There are two interesting stories today related to the new Disney movie Earth, and since I’ve seen the little kid-friendly doc and disagree with both sides of the backlash, I’m going to address the stories in today’s bloggery despite the fact that only a few film blogs have commented on this topic. First off, there’s the complaint from Newsweek’s Jesse Ellison who thinks the film is too violent to be rated G, to which I call b.s. If anything, the movie cops out too much when it comes to the food-chain kills that every kid is aware of. Bambi is more violent than Earth, and I do honestly believe Ellison made up, or at least exaggerated, his observation of a little girl jumping into her father’s lap. There were kids at the press screening I attended too, but they were so visibly bored with the tameness of the movie that they were literally running up and down the aisle of the Disney screening room.

As for the other story, apparently all of the footage in Earth is recycled from BBC’s Planet Earth series and basically only the James Earl Jones narration is fresh. Well, sure, maybe this is true, and maybe it’s a bit of a scam, but if so it’s at least a decent abridged and censored version with which to introduce kids to that series (since I’ve only seen bits of the series, I guess it was an introduction for me, as well).

So, I guess your decision to see the movie now rests on three things: you’re okay with a little implicit nature violence, you’re okay with an excellent nature series being retooled for your kids and shown on the big screen (where Planet Earth was not made available), and you want Disneynature to plant a tree in your honor, as promised by the studio’s genius promotion.

After the jump, some responses from the blogs, plus some bonus bloggery related to Earth Day:

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline mentions both controversies in his post, which mostly highlights a great reaction from Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere. I’ll let Stu have the juicy samples about headless chickens and puppy pancakes in order to recycle a favorite Wellsian opinion that he himself repeats today:
  

  As I wrote on 3.25, “Parents are realizing that they haven’t done their kids any favors by funding a cut-off, over-indulged fantasy realm for them to live in.

  “Kids need to grow up and grim up and learn the realities and skills and disciplines that will allow them to survive. So enough with the Spielberg-aping films that portray a child’s world as a magical-fantastical kingdom in and of itself that adults might be able to learn something from.”

• Commenting at Movieline, T. Holly “Lo” disagrees completely with Wells’ stance on kid films:
  

  The whole earth coming to an end, or tidal waves devistating cities is a MUCH BIGGER deal than a puppy being hit by a car! Whoever wrote this needs to think before they write…kids have enough fears to deal with as it is… do we need to create MORE stress for them… oh, wait… we do if we want to NIGHTMARE them into going green! I think they call that brainwashing!

• Mark Graham at Vulture is the one who reminded me of the recycled footage issue. He at least gives one reason for people to see the film on the big screen, even if on the wrong holiday:
  

  That’s not to say that this wouldn’t be a totally sweet thing to see on the big screen. Unfortunately, though, today is 4/22 and not 4/20. We think Disney missed out on some real synergistic opportunities there.

• Gina Tellaroli at Take Part doesn’t mind the recycled footage and thinks you should see it anyway:
  

  As it turns out, there was a partnership and collaboration from the beginning between the two projects, with one knowingly focusing on three specific animal stories (Earth) and one focusing on the larger scope of the planet (Planet Earth).  I’ll admit that this made watching the DisneyNature flick a bit less exciting and I was a bit letdown. Overall though, I couldn’t be happier that the film is coming out…I hope many many people will see it and that they will be inspired to learn more, watch more and get involved in the world we all (animals too!) depend upon.

• Alex Billington at First Showing shares the trailer for Disneynature’s Oceans doc (coming out one year from today), as well as some praise for Earth:
  

  In honor of today being Earth Day, Disney has launched the trailer for their newest nature movie Oceans, due out in theaters exactly one year from today, on Earth Day 2010. While I’m at it, I should mention that I saw Disneynature’s Earth last week, and it’s actually pretty amazing. I would highly suggest seeing it, especially since it just hit theaters today and Disney has a promotion running where your ticket money is used to help save the Earth.

• Kris Tapley at In Contention recommends another movie instead of Earth:
  

  The occasion of Disneynature’s “Earth” release today should be met with screenings of Rob Fricke’s “Baraka” across the globe, for those uneducated and educated on the film alike.  Go out, buy/rent a Blu-ray, find the best 46″-plus screen you can and bask in its warm rays.  I think this exercise preferable to re-watching, say, Luc Jacquet’s “March of the Penguins” or even the BBC’s landmark “Planet Earth” documentary, to which “Earth” has been compared in recent weeks.

• Speaking of Earth Day scams, Jeffrey Jena at Big Hollywood thinks the whole day is one big con:
  

  Today the granddaddy of all financial scams will be launched again. It is known as “Earth Day.” Do not fall for this scam! This con game may seem like a new idea, but it’s been around since the seventies, just like Mr. Obama’s “new” idea about saving the country by building some light rail. This scam seems to pop up every Spring in one form or another. This scam has also been circulated under the names; “Global Warming,” “Climate Change,” “The Green Movement,” and “Ecology.” Recent variations have used the names “Carbon Credits” and “Cap and Trade.”

• At The Huffington Post, Matt Dentler highlights a selection of eco-friendly films available for free on the web, “a medium that provides hardly any carbon footprint.”
  

  All you need is the power you use from a computer, or a hi-def television. No paper tickets, no gas/oil usage, no extra air conditioning, and no energy-sucking snack bar (unless that’s what you have in your home but that’s another matter). So, you and the environment win: having immediate access to entertainment while simultaneously saving the trees and preserving the oil.

• Cinematical’s Peter Martin promotes SnagFilms‘ selection of 10 environmental docs to watch online today, and he recommends and shares one of them:
  

  For your viewing convenience, we’ve embedded one of them below. Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa introduces a group of people who have moved to an isolated, 15 square mile region in New Mexico known as “The Mesa.” About 400 people live there, with names like Dreadie Jeff, Maine, Cowboy, and Gecko. One of them says, “We don’t dial 9-1-1; we dial 3-5-7: .357 Magnum.”

• Theresa Riley at P.O.V. Blog brings us a reminder of the P.O.V. Borders story “The Invisible Creek,”, as well as an update:
  

  This being Earth Day, we thought about Newtown Creek, and we wondered if there had been any developments in its story. So, earlier this month, we checked in with Riverkeeper to find out what’s happened to the creek in the past five years. Unfortunately, the news was not good.

• Travis at We Are Movie Geeks has a list of “Best Movies on ‘Earth’” and uses the opportunity to slam a certain Oscar-winning doc:
  

  An Inconvenient Truth (2006) / The 11th Hour (2007) - I lumped these two together for a specific reason. I wouldn’t even have ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ on this list if not simply to illustrate a point. That point being it’s not a great movie at all. Subject matter aside, ‘AIT’ features Al Gore (not an electrifying speaker) standing on a stage with a digital slide show talking about how the Earth is dying. Boring! On the other hand, Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘The 11th Hour’ is an engaging documentary that involves the viewer, gives people solutions instead of just whining and understands that the human species will perish long before we could ever truly “kill” the planet. ‘AIT’ got all the hype, but 11th Hour’ deserves more recognition.