Telling an animal's story is something that filmmakers have been trying to do for many years. Even nature documentaries often try to add a story element by giving wild animals character names and pretending that there's a conventional dramatic arc to their stories. While the wilderness definitely contains a deep and rich narrative, it's probably not something that conforms to our notion of a three-act structure. Pride tries to add some complexity to the story of one lion's attempts to be a non-conformist in the African plains with melodrama and humor, but is only intermittently successful.

The story of a lioness named Suki (voiced by Kate Winslet; The voice cast also includes Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, John Hurt and Rupert Graves), Pride often bares the cruel and punishing soul of the wild with scenes of danger and suspense. When lion cubs are besieged by elephants or boars there is a real sense of fear. And when marauding "Wanderers" from across the river (vicious male lions from another pride) attack Suki's family there is definitely a notion of the competitiveness that is crucial to the lives of these incredible creatures.

The film offers up a lot of different plot tidbits (Suki wants to be a vegetarian, Suki wants to cross the river and live with the Wanderers, the Wanderers want to take the more lush land away from Suki's tribe) and all this plotting might work well for kids. It's mostly simplistic stuff but, unlike films like Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, it's not really a metaphor for the same kinds of problems that people have. At the same time, it is anthropomorphised to an extent, so it doesn't really fully portray lion life either. For example, Suki's plight to avoid hunting and give up meat is similar to the plot of Shark Tale, except that in this case the natural predator eventually realizes that hunting is not meant to be cruel but rather it's a function of survival. When Suki has her own cubs to care for she embraces her predatory nature. This kind of makes sense from a lion perspective (if you are willing to accept that a lion might feel bad about hunting in the first place) but it doesn't really work with the kind of moral lesson that kids movies usually deliver.

Not that that's a bad thing: The best kids movies sometimes deliver their lessons with more nuance anyway. A film like Babe is smart enough to say "You can do your own thing, but if you don't that doesn't make you a bad person." Pride is dealing with baser instincts since lions in the wild engage in a real life-and-death struggle daily. There's no time for personal choices.

One way that Pride tries to borrow from Babe and fails is in the use of CG mouth animation. In Babe (as well as its dark, brooding sequel) the mix of animated mouths and live animal footage was nearly flawless. Here it's much less effective, giving the film a distracting quality. The beautiful lions are often goofily warped to accommodate the cutesy talking animations. Frankly, I would have preferred if the mouths had been left alone and the words just sort of appeared without any puppetry at all. Since there is no interspecies communication it would have worked fine. Instead this gimmick takes away from the brilliant nature photography.

And really that's the main reason to see Pride. Thanks to some innovative camera work the entire film was (apparently) shot in the wild using a real pride of lions. They are not coached or trained in any way. A camera was guided by remote to get various shots of the lions and those shots were used (and, sadly, in a couple of instances reused) to tell the story. That bold approach earns the filmmakers some points even if the storytelling itself is somewhat lacking. It also provides some truly glorious moments. I've always been in love with wild cats and the lions here are absolutely stunning. Whether it's the shake of a male's mane or the patience and intensity with which a lioness prepares for a hunt - and then the precision and swiftness of her kill - there is some spectacular footage of some truly beautiful beasts.

VIDEO:
The anamorphic video is absolutely beautiful. The source is nearly flawless and the images are colorful and vibrant. Some shots are digitally enhanced to create artificial sunsets and things like that, but when you're looking at real nature that's when this disc shines.

AUDIO:
There are both Dolby Digital 5.1 and stereo soundtracks. Both are fine but the 5.1 mix has a richness and depth that the louder 2.0 mix misses. The multichannel mix also does a nice job of using the surrounds for ambient nature sounds. The orchestral score (which evokes Lawrence of Arabia at times) sounds great and the voices sound deep and smooth, although they never seem to come from the lions quite convincingly.

EXTRAS:
Two behind-the-scenes pieces (one a half-hour, the other about forty minutes) cover some of the same material, including the boulder-cam, i.e. the rock-housed remote control camera that allowed the filmmakers to get their unprecedented shots of the lions. These are nice features and really function as quality programs all their own. There are also some trailers for other nature-related programs.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Pride isn't perfect but for kids it might be really interesting. There are some tense moments and the movie doesn't lie about the fact that lions kill other animals and eat them - although the angles chosen aren't particularly grisly. It may be too cutesy in some ways but it's obviously done with real respect and admiration for these incredible cats and audiences will hopefully take away that same feeling.