It's an enjoyable 40-minute featurette, but like nearly all IMAX films of the last couple of decades, it plays it awfully safe and takes no chances. Surely by now some enterprising humorist has cooked up a wicked parody of these highly specialized movies. They're certainly ripe subjects for satire.

One is reluctant to be too hard on sincere documentaries oh-so-gently pushing for the preservation of rain forests and the conservation of, in this case, impossibly cute, lithe, and varied strepsirrhine primates. Who wouldn't want them to thrive? But the once reliable awesomeness of IMAX presentations at science centers and museums today seems almost quaint. Since the format's introduction 45 years ago (with Tiger Child, which debuted at Expo '70, in Osaka, Japan) IMAX has evolved technologically but hardly at all aesthetically.

Warner Home Video's Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD release include the Blu-ray 3-D version as well, if curiously promoted as a kind of extra feature. Nonetheless, that's by far the best way to experience it. I can't imagine anyone getting too excited watching this on standard-def DVD.

The short film focuses on primatologist-conservationist Patricia C. Wright's nearly 30-year study of the Lemurs, the sprightly, long-armed and -legged primates found only on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, creatures which cannot survive in captivity or anyplace else. In the film, Wright is seen supervising the transfer of a particularly rare species of lemur from a non-protected forest at risk of deliberate burning (for farming purposes) to a protected one, where two other lemurs, a father and daughter, reside.

The movie provides a decent enough overview of lemurs, their fascinating history (e.g., until just a few hundred years ago, species existed as large as adult male gorillas) and pointing to their variety (nearly 100 species) and unique place in primate evolution.

It's all quite pleasant and moderately interesting, if a bit superficial and generically pro-wildlife and advocating the non-controversial protection of their natural habitats. Similarly, the IMAX format allows for some extraordinarily clear images of lemurs in the wild, while the travelogue aspects of these IMAX shows makes Madagascar look like a great place to visit. The 3-D part of the format isn't taxed very hard, with IMAX's superb 3-D countdown prologue more eye-popping than anything in the movie.

After 50-odd viewings of IMAX, IMAX 3-D and OMNIMAX through the years, it's gotten to the point where I need only to hear the title to know exactly what lies ahead. These films aren't cheap to produce, and the overhead running a single IMAX theater must be fiendishly expensive. But wouldn't it make sense to experiment just a little? To maybe turn one IMAX film per year over to a more daring documentary filmmaker like, say, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, or Godfrey Reggio and let them run wild with the format?

Video & Audio

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar is expectedly spectacular. Reformatted slightly for 1.78:1 full-frame, the image is bright and exceptionally sharp, though the use of 3-D is fairly conservative throughout. DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio is offered in English, while Spanish and French are 5.1 Dolby Digital, and subtitles are offered in those languages. It's up to contemporary standards, but not much beyond that, with few "Wow!" moments.

Extra Features

There are eight - count ‘em, eight - HD supplements, but don't get excited, as the longest runs all of six minutes and most clock in at about one-third that length. And, again, it's all predictable stuff: "Making of ‘The Island of Lemurs,'" "Behind the Scenes," "The Story of Lemurs," "Meet Patricia Wright," "A Baby Indri," "The Cutest Lemur," "Go-Kart Racers," and "Five Things About Indri." Unlike Image Entertainment's IMAX releases, there are no trailers for other IMAX titles, not even this one.

Parting Thoughts

Moderately educational eye-candy but little more than that, Island of Lemurs: Madagascar is very mildly Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is the Kyoto-based film historian and publisher-editor of World Cinema Paradise. His credits include film history books, DVD and Blu-ray audio commentaries and special features.