The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos | |
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Directed by | Matthew Aeberhard Leander Ward |
Written by | Melanie Finn |
Produced by | Matthew Aeberhard Leander Ward Paul Webster (executive producer) Stephen Garrett (executive producer) |
Narrated by | Mariella Frostrup (UK/US) Zabou Breitman (France) |
Music by | The Cinematic Orchestra |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 74 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos is a 2008 nature documentary that explores the great gathering of lesser flamingos which occurs every year at Lake Natron in Tanzania and along the salt lakes of the African Rift Valley. It was the first film released under the then-new Disneynature film label through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It premiered in France on 26 October 2008, with narration by Zabou Breitman. The film was released in theatres in the UK on 29 September 2009 and direct-to-video in the United States on 19 October 2010 with narration by Mariella Frostrup.
The film documents the lives of the lesser flamingos on the isolated shores of Lake Natron in Tanzania, revealing the breeding and parenting habits of the species. After mating on an immense salt island, the flamingos breed their chicks, who learn to survive and grow up in an extreme and dangerous environment. In the course of their journeys, they encounter marabou storks who prey on eggs and newly born chicks and a spotted hyena who takes no pity on the adult flamingos.
As the film progresses, it focuses on the life of one of the flamingo chicks. The young flamingo teaches herself the key habits of the species. She successfully grows up to become a large, pink feathered bird and survives when the group is attacked by the hyena. Her story shows the strength and determination for life the flamingos have. The film ends by emphasizing the importance of preserving Lake Natron from pollution and exploitation to ensure the survival of the lesser flamingos, as over 80% of birds from this species found in nature were born here.
After the launch of the Disneynature studio in April 2008, the first new production from the studio was revealed to be The Crimson Wing, which would begin international release throughout 2009. [1] However, the first film to be released by Disneynature was the US domestic market release of the BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media film Earth on Earth Day 2009, making The Crimson Wing the second film to be released by Disneynature.
The world premiere of The Crimson Wing took place on 26 October 2008 at the closing ceremony of the Cinéma Science Festival in Bordeaux, France. Starting on 25 September 2009, The Crimson Wing was released for a limited run in the United Kingdom exclusively through Cineworld cinemas.
The Crimson Wing was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK and France in March 2010. In Italy the film was broadcast on Sky Cinema 1 and 1 HD on 3 April of the same year with the title Il mistero dei fenicotteri rosa. It was then released on DTV in the US on 19 October.
The soundtrack to the film was composed and performed by the British jazz-electronic group The Cinematic Orchestra, [2] who produced the soundtrack with Steve McLaughlin. Teese Gohl orchestrated the score, which was performed at Air Lyndhurst by The Cinematic Orchestra and the London Metropolitan Orchestra, conducted by Andy Brown. The music was mixed by McLaughlin and The Cinematic Orchestra at British Grove Studios and Northpole Studio. The composition was performed live by The Cinematic Orchestra with the London Metropolitan Orchestra at Union Chapel, Islington in London on 17 September 2009. In the same year it won the award for best original score at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in Wyoming, USA on 1 October.[ citation needed ].
The original recordings of "Arrival of the Birds" and "Transformation" from the soundtrack were used in the last scene of the film The Theory of Everything and in the short film Together Apart from the Cornetto Cupidity Series. In December 2012, the song "Arrival of the Birds" appeared in a commercial for the women's perfume Acqua di Gioia by Giorgio Armani. [3]
The score was originally set to be composed and performed by British singer-songwriter, musician, and producer Imogen Heap, for which she traveled to Tanzania, along with Ward, Aeberhard and crew, during the shooting of the film in 2006 and 2007. [4] [5] Due to conflicting timing with the delayed release of the film clashing with the recording of her new album at the time, the task passed on to The Cinematic Orchestra. [6]
Mark Mancina composed the music for the Disneynature logo. He has previously written and composed an arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" for the 2006 Disney logo with David Metzger as the co-arranger and orchestrator.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 75% of 20 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.50/10. [7]
Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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2009 | Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival | Best Music Score | The Cinematic Orchestra | Won | [8] |
IFMCA Award | Best Original Score for a Documentary Film | Nominated | [9] |
Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas, and two species native to Afro-Eurasia.
The lesser flamingo is a species of flamingo occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and western India. Birds are occasionally reported from further north, but these are generally considered vagrants.
The Cinematic Orchestra is a British nu jazz and downtempo music group created in 1999 by Jason Swinscoe and later involving his music collaborator Dominic Smith. The group is signed to independent record label Ninja Tune.
Lake Natron is a salt or alkaline lake located in north Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region in Tanzania at the border with Kenya. It is in the Gregory Rift, which is the eastern branch of the East African Rift. The lake is within the Lake Natron Basin, a Ramsar Site wetland of international significance. It is the only regular breeding area for Africa's lesser flamingoes, although this habitat is not protected and is under threat from planned development projects.
Michael Giacchino is an American composer of music for film, television, and video games. He has received many accolades for his work, including an Oscar for Up (2009), an Emmy for Lost (2004), and three Grammy Awards.
Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Her work has been considered pioneering in pop and electropop music.
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the soundtrack of the film of the same name. Harry Gregson-Williams composed the soundtrack, which was released on 13 December 2005 in the United States by Walt Disney Records.
Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake, in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km northwest of Nairobi, Kenya.
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.
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.
Paul Webster is a British film producer.
Nathan Tyler Johnson is an American film composer, director, and producer.
African Cats is a 2011 nature documentary film about a pride of lions and a family of cheetahs trying to survive in the African savannah directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey. The film was released theatrically by Disneynature on Earth Day, April 22, 2011. The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. A portion of the proceeds for the film were donated to the African Wildlife Foundation and their effort to preserve Kenya's Amboseli Wildlife Corridor. The film's initiative with the African Wildlife Foundation is named "See African Cats, Save the Savanna", and as of May 2011, ticket sales translated into 50,000 acres of land saved in Kenya.
Chimpanzee is a 2012 nature documentary film about a young common chimpanzee named Oscar who finds himself alone in the African forests until he is adopted by another chimpanzee, who takes him in and treats him like his own child. The American release of the film is narrated by Tim Allen.
The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south. It is part of the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, which starts in Tanzania to the south and continues northward into Ethiopia. It was formed on the "Kenyan Dome", a geographical upwelling created by the interactions of three major tectonics: the Arabian, Nubian, and Somalian plates. In the past, it was seen as part of a "Great Rift Valley" that runs from Madagascar to Syria. Most of the valley falls within the former Rift Valley Province.
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Tanzania's film industry, also known as Swahiliwood or Bongo movie and Bongowood, was established around 2001.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film score to the 2019 film of the same name composed and conducted by John Williams. The soundtrack album was released in both digital formats and digipak CD by Walt Disney Records on December 18 and 20, 2019 respectively. It is his final soundtrack for the franchise; shortly before the sessions began, Williams announced that he would be retiring from Star Wars after over 40 years as its primary music composer. The score earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score and won Williams a Saturn Award for Best Music.
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