Disneynature

**Disneynature** is an independent film studio specializing in the production of nature documentary films for The Walt Disney Studios, which founded it on April 21, 2008. Its headquarters are in Paris, France.

The company consistently budgeted it's nature films between $5 million to $10 million, with their distribution and marketing handled by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The label releases it's event films on Earth Day. They have a conservation campaign based on the film's feature with an appropriate conservation charity receiving donations based on tickets sold, at a pace of one per year. The eight Disneynature theatrical films have a gross of $151.6 million at the box office, at an average of $19 million, with *Earth*, the top earner at $32 million.

## Background

Disney had a background in making nature films before creating Disneynature; *Bambi* (1942) featured forest life and was a hit. From 1948 through 1960, the company produced the *True-Life Adventures* series, which won several Academy Awards. Outside of film work, Disney involved their parks. Disneyland in 1955 opened the Jungle Cruise ride. Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida, is a theme park crossed with a zoo. Animal Kingdom has contributed to conservation causes by nursing endangered sea turtles back to health, returning white rhinos to Africa and conducting a census of cotton-top tamarins, a monkey species native to Colombia. Since its creation in 1995, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund has given over $11 million to 650 conservation projects in 110 countries.

After a long absence from nature documentaries, Disney decided to get back into the market after *March of the Penguins' French release*. Warner Independent Pictures released the film in the U.S. in 2005. Made on an $8 million budget, it grossed almost ten times its budget at the U.S. box office and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2006. Jean-Francois Camilleri, head of Buena Vista International France, had the company acquire the film for the French market. Buena Vista International France also managed to obtain a 20% ownership stake in the film's French version. However, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution's bid to distribute the film in the U.S. ultimately failed. In consideration of Disney's past efforts, Disney CEO Bob Iger felt that *Penguins* "should have been a Disney film worldwide." This failed bid caused Disney to create Disneynature. The film's 2007 follow-up was *Arctic Tale*, which only took in $1.8 million worldwide.

## History

Disney announced Disneynature on April 21, 2008, a day before Earth Day, with a starting slate of seven films. They set Camilleri to head the new division. Disney made a multi-film production agreement with Alastair Fothergill, BBC's *Planet Earth* series producer, for three scheduled films: *Earth* (2009), *African Cats* (2011) and *Chimpanzee* (2012). The other announced slate films and their release years were: *The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos* (2008), *Oceans* (2010), *Orangutans: One Minute to Midnight* (2010) and *Hidden Beauty: A Love Story that Feeds the Earth* (2011). Originally announced plans had the division releasing two films per year, which was curtailed by April 2009 due to a nature film's long period needed to film wildlife. Disney did not decide at that time as to whether or not the studio would donate the films' proceeds to conservation causes.

*The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos* was the first film produced for Disneynature. The first film released domestically under the new label was *Earth*, opening on April 22, 2009, in the US. In 2012, Disney launched a Disneynature TV cable channel in France. France Telecom currently carries it.

For two years, Animal Planet picks up three Disneynature films, *Oceans*, *African Cats*, and *The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos*, in April 2012 from Disney-ABC Domestic Television. In April 2014, Jane Goodall was named Disneynature ambassador.

Disneynature has recently expanded to China with the production of *Born in China*. The production was made possible due to an expansion of Disney's relationship with Shanghai Media Group starting in 2014. In 2016, the company released its first compilation film, *Growing Up Wild*, direct-to-video (Blu-ray and DVD) and video on demand.

Camilleri resigned from his posts with Disney in March 2019. While Helene Etzi was appointed to take over his responsibility as head of Disney's French operations, there was no word on who would helm Disneynature. The unit's first streaming films for Disney+ was *Dolphin Reef* and *Elephant*. After Disney acquires 21st Century Fox's entertainment unit, Disneynature is a sister studio of National Geographic Films, owned by 21CF.

## Notes

1. ↑ Growing Up Wild is a direct-to-video nature documentary film released on December 6, 2016, directed by Mark Linfield and Keith Scholey, with narration provided by Daveed Diggs. The film, which is based on clips from *African Cats*, *Monkey Kingdom*, *Chimpanzee*, and *Bears*, focuses on "growing up".