YMMV / True-Life Adventures

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Initially, RKO Radio Pictures, who distributed Walt Disney's films at the time, refused to release Seal Island, claiming that audiences wouldn't want to see it because he was best known for making cartoons. Walt managed to convince theaters in New York and Los Angeles to run it to help qualify it for the Academy Awards; it ended up winning the award that year, convincing RKO to give it a proper release.
• Common Knowledge: The Suicidal Lemmings trope is actually attributed to White Wilderness. This misconception dates back to at least 1908 - possibly even earlier. (Allegedly, some indigenous people in the Americas had "seen" lemmings commit suicide or saw lemmings try to swim bodies of water that were too large). Additionally, the narration says they are migrating - which is actually correct. (As that is when lemmings do jump off cliffs)
• Condemned by History: When it was first released in 1958, White Wilderness was hailed as a masterpiece in documentary film-making, and went on to win both the Academy Award and Golden Bear for Best Documentary the following year. Nowadays, it's Overshadowed by Controversy, specifically for perpetuating the Suicidal Lemmings myth by shoving them off a cliff, drowning them on-camera and editing footage to make it look like natural suicide. Contemporary reviews and ratings for the film are harsher than at the time of release, in part because of the production crew's mistreatment of lemmings; one article in particular likens it to Nanook of the North, calling it an "ethically thorny landmark" in the history of documentary filmmaking. Disney has distanced itself from the film in light of this, removing it from their Disney+ app as of 2020.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: While White Wilderness was acclaimed in its day, nowadays it is known more for two controversies that overlap with each other: perpetuating the Suicidal Lemmings myth^note Some lemmings do throw themselves off of cliffs, but it is done for the sake of migration, and even worse, the filmmakers deliberately throwing the lemmings off of the cliff shown in the documentary, drowning them and then editing footage to make it look like natural suicide. As a result, White Wilderness has become Condemned by History and considered unreleasable by Disney.
• Spiritual Successor: The independent films released by Disney's specialty label, Disneynature.
  • Perri is one for Bambi, being based on a book by the same author, thus acting as a sort of live-action sequel to it. There is even a guest appearance by the grown-up Bambi (or rather, a live stag identified as such).
• Tear Jerker:
  • A mother osprey failing to save her baby from a wolverine in White Wilderness.
  • The rhino trapped in a mud pit in The African Lion. Unable to climb its way out, it finally lays down to await a slow, lingering death. (In real life, the camera team managed to remove it out of the pit.)

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