Cynical Cinema

Released the same day as Season One of Meerkat Manor, the great Animal Planet TV show, is the DVD Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins, which is a documentary that tells the story of the meerkats before the TV show. At a little over an hour long, it is much easier to get a full picture of meerkat society from this film than from the full five hours of the TV show. Both are really good, but The Story Begins is a little more brutal in terms of the deaths (and murders) of some meerkats. This one is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, who cracks a few lame jokes early on. Thank goodness they dispense with that fairly fast.

Flower is the star of Meerkat Manor, the dominant female who leads the family. The Story Begins is her own, personal Scarface, tracing her rise to power a the top of the meerkat world. (Not quite as swift and brutal a rise as that of Scarface, to be sure.) This documentary would be great for people who are mildly interested and don’t want to sit through the entire TV series, or possibly for people who are obsessive about the TV series and want to know every detail. All in all, the two are very complementary, and I can’t wait for Season Two!