Title: Born to Be Wild
Directed by: David Lickley
Starring: Daphne Sheldrick, Birute Galdikas, Morgan Freeman, Elephants, Orangutans
Cute, touching and vague. That’s all one needs to know about the 40 minute “Born to Be Wild” documentary. Yep, just 40 minutes of elephants and orangutans running around, all while Morgan Freeman narrates.
The only reason this is being released in theaters instead of hitting the Discovery channel, is due to the camera choice that director David Lickley went with here. 4K Digital IMAX is his weapon of choice and apparently this is the first time anyone has ever used this equipment in a feature film.
Our tale begins with elephants. Daphne Sheldrick has been looking after orphaned elephants in Kenya for decades. She has acres of land that serve as a nursery/rehabilitation center, with the goal of preparing these motherless young elephants to get back into the wild. She, along with her army of workers, attempt to emulate the care a mother elephant would give her offspring. From feeding them gallons of a special milk brew, to putting globs of sunscreen on their sensitive ears; the educated Sheldrick has this down to a literal science.
Birute Galdikas is doing the same thing over in her conservation park located in Indonesia. Except she’s playing with monkeys. Specifically, orangutans. She has dozens of these little guys literally hanging all over the place.
Funny thing is, both Birute and Daphne remember all of their names. Even the ones that have graduated into the wild. We know this, because some of their “former students” drop in to say hi. Humans and animals living together…This must be a Disney cartoon. Nope. It’s really happening.
And that’s the only fault of this, uh, television program I guess. It’s too vague. The audience will want to know why the former elephants that Daphne looked after know when to show up to welcome in the new graduates. How do they get the both species to adapt within a day of being at their respective institutions? Not enough info on the science is provided here. You are forced to take Freeman’s methodical words as gospel. That’s not to say the guy is lying. But it would have been a novel idea to make this a true feature length film and document the science.
With that said, watching the two species play around their new homes is amusing. Sure we’ve seen this hundreds of times in other docs, but it doesn’t get painfully old for the viewer. The attraction is seeing humans and animals – especially the elephants – play nice together.
Overall, Born to Be Wild is simple, easy to follow and quasi-interesting at times. If one can catch this in an IMAX, it could enhance the experience (as long as the ticket prices are discounted). Elaboration on the science of how these animals learn certain traits would have been nice though.
Technical: B
Acting: N/A
Story: C
Overall: C+
Review by Joe Belcastro
