Disneynature

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**Disneynature** is an independent film unit of Walt Disney Studios that produces nature documentary films. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France.

The company's nature films are consistently budgeted between $5 million to $10 million, with their distribution and marketing handled by Walt Disney Studios. The label's event films are released on Earth Day and have a conservation campaign based on the feature of the film 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 prior to the creation of Disneynature. *Bambi* (1940s) featured forest life 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 parks were involved. Disneyland in 1955 opened the Jungle Cruise ride. Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando 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. In addition, 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 the French release of *March of the Penguins*. The film was given U.S. distribution through Warner Independent Pictures in 2005. Made on an $8 million budget, it grossed almost 10 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 at the time, had the company acquire the film for the French market. Buena Vista International France also managed to obtain a 20% ownership stake in the French version of the film. However, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution's bid to distribute the film in the U.S. ultimately failed. Disney CEO Bob Iger, in consideration of Disney's past efforts, felt that *Penguins* "should have been a Disney film worldwide". This was the impetus behind the creation of Disneynature. The film's 2007 follow up was *Arctic Tale*, which only took in $1.8 million worldwide.

## History

Disneynature was announced on April 21, 2008, a day before Earth Day, with a starting slate of seven films. Camilleri was set to head the new division. A multi-film production agreement was made 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 *Naked Beauty: A Love Story that Feeds the Earth* (2011). Original 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. No decision was made 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, a Disneynature TV cable channel was launched in France. It is currently carried by France Telecom.

Animal Planet pick up for a two-year period 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 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 film for Disney+ is *Dolphin Reef*.
After Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox's entertainment unit, Disneynature is a sister studio of National Geographic, which was owned by Fox.

## Filmography

### *Growing Up Wild*

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

## References

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Vlessing, Etan (April 22, 2019). "Natalie Portman to Narrate Disney's 'Dolphin Reef' Movie". https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/natalie-portman-narrate-disneys-dolphin-reef-movie-1203805. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Eller, Claudia (April 22, 2008). "Disney gets back to nature". Retrieved on October 30, 2013.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Template:Cite book
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "In ‘Earth,’ Disneynature Balances Cuddliness and Reality", *The New York Times* (April 10, 2009). Retrieved on June 14, 2019.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Disneynature Movies at the Box Office - Box Office Mojo". IMDb.com, Inc.. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?view=main&id=disneynature.htm&sort=gross&order=ASC&p=.htm. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
6. ↑ "Compared With Their Filmmakers, the Penguins Have It Easy", *The New York Times* (September 28, 2005). Retrieved on January 6, 2017.
7. ↑ "Studios envision beast case scenario", AP, *The Hollywood Reporter* (April 29, 2008). Retrieved on January 6, 2017.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Template:Cite press release
9. ↑ "Disney launches unit to make cinematic nature documentaries", *The Guardian* (April 23, 2008). Retrieved on June 14, 2019.
10. ↑ "Disney film spotlights threat to spectacular flamingo lake", *The Guardian* (10 January 2009). Retrieved on 6 January 2017.
11. ↑ "TV Channel: Disney Nature TV". *MAVISE*. European Audiovisual Observatory. http://mavise.obs.coe.int/channel?id=12852. Retrieved July 8, 2014.
12. ↑ "Animal Planet picks Disney docs" (in en-us), *C21 Media* (April 24, 2012). Retrieved on June 21, 2019.
13. ↑ "Jane Goodall Q&A: Scientist talks Disneynature Ambassador role, more" (in en), *Entertainment Weekly* (April 10, 2014). Retrieved on June 14, 2019.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Disney Expands Relationship With China's Shanghai Media Group" (10 April 2015). Retrieved on 10 April 2015.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Disneynature's 'Growing Up Wild' on Digital HD", *GeekDad* (December 25, 2016). Retrieved on January 5, 2017.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 "All 13 Disneynature Movies, Ranked", *Thrillist* (April 17, 2019). Retrieved on May 9, 2019. "For some reason, the team nixed the Natalie Portman-narrated Dolphins last year, only a week before its release. (A version was released in France under the name Blue.)"
17. ↑ "Disney’s French Chief Jean-Francois Camilleri Exiting, Helene Etzi Upped" (in en), *Variety* (March 26, 2019). Retrieved on March 28, 2019.
18. ↑ "The Crimson Wing - Mystery of the Flamingos". British Board of Film Classification. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/crimson-wing-mystery-flamingos-2008. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
19. ↑ "Real-life 'Lion Kings': African big cats caught on film - CNN.com", *CNN* (April 30, 2012). Retrieved on January 9, 2017.
20. ↑ "Editorial Review: More than just a furry person", *Washington Post* (April 20, 2012). Retrieved on June 16, 2016.
21. ↑ "‘Bears’ movie review: A real-life struggle to survive", *Washington Post* (April 17, 2014). Retrieved on June 16, 2016.
22. ↑ "Focus Sets Stephen Hawking Pic ‘Theory Of Everything’ For November; Disneynature Dates ‘Monkey Kingdom’ For 2015" (10 April 2014). Retrieved on 10 April 2014.
23. ↑ "L'Empereur de Luc Jacquet : la suite maudite de La Marche de l'Empereur" (in fr-FR), *Avoir Alire - Critiques et news films, Livres, BD, musique, séries TV, Spectacles* (24 September 2017). Retrieved on 9 May 2019.
24. ↑ Kylie Hemmert (February 26, 2019). "Penguins: Ed Helms to Narrate Disneynature’s Feature Film". https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/trailers/1044103-penguins-ed-helms-to-narrate-disneynatures-feature-film. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
25. ↑ "'Blue' review", Hollywood Reporter (April 7, 2018). Retrieved on April 25, 2019.

## External links

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