Intelligent Life
Is All Around Us
A page about movies, songs, and books that continue the spirit of Kimba The White Lion.
Also check out my daily posts about animal intelligence at Intelligent Life is All Around Us.
Also check out my daily posts about animal intelligence at Intelligent Life is All Around Us.
 Here is my page devoted to the true story of Christian the lion, a wonderful example of the love and peaceful relationships that are possible with wild animals. |
 Here you can buy the movie and book about Christian the lion. |
 John Rendall, one of Christian's original owners, recommends WildlifeNOW for those who wish to donate to continue Christian's legacy. For those outside the US, the same charity can be reached at The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust. They are hoping to raise funds to restore the Kora preserve, where Christian was rehabilitated. | |
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John Rendall and Ace Bourke have been on various TV shows in the US recently. More information at Intelligent Life is All Around Us. |
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The June 2004 release of the wonderful movie "Two Brothers" is a great chance for more people to discover the same ideas that made Kimba The White Lion so very special.
"Two Brothers" is an absolutely beautiful movie, and a very moving story. Definitely a movie I recommend to everyone. As writer/director Jean-Jacques Annaud has commented, and as anyone who knows animals can tell you, tigers are intelligent, emotional creatures and the premise of "Two Brothers" is simple: the tigers want to live their lives in peace. The movie does not sugar-coat the way tigers have been treated (not that there is any on-screen gore) and so may prove to be an emotional roller-coaster for the sympathetic. Hopefully the richness and skill of the storytelling will reach out and make even more people sympathetic to their fellow creatures. "Two Brothers" is beautifully photographed, and very intelligent in its depiction of the tigers. They even got the tigers' vocalizations right--tigers have more of a vocabulary than most movie makers seem to know about, but Annaud got it right. A couple of my favorite scenes: The woman reading typical early-20th-century "big game hunting adventures" to her son while he and the tiger cub snooze happily side-by-side, and the central human's personal epiphany when he realizes that the animals he's been hunting can think and love. "Two Brothers" asks that you open your heart, and it rewards you greatly if you do. The potential for love between humans and animals, the callous ways most people treat animals, the need for understanding and the desire to live in peace are all important ideas that run through every Kimba episode and they are also beautifully conveyed in this great movie, "Two Brothers". Two Brothers is available on DVD around the world. This link is for the US version. This is one great movie! |
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| Tiger images from "Two Brothers", ©2004 Universal Pictures | |
| I have not seen "The Wild Thornberrys Movie", so I cannot say whether it's recommendable, but on the soundtrack album there is a song by Peter Gabriel that is truly wonderful. The song is Animal Nation, which describes the intelligence and emotions exhibited by bonobo apes. This song is popularizing the phrase, "Intelligent life is all around us", which makes me very happy since I had been using that phrase to wake people up to the irony of scientists searching outer space for intelligent life when there are thinking, feeling, loving animals and their societies all around us that are being ignored at best, and more likely destroyed. |
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 You can read the lyrics to "Animal Nation" here. |
 You can buy the CD containing this song from Amazon.com. |
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| In a more abstract way, the movie "Passion in the Desert" is an allegory about the same ideas, about what mankind lost in deciding to treat the rest of creation as mere objects. While there is nothing offensive in the movie, I would not recommend it for children because it is a tragic tale, and heavier going than even many adults will want to bear. Personally, I consider "Passion in the Desert" to be one of the greatest movies of all time. "Passion in the Desert is FINALLY out on DVD! Here is a link to buy it from Amazon.com. |  |
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