Wonders of the prairie

Movie
German title	Wonders of the prairie
Original title	The Vanishing Prairie
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1954
length	68 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	James Algar
script	Winston Hibler , James Algar , Ted Sears
production	Walt Disney
music	Paul J. Smith
camera	Tom McHugh , NP Kenworthy Jr. , Cleveland P. Grant , James R. Simon

Wonder of the Prairie (Original title: The Vanishing Prairie ) by James Algar is a documentary film that was shot in central North America west of the Mississippi and east of the Rocky Mountains , from the plains of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and was released in American theaters in 1954. This was after the film The Desert Lives the second long documentary in the series of journeys of discovery in the realms of nature ( True-Life Adventures ).

content

This is a story of pronghorns , prairie dogs , bighorn sheep , pumas , buffalo and many other animal inhabitants of the prairies of the Midwest that shows how they get through the day and through the year.

We experience the birth of a buffalo and the dance of the whooping cranes . Slow-motion shots amusingly illustrate how wild ducks land on frozen ponds and great crested grebes advertise and nest. A slow-motion picture shows a so-called jackalope , which has horn-like thickenings on the ears and head, as well as an antelope hare, which shows the white underside of its tail when running away, and in its behavior the pronghorn , which is called an antelope in America, resembles. Prairie dogs, a North American genus of ground squirrels, scurry past and clumsy old bison inspire respect. A falcon swoops down to launch an attack on a ground squirrel , which, however, can barely get to safety. Details of the killing of a deer by a mountain lion are hidden.

effect

Accompanied by music and sound effects, commented on by funny comments, the film goes beyond the pure documentary film. By humanizing the animals, with which the viewer empathizes until the last minute, he is the forerunner of popular animal films .

Awards

• 1955: Oscar for Walt Disney and the film in the category “Best Documentary of 1954” .
• 1955: Large golden plaque from the Berlinale

The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the production the rating of particularly valuable .

criticism

• "An extremely entertaining nature documentary film in the perfectly popular Disney show style: the patient observation of herds of buffalo, mountain lions, prairie dogs and other animals of the American Midwest in the daily and annual schedule is admirable." - Lexicon of international film . :

literature

• Walt Disney : Wonders of the Prairie. Described from the film by Friedrich Schnack . Voyages of discovery in the realm of nature. (Original title: The Vanishing Prairie ). Blüchert, Hamburg 1958, 110 pp.
• Leonard Maltin : The Disney Films. 4th edition, 432 pp. Hyperion, New York 2000, ISBN 0-7868-8527-0 .

Web links

• The Vanishing Prairie in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The 27th Academy Awards | 1955 see page oscars.org (English).
2. ^ Lexicon of International Films. (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997.