{"id":1384,"date":"2011-04-26T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T14:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1384"},"modified":"2011-04-26T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T14:24:09","slug":"review-african-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1384","title":{"rendered":"Review: AFRICAN CATS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>It helped that my daughter has the same name as one of the characters in \u201cAfrican Cats.\u201d But as the tears flowed down her cheeks, I realized that it also made the story of survival a very personal one for my 7 year-old. Kids don\u2019t miss much these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cCats\u201d is a Disneynature feature that follows a pride of lions and lionesses along an African savannah. It is beautifully and intimately captured, with brilliant close-ups and crystal clear slow-motion. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the story involves a bit of personification as the lions, lionesses, and cheetah\u2019s are given human names (like the aforementioned Layla). We meet old Fang the leader of the River Pride. And we see his nemeses Kali, who together with his four sons will threaten Fang\u2019s rule. The lone cheetah Sita uses a combination of her speed and wit to protect her cubs. And Layla, a lioness long past her prime must use every bit of her remaining strength and experience to help her last cub Mara find a safe place in the Pride.<\/p>\n

As beautiful as \u201cAfrican Cats\u201d is it did not hold the attention of my 7 and 9 year-olds for its entire running time. Even at a brisk 89 minutes, my children were ready to get extra popcorn at about a third of the way in. But as the action turned in the film\u2019s last half hour, the kids found renewed interest. Layla\u2019s fight for survival was personal to my Layla as she rooted for the old lioness. The savannah is filled with many dangers and the images we see in \u201cAfrican Cats\u201d make us appreciate those dangers vividly.<\/p>\n

Samuel L. Jackson is a good choice for the narrator. His steady voice moves the action along eloquently, but does not distract. The movie is rated \u201cG,\u201d so don\u2019t expect any of his trademark language. This is more akin to Jackson\u2019s persona taken as Mace Windu in the \u201cStar Wars\u201d sequels. Of course, it really helps that his voice is so well known to us, and Jackson\u2019s calming but firm inflection never gets too monotone so as to put us to sleep.<\/p>\n

I shouldn\u2019t be surprised that my children got restless during \u201cAfrican Cats.\u201d These days kids are used to a continuous onslaught of action and comedic one-liners. I swear if I hear another cartoon character utter the word \u201cawkward,\u201d I\u2019ll scream. What Disney is doing with their nature series is to be lauded. Representing a mountain of time and careful effort by skilled filmmakers Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, \u201cAfrican Cats\u201d should be seen on the big screen. And it helps if your daughter is named Layla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Disneynature series is to be lauded…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1388,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions\/1388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}