It was in 1951 that picturegoers were startled and delighted by seeing a wonderful film which ran for about thirty minutes. Not a man was to be seen in it, yet it held us enthralled from the time it began until it ended. It was Seal Island, and we were further delighted to hear that it was only the first of Walt Disneys new project, a series of films which was to be called True-Life Adventure series.
Others were already being made. So, later in 1951 we saw Beaver Valley, and in 1952 Nature's Half Acre—all three of which have won a special Hollywood award. Others, too, are on their way—Water Birds, Olympic Elk, Beaver Country, Prowlers of the Everglades, and The Desert Story.
The superb photography in colour and the unending patience of the cameramen bring us magnificent glimpses of natural happenings, to birds, beasts, reptiles, insects and plants, giving us astonishing pictures of the way Nature laughs at herself in the midst of the unending battle for survival.
To begin with, Walt Disney gave as cue for production guidance the admonition that no condescending attitude was to be taken towards Nature. Creatures were to be viewed not as dumb animals, but as our friends, the wise animals. Man was not to be mentioned or seen in them. Because of this, the animals we see in these films are always unaware that they are being photographed and their behaviour is dic ae tated only by their own nature and its a reaction to natural circumstances.
