A mother polar bear wakes from her long winter nap and walks across the snow-covered ice while the narrator begins his story. While he talks, the cubs attempt a climb from the inside of the cave for the first time as the audience oohs and ahs at the site of the sliding baby bears.

The new Disney release, Earth, narrated by James Earl Jones, connects continents with animal characters, from the cheetah and elephant in Africa to the walrus in Antarctica. Disney plans to introduce people to native animals, and acquaint audiences with their lifestyles.

The concept of a movie entirely based on our planet brought a bit of a disagreement in our thoughts, but once we saw the cute polar bears roam around in the snow on-screen, who could hate the movie? Having seen the Planet Earth series on Discovery channel previously, we expected the movie to be a bunch of nature footage put together to create a fairly basic screenplay. But the movie proved to be different.

Unlike March of the Penguins, which came out in 2005, the movie did not entirely center on the frigid sites of Antarctica but traveled the entire globe. The movie traveled through the continents of Asia, Africa, South America and Antarctica, stopping in places such as the Sahara, the Amazon and the depths of the ocean in order to chronicle the world’s wildlife.

Although baby polar bears bring cuddly entertainment to the screen, the idea of spending almost half the movie only with them was a little much. The filmmakers only spent a few minutes with the exotic birds of paradise in the jungles and rain forests. A better balance of hot and cold might have been more entertaining.

Despite this problem, Earth had its strong points ? the cameramen spared viewers by cutting out footage before a cheetah rips an antelope into pieces, and before lions tear the head off an elephant. Although death is a part of life, the director was sensitive to the emotions of the viewers by moving on lightly to keep content appropriate for children.

We spent several weeks convincing people to join in the group to see the movie on opening day, but most of our pre-viewing enthusiasm was faked. However, the film exceed our expectations. The director was able to pull us into the situation and make us feel anxious for both the animal running from hunters and the hunter itself.

In part of the movie, elephants crossed many miles of territory, eventually reaching their watering hole destination, despite losing a few members along the way. The scene was spectacular, with the large mammals spraying water at each other and getting the water they needed. The theater filled with excitement, the audience sharing in the elephants’ jubilation.

Deep in the ocean, photographers show glimpses of a mother humpback whale and her baby calf swimming peacefully. The sounds of waves crashing filled the theater as the whales hit their tails on the surface. While, as plenty of the movie was over, we were a little sick of oohing and awing, we had to join in with the amazed crowd for this amazing sight.

The scenes from around the world really showed plenty of the earth’s surface and emphasized the importance of our planet. It seems Disney wanted people to feel compassion for the earth and the movie really gave us a heart for the animals, and a desire to save the land they live in.

The idea of Earth at first seems a little dull, and was a little too focused on one habitat, but the film redeemed itself, teaching the audience about the world’s wildlife and how to preserve it. A movie based on what lives around us could not be more worth the price of the ticket.

The makers of Earth spent tons of money filming animals in their natural habitats, but the cost was well worth the result. Every scene was gold and the film will be a complete hit with nature and animal lovers.

For more reviews, visit Rotten Tomatoes or read the Aug. 13 article, Arctic Tale fuses fact, fiction.