Whispers because thats the noise he makes when hi tries to make an elephants roar. But when Grove is shot by pochers in an attempt to save Whispers, he must find home in the wild jungle. The special features are two animated shorts. One starring goofy attempting to bathe an elephant. The other with Donald trying to take pictures of a wacky bird. The box claims that the film is in fullscreen, but I found a widescreen version is actually what is on the disk. There is also a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound soundtrack. Buy Whispers today!

Rating:
Summary: My kid likes it but I don't
Review: OK, my three year old really likes this movie. There is lots of action and lots of animals, which makes a good show as far as he is concerned. However, I *really* hate the dialog--especially the way the baby elephant interacts with the other elephants. I suppose the scriptwriters wanted to make it hip or something, but it just comes off as obnoxious and smart-assy (pardon my french). I would not allow my child to speak in such a manner to *anyone*, so I don't like him being exposed to such behavior.

The fact that the story includes death doesn't bother me as much as the dialog. There is no gratuitous gore, and hunting--both by humans and other predators--is what life is like for animals in Africa.

There are so many better animal movies out there--The Adventures of Milo and Otis, for example--that don't try to be tragically hip. I'll be glad when my son stops asking for this tape and I never have to see it again!

Rating:
Summary: Whispers
Review: This movie is NOT for children. The story evolves around an elephant who thinks his Mother is killed by poachers. He joins another herd who does not want him and ends up running away with a teenager who tells him he is "stalking" her. This movie is depressing and dark. It shows lots of elephant bones, dead elephants and lions attacking and eating other types of animals. You get to watch bull elephants fight each other and elephants crying over their dead companions. This movie STINKS!! I wish I could get my money back and the 72 minutes of my life wasted watching this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Real story of nature with a heart!
Review: This movie was great fun! The realistic cinematography of all the animals in the wild was very educational and beautiful! Whispers is adorable and all the other elephants are fun to watch. The music was fantastic and the story is heart warming! A great movie for kids and adults alike, especially animal and nature lovers!

Rating:
Summary: Suicidal Cartoons
Review: We recently enjoyed watching the elephants walk around and talk to each other. After the feature film, we started watching one of the bonus cartoons that came with the DVD. This cartoon short was called "Clown of the Jungle".

The cartoon starts with a bird smoking a big stogie. After enjoying his cigar, he decides that life is too much to handle and attempts to kill himself.

Twice during the cartoon the character is seen holding a gun to his head.
Twice during the cartoon the character is seen with a noose around his neck.
Finally, since he didn't manage to kill himself using those methods, he decided that drinking poison was the only way to go.

My 2 & 4 year old girls really enjoyed this, next weekend they want to watch Faces of Death or maybe HBO's Autopsy.

On a more serious note, when I was growing up, we would see this all the time, but I think things have changed a bit since then. Of the millions of cartoon clips, I'm a little shocked to see one of this nature on a G Rated Disney DVD.

Enjoy.