Secrets of Life | |
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Directed by | James Algar |
Written by | James Algar |
Produced by | Ben Sharpsteen Walt Disney |
Narrated by | Winston Hibler |
Cinematography | William A. Anderson Arthur Carter Jack Couffer Robert H. Crandall Murl Deusing Fran William Hall Claude Jendrusch Stuart V. Jewell George MacGinitie Nettie MacGinitie Tilden W. Roberts Donald L. Sykes Roman Vishniac |
Edited by | Anthony Gerard |
Music by | Paul Smith |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Secrets of Life is a 1956 American documentary film written and directed by James Algar. The documentary follows the changing world of nature, space and animals. The documentary was released on November 6, 1956, by Buena Vista Distribution. [1] [2]
The fourth in Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures series, the 1956 film Secrets of Life is about the systems within nature that shape the Earth in an educational manner. The film describes various animals, like bees and ants, and their roles and functions within nature. The film uses real-time footage to show different animals and employs time-lapse to illustrate long-term changes, such as a plant growing.
The Living Desert is a 1953 American nature documentary film that shows the everyday lives of the animals of the desert of the Southwestern United States. The film was written by James Algar, Winston Hibler, Jack Moffitt (uncredited) and Ted Sears. It was directed by Algar, with Hibler as the narrator and was filmed in Tucson, Arizona. The film won the 1953 Oscar for Best Documentary.
White Wilderness is a 1958 nature documentary film produced by Walt Disney Productions as part of its True-Life Adventure series. It is noted for its propagation of the misconception of lemming mass suicide.
Donald in Mathmagic Land is an American live-action animated featurette produced by Walt Disney Productions and featuring Donald Duck. The short was directed by Hamilton Luske and was released on June 26, 1959. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 32nd Academy Awards, and became a widely viewed educational film in American schools of the 1960s and beyond.
A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of trained and captive animals. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema medium. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series which is distributed across the world.
True-Life Adventures is a series of short and full-length nature documentary films released by Walt Disney Productions between the years 1948 and 1960. The first seven films released were thirty-minute shorts, with the subsequent seven films being full features. The series won eight Academy Awards for the studio, including five for Best Two Reel Live Action Short and three for Best Documentary Feature.
Earth is a 2007 nature wildlife documentary film which depicts the diversity of wild habitats and creatures across the planet. The film begins in the Arctic in January of one year and moves southward, concluding in Antarctica in the December of the same year. Along the way, it features the journeys made by three particular species—the polar bear, African bush elephant and humpback whale—to highlight the threats to their survival in the face of rapid environmental change. A companion piece and a sequel to the 2006 BBC/Discovery/NHK/CBC television series Planet Earth, the film uses many of the same sequences, though most are edited differently, and features previously unseen footage not seen on TV.
Donald Chaffey was a British film director, writer, producer, and art director.
Jack Craig Couffer A.S.C. was an American cinematographer, film and television director, and author. Couffer specialized in documentary films, often involving nature and animal cinematography. Couffer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on the film version of the novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1974).
Perri is a 1957 American adventure film from Walt Disney Productions, based on Felix Salten's 1938 Perri: The Youth of a Squirrel. It was the company's fifth feature entry in their True-Life Adventures series, and the only one to be labeled a True-Life Fantasy. In doing so, the Disney team combined the documentary aspects of earlier efforts with fictional scenarios and characters.
The African Lion is a 1955 American documentary film directed by James Algar. It was released by Walt Disney Productions as part of its True-Life Adventures series. The film, which was shot over a 30-month period in Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda, focuses on the life of the lion within the complexity of the African ecosystem. At the 6th Berlin International Film Festival it won the Silver Bear (Documentaries) award.
Disneynature is an independent film studio that specializes in the production of nature documentary films for Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France.
Seal Island is a 1948 American documentary film directed by James Algar. Produced by Walt Disney, it was the first installment of the True-Life Adventures series of nature documentaries. It won an Oscar in 1949 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel).
James Algar was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked at Walt Disney Productions for 43 years and received the Disney Legends award in 1998. He was born in Modesto, California and died in Carmel, California.
Nature's Half Acre is a 1951 American short documentary film directed by James Algar. In 1952, it won an Oscar at the 24th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). The film was produced by Walt Disney as part of the True-Life Adventures series of nature documentaries, and was paired with Alice in Wonderland during its original theatrical run.
Winston Murray Hunt Hibler was an American screenwriter, film producer, director and narrator associated with Walt Disney Studios.
Bear Country is a 1953 American short documentary film directed by James Algar. It won an Oscar at the 26th Academy Awards in 1954 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). The film was produced by Walt Disney as part of the True-Life Adventures series of nature documentaries, and played with Peter Pan during its original theatrical run.
The Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland was a 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge railroad attraction in Frontierland in Disneyland, that featured Audio-Animatronic animals in natural desert- and woods-themed environments. It opened on June 12, 1960, as an extension of Rainbow Caverns Mine Train, which opened on July 2, 1956. It closed on January 2, 1977, to make room for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Jungle Cat is a 1960 American documentary film written and directed by James Algar. The documentary chronicles the life of a female jaguar in the South American jungle. The film was released on August 10, 1960, and was the last of Walt Disney Productions' True-Life Adventures series of documentary feature films.
The Best of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures is an American compilation documentary film produced by Walt Disney Productions, directed by James Algar and released by Buena Vista Distribution on October 8, 1975. The film is composed of highlights from the Academy Award winning True-Life Adventures series of 13 feature length and short subject nature documentary films produced between 1948 and 1960.