The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos
December. 17,2008 GIn the remote and forgotten wilderness of Lake Natron, in northern Tanzania, one of nature's last great mysteries unfolds: the birth, life and death of a million crimson-winged flamingos.
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Reviews
That was an excellent one.
Powerful
Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
My girlfriend and I purchased this movie because she really likes flamingos and we figured a Disney movie has to be happy. Wrong! The movie really focused a lot on baby flamingos being caught in "salt shackles" and subsequently dying. Then it randomly showed spider webs and (non-flamingo) birds for a full 60 seconds. Eventually, it returned to showing flamingos, primarily dead ones, making their way against adversity. I can't even say, however, that this was an inspiring film that showed the power of perseverance or anything like that. It really just showed a lot of dead flamingos. My girlfriend and I had read a lot of different reviews and thought that all the people online who said things like I'm saying now were just kooks or trolls or something. Wrong! So please, if you like flamingos and don't want to see them die, then please avoid this movie at all costs. (On the other hand, if you hate flamingos and want to see them die, then this movie is right up your alley and by all means, the $10 or whatever that it costs will be well worth it to you.)
This is the first of a new generation of nature documentaries from Disney and they picked a VERY difficult topic to cover. Instead of the usual locations like jungles or plains, this one is filmed in the most hellish place in Tanzania--near the Kenyan border in a region made toxic to most life by volcanic ash. However, surprisingly, 2.5 million flamingos return to Lake Natron each year- -despite it having a pH of 10.5 and being made up of a mixture of ash and salt. The film follows the flamingos for a year--as the return to do their courtship rituals, lay and hatch eggs and then grow into adulthood. It's all quite lovely with nice cinematography yet Disney chose not to release this to theaters--though it would have been lovely to see on the giant screen. My only reservations are that kids might be a bit shook up because nature is pitiless and you see a lot of flamingos die. Also, biologists might dislike how the narration often becomes much too prosaic and not exactly scientific. Still, the overall effect is breathtaking and if you see it, try to see it on as large a TV as possible.
For me, Crimson Wing was a somewhat sad and tragic story that showed me very clearly what hardships the flamingos had to go through in order to preserve their species.Filmed almost entirely at Lake Natron in Tanzania, not only did the adult flamingos have to protect their new-born chicks from such ravenous beasts as the mongoose, but the vast salt deposits that accumulate around Lake Natron posed an equally treacherous threat for the survival of the struggling young, as well.Crimson Wing was a "Disney-Nature" presentation. Not only was it impressively photographed and its narration by Mariella Frostrup informative, but its musical score by Le Cinematic Orchestra set the mood of this documentary's story very nicely.Yes. I certainly do recommend Crimson Wing to all who are curious about the diversity of the natural world that exists in abundance all across this planet we call "ours'.
I saw "The Crimson Wing" a few years ago, it was the first Disneynature documentary I had seen. I never thought Flamingos could be as beautiful as presented in this film. The filmmakers and cinematographer's did a great job getting the shots of these wild animals.In the film, it explains how mankind has been devastating to the ecosystem and the habitats of flamingos. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a few years back destroyed a lot of their natural habitat.You get to see the life-cycle of these amazing birds, from birth to death. This is a true educational experience. The quality is great, and it's a film the whole family can watch together.