Water Birds

Between 1948 and 1960, Disney made fourteen nature documentary films, seven of them short subjects and seven of them full length and all narrated by Winston Hibler. Starting with 'Seal Island' and ending with 'Jungle Cat'. This series was called True Life Adventures, seen as a big fan of Disney and nature documentaries and after wanting to see some older nature documentaries. The True Life Adventures series is a more than worthwhile one and of consistently high quality (especially the short subjects) and do prefer all of them over most of the recent years DisneyNature films.

There have been many fine documentaries on types of birds overtime, one of the best and most comprehensive being one of the best True Life Adventures short films 'Water Birds'. One would be hard pressed to find a better documentary on solely water birds anywhere. Namely because of the beautiful visuals and the perfect marriage of visuals and music, as well as being truly informative and making a lot interesting out of a subject matter that could be explored more in documentaries.

'Water Birds' is beautifully shot in vivid colour and the scenery is completely natural and is gorgeous and unyielding in equal measure, plus the birds are photographed in all their glory. Personally think it is one of the best looking documentaries in the True Life Adventures series, especially the last five minutes. The music also works wonderfully, personally didn't think it was overbearing at all and it is not used too much or too quirky or too dark. 'Water Birds' actually contains one of the best examples of a perfect marriage of visuals and music, as far as the short films in the series goes this aspect was bettered only by 'Nature's Half Acre'.

Furthermore, 'Water Birds' is highly informative and did find myself learning a huge amount, actually it is one of the more illuminating True Life Adventures documentaries). It is also very engaging and investable and there is plenty for those that are familiar with the subject but want to see something fresh and plenty for those not so familiar. The various species look absolutely amazing and are wonderfully varied in size, emotions and whether prey or predator. The life cycles, their strengths and their adversities were fascinating to learn about, was handled seriously but not too much so (the target audience is clear here) and also emotionally investable.

Narration writing is thoughtful and good natured, never sounding juvenile or over complicated. Winston Hibler's narration delivery has always divided those that have watched the True Life Adventures films, personally had no problem with it in all but one. Here it is good natured and even the more deadpan delivery doesn't come over as that monotone.

Concluding, absolutely wonderful. 10/10.

This colorful, old-timey documentary is found in HD resolution on the Rescuers Blu-ray, to tie in with their preferred mode of travel, and is a treat for those of you who prefer their documentaries shot on film with footage of, what was then, very exotic locations and animals. It might appear mundane to folks now who have the world at their fingertips online, but for enthusiasts of cinematography it is also a visual treat.

Sometimes the music gets a bit overbearing, and the narrator struggles to present a "story" at times, but it's seeing all the different species in their beautiful, unspoiled habitat.

There is something so charming and old-fashioned about the Disney live product and this is the finest. It is worth nothing for the historian that 20,000 leagues started out as a true life documentary. But here we have a 28 minute visit to a somewhat real, sometimes fictitious world of birds who are water-oriented. My grandfather (this is the memory part) had a battered 16mm film copy which we shown to my elementary school classes when I was a wee-lad. Over the years, it was shown to my daughter's class and sold off. She was devastated so I fond an E-Bay 16mm print that was BETTER than his print. Still on my shelf though 16mm is a passing media for watching. BETTER is a DVD media which I obtained so this one goes way back.

Watch and remember a time when our world was a lot more innocent than it is today.

This fifth installment in the series of short documentaries created by Disney offers a look at the wildlife of waterfowl. It doesn't offer much. Just some basic things or other very little known things about the birds seen in this documentary. The good thing is that it reveals some very little-known species of birds, a few curious facts. It summarizes every aspect of waterfowl and it is certain that there was more interesting information to know about these species. It is not a great documentary, but it serves as educational material. Of course it feels like something created for the general public because of the tone there. The use of cartoony period sound effects and upbeat music make it lose some seriousness and feel like a children's show. There is not much that can be rescued from this documentary to show that it was worthy of an Oscar, but it is interesting material to educate the youngest. My final rating for this documentary is a 6/10.

"Water Birds" is considered a True Life Adventure by Disney. It is a documentary about water birds, like its name suggests. It is included as an extra on "The Rescuers" DVD. But is there any connection between this and "The Rescuers"? At my point of view, only on a very small point: because this documentary is about albatrosses. Other than that, I don't see how can they possibly be related.

"Water Birds" is not the most exciting thing to watch, but it's interesting for those who have a certain admiration towards birds (or water birds, in this case). Besides, it isn't longer than 30 minutes, which is the ideal runtime: not too short and not too long.

"Water Birds" looks dated, but ironically that can be a good thing too, because this means that it takes us to long gone times. Besides, despite being dated, it still shows us some of the beauties of nature and our planet. Too bad about its poor picture quality of this nature documentary - this is a point which it desperately needs to be restored, to disguise its numerous imperfections.