Cynical Cinema

Alliance Films is releasing Jane Goodall:  When Animals Talk today, September 2nd, on DVD.  This is another DVD that comes from the people at Animal Planet, one that features Jane Goodall, famous for her 40 years working with chimpanzees.  And she talks to animals.  Like chimpanzees.  It’s easy to roll one’s eyes when we see Goodall beginning a speech by making chimpanzee noises, and it’s also easy to tune out when we see people talking about their pets and how they seem to sense when daddy’s getting home.  Yeah yeah yeah.  They’re animals.  We get it.  Pets are not interesting to me.  Show me a komodo dragon that knows when your husband is getting home.  And waits in his bushes.  THAT would be interesting.

But then there are the creatures that are fascinating.  There are killer whales that actually beach themselves in order to eat sea lions, and in doing so they establish a dialogue with the man who has been studying them for years.  After they rip sea lions to shreds, he goes in the water and plays with them!  (I would rather have seen them eating more sea lions, myself…that was pretty cool.)  Then there is the parrot that not only speaks, but actually understands speech, has conversations with people, and may have a telepathic bond with his owner.  (You have to see this bird to believe it.)  And then there are the elephants, the rats, the whales and…more pets.

Which means that more than half of this DVD is interesting.  Whales and elephants and rats and their methods of communicating with each other and with us are fascinating.  Cats are not.  Dogs are not.  If only this documentary had stayed away from commen house pets, it would be great.  As it is, it’s just decent.  But that parrot alone makes this worth checking out!