Disney's Earth: Lost at Sea

Beautifully photographed (including some fantastic months-long time exposures as the camera pans across a forest vista and we see the full blossoming of both trees and flowers) but ultimately disappointing global-warming proselytizing tract.

Especially egregious was the clearly fabricated storyline of a starving "dad" polar bear, separated from his "family" and in danger of drowning and starvation. The filmmakers attempt to place this particular bear (you can't be sure it's the same one throughout, of course, they all look so much alike) in jeopardy, due to, of course, man-made global warming that is causing the ice flows to break up sooner every year.

They also fail to point out that polar bears are capable of swimming for hundreds of miles in the open sea without trouble and routinely do so on their hunting expeditions, as they shadow seal herds.

Finally, they also neglect to reveal that the population of polar bears has increased five fold over the last few decades, due to a ban on hunting them. So the bears are doing just fine, with or without CO2 emissions adjustment.

Gone are the days of my youth, when in grade school we watched the Disney "Living Desert" films that dramatized the natural life cycle of animals without injecting politics and/or religion. Now, every single natural history show has the "sky is falling" overlay.

The saddest part is I doubt even the filmmakers believe this nonsense; they're just using it to amp up the drama. After all, they had the stirring lion-elephant confrontation, as well as the compelling slo-mo cheetah-gazelle chase . . . what kind of interest can we get from a few polar bears who hunt undersea and just amble around on land? Oh, yes! Let's pretend they're in trouble because of the melting ice-pack and a bit of video we shot of a bear's unsuccessful attempt to nab a walrus cub! Yes!

At this point, I always thank the missionaries for stopping by and say, "I've already got a religion, thank you. Good day," and shut the door.