Elephant (2020)

[StevePulaski]

Elephant (2020)
Directed by: Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz

Rating: ★★★

Amidst a global pandemic that has millions across the world with no choice but to sit inside, Disneynature releasing two films on Disney+ was a smart move for people starved for something to do. While the ideal form of viewing would be in a large, dark auditorium, there is something pleasantly intimate about getting an up-close view of animals and their habitats in the comfort of your home. While Disneynature's Elephant doesn't impress quite on the same level as Dolphin Reef with that film's abundance of color and creatures, it's nonetheless another serviceable entry in the ongoing canon of nature documentaries.

Set in the grassy plains and muddy fields of southern Africa, taking us everywhere from the Kalahari Desert, the Okavango Delta, and Victoria Falls, we follow a tight-knit family of elephants and watch a scrappy youngster make his ascension in the hierarchy. That is Jomo, to be specific, who is aided by Shani, his level-headed sister, and Gaia, the aging matriarch, who is forced to play babysitter and hero early in the film when she must rescue a young elephant who is entrenched in thick mud and risks suffocation because of it. It's one of many engrossing scenes that give us a personal insight into the behavior of these giant, majestic creatures.

If you're like me and couldn't care less about the Royal Family, you still might like to know that Meghan Markle — or Meghan, Duchess of Sussex as she's now known — is quite possibly my favorite narrator for any Disneynature film yet. Her calm cadence loans itself to a documentary that devotes long stretches to elephants walking across vast fields. Beyond that, she keeps the corny humanizing to a minimum, blessed so, and avoids some of the silliness that has become perfunctory with this series. She's an engaging tour-guide, so to speak, because she's conversational in tone, and conveying charisma and warmth through narration isn't a particularly easy thing to achieve.

Meghan also lets scenes breathe in such a way that they become therapeutic. Orchestral African chords and chants overtake the soundtrack at times, serving as a germane accompaniment to the visual beauty. The closeups on the elephants' sun-bleached exteriors caked in dry mud proves strikingly detailed, and even long-shots that encompass the landscapes around them are easy on the eyes. Now more than ever, we could use a relaxing piece of visual poetry, and Elephant is the ideal conduit in these trying, uncertain times.

My review of Disneynature's Dolphin Reef: stevethemovieman.proboards.com/thread/6406/dolphin-reef

Narrated by: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Directed by: Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz.