Current mood:

infuriated

Disney's Earth - a new low
I know in a comment to tanithryudo I said I was going to go to sleep, but I couldn't help but do a little more research into this "Disney's Earth" movie after seeing the trailer. To my horror, I found this little tidbit:

But the success of "Planet Earth" could actually prove a stumbling block for "Earth," as the Disney project contains a large amount of repackaged footage from the Discovery Channel miniseries. Indeed, about 60 percent of "Earth" has already been shown repeatedly, free, on Discovery Channel.

- source: Mercury News

Regardless of the exact percentages, I'm horrified to find the large amount of recycled footage, not that I hadn't already guessed this was the case after seeing the trailer. All of the trailer came from the BBC miniseries. (And yes, I do remember my documentary enough to notice the same sequence being repeated, I'm just that much of a biogeek.)

The reason I'm horrified isn't just because Disney has butchered a beautiful nature documentary (although that is a large reason), but that because of this move, ignorant viewers (and I'm sure there are plenty enough who don't have the same kind of passion as I do for Sir David Attenborough's works) will now associate some of these most historical footage that the Planet Earth's team spent years working to film as just some more stupid Disney magic.

Do people realize that the photographers had to spend three months trying to capture a 20 seconds long bird of paradise mating dance? Do people realize that the film crew spent an entire month awake at night to capture the lions who specialized in hunting elephants? Do these viewers realize that what footage that didn't come from Planet Earth actually came from Sir David Attenborough's other documentaries? Do these people even know the mighty Sir David Attenborough?!

No, they do not, because credit was not given where credit was goddamnwell due, and having watched all of the behind the making of documentaries, I am incensed that Disney would simply hand wave all that hard work and time spent in the field as Disney magic. Fuck you, Disney.