NFR Project: 'The Living Desert' (1953)

 

NFR Project: “The Living Desert”

Dir: James Algar

Scr: James Algar, Winston Hibler

Pho: Robert H. Crandall, N. Paul Kenworthy

Ed: Norman R. Palmer

Premiere: Nov. 9, 1953

69 min.

Oh my God! Disney makes another film that I hate.

OK. A graduate student made a film of two insects fighting. He showed the footage to Walt Disney. Disney came up with idea of making a feature-length documentary about the lives of desert animals. The result is this, a jokey tour through the American desert environment and a profile of its denizens.

As is usual, Disney anthropomorphizes everything, even mud. The filmmakers built glass cases and put various natural enemies together in these environments, and filmed the conflicts. Thus the film is something of a series of cage matches engineered to provide exciting if not accurate footage. A cute musical soundtrack garnishes the film, cueing the audience as to how to respond to the film. Condescending. All the animals are cute and quirky, even the snakes and the spiders. The film is almost redeemed at the end by showing us a montage of time-lapse blooming desert flowers.

This film would prove to be a template for the hundreds of Disney nature films to follow – cutesy-poo writing, jocular narration, and contrived footage. This slap-happy approach to nature film would poison the genre for decades.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Naked Spur.