Oceans Review

I understand that Disneynature releases all its films on Earth Day so that they can get people to care about the planet, but their latest just comes short of doing that. Oceans is a sympathetic, kind-hearted look at only a fraction of the undersea life that resides on this planet. While they do focus on some creatures many are not likely to have heard of before, the execution of these scenes is very much at fault.

The draw for this film is the visuals, and they are quite beautiful. At times I was wondering how they managed to achieve the shots they did without alerting the creatures to their presence. While the images are breathtaking, the narrative leaves something to be desired. As is the problem with many nature documentaries, Oceans struggles to find straight line to follow structurally. It hops back and forth to different locations, and when the ending comes you start to wonder if the film was too short.

Oceans relies too heavily on the visuals, and doesn't offer enough information, or narration to justify the relatively short 90-minute run time. While it's a nice film to pass time on a boring afternoon, it definitely isn't worth the price of admission, and is better left alone until the DVD release.

C+