Line #54 Main/NarrativeDrivenNatureDocumentary


1	->''A dramatized story based on the real lives of Africa's most charismatic animals''.
2	-->-- ''Series/{{Serengeti}}'''s {{tagline}}
3
4	The traditional way of doing {{Nature Documentar\|y}}ies is to present them in a serious, matter-of-fact way. In the 2000s, however, a new form began to emerge.
5
6	These newer documentaries lean more on {{edutainment}} than previous ones. They {{dramatiz\|ation}}e and humanize the animals, often bordering on {{xenofiction}}. The main animals will usually be referred to by names and their lives will be told in a dramatic, anthropomorphic manner.
7
8	African animals, and especially Big Cats in general, are the main target of these documentaries due to their popularity, though other species star in them as well. However, these documentaries are quite prone to WhatMeasureIsANonCute; "ugly" or less easy-to-decipher animals such as [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent reptiles, amphibians]], [[NoCartoonFish fish]], insects, and other invertebrates (with the occasional exception of attractive ones like [[PrettyButterflies butterflies]]) rarely get star billing in these types of documentaries. Due to the fact predators are often the focus of the documentaries, PredatorsAreMean is usually averted. ScavengersAreScum, however, is still game (though with scavengers being [[TheRival vicious rivals]], rather than outright slimeballs). Overall, though, the works try to show that PredationIsNatural and that animals aren't "bad" just because of their diets.
9
10	Often times these series will refer to families as if they're royalty, such as referring to leaders as "kings" and "queens".
11
12	As wild animals have a high infancy mortality rate, [[DeathOfAChild at least one youngster will die]] and if a mother has two children then it's unlikely both will survive. NatureIsNotNice is a constant theme in these types of documentaries. These documentaries are not not without their critics. Some accuse them of [[https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20070730/LIFE/707300315 personifying their animal subjects beyond any reasonable degree]], and downplaying the harsh reality of the natural world in favor of a sanitized version.
13	----
14	!!Examples:
15
16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
19	* ''Animals Are Beautiful People'' has a tongue-in-cheek narration and occasionally anthropomorphizes the animals.
20	* 1934 short film ''Film/CityOfWax'' may be the UrExample, predating Disney's ''True Life Adventures'' (see below) by over a decade. It is a documentary short about a beehive. The beehive is referred to throughout as a "city" and the bees are talked bout as if they are people. When a bee from outside tries to creep into the hive the narrator says "Cautiously the robber comes forward." In one scene as worker bees surround the queen, the film states matter-of-factly that bees "talk" with their antennae. They are said to be concerned with the queen's declining fertility, with the narrator saying "The queen's delay is causing a discussion."
21	* ''Eye of the Leopard'' is a 2006 documentary film from National Geographic framed as a coming-of-age story about a young female leopard named Legedema and told largely through a series of flashbacks related to things she encounters as she goes about her day on a trip to see her mother. It features Creator/JeremyIrons delivering many verbose lines about the relationships between mothers and daughters and the rawness of the African savannah.
22	* ''Film/TheLastLions'' is a more dramatic take on the genre from National Geographic, released in 2011 and again featuring Jeremy Irons, whose script and performance only doubles down on the dramatic voiceover. (His iconic role as [[Characters/TheLionKingScar Scar]] is also heavily invoked.) The film itself focuses on a lone lioness named Ma di Tau who is forced out of her territory in Botswana's Okavango Delta after losing her mate.
23	* ''State of Dogs'' is a 1998 Mongolian documentary about dogs. It starts with Baasar, a stray dog who is shot by a hunter trying to cull the feral and stray dog population. The documentary revolves around Baasar's desire to {{reincarnat\|ion}}e into a human (which comes from Mongolian legend).
24	* The {{Trope Maker}}s are the ''Film/TrueLifeAdventures'' documentaries produced by Creator/WaltDisney during the 1950s. While presenting animals in natural situations and paying lip service to the ruthlessness of "Nature's way", it also wasn't above anthropomorphizing the creatures depicted, often reveling in lighter moments and adding wry commentary. Disney even produced a "True-Life Fantasy", an adaptation of ''Literature/{{Bambi}}'' author Felix Salten's book ''Perri'' using nature footage shot especially for it.
25	* The ongoing series of films from Disneynature carries many of the tropes from the ''True Life Adventures'' series (and is effectively a modern revamp), with most entries to date focusing on the dramatized stories of individual animals and their families, complete with celebrity narration that is often lighter and more playfully written than similar projects like National Geographic or BBC Nature film documentaries. To date, such examples include:
26	** ''Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos'' (2008)
27	** ''African Cats'' (2011)
28	** ''Chimpanzee'' (2012)
29	** ''Bears'' (2014)
30	** ''Monkey Kingdom'' (2015)
31	** ''Born in China'' (2017)
32	** ''Penguins'' (2019)
33	** ''Dolphin Reef'' (2020)
34	** ''Elephant'' (2020)
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
38	* ''Big Cat Tales'' tells the tales of a mother leopard named Bahati, a mother cheetah named Malaika, and the Marsh pride of lions.
39	* ''Series/PlanetEarthDynasties'' is a dramatized documentary about families of animals. Each episode (besides the penguin episode) focuses on a specific family, such as the Marsh pride of lions in ''Lion''.
40	* ''Fight for Life'': The first episode revolves around a lioness named Nyota as she tries to keep her five-month old son Moja alive without a pride.
41	* ''Game of Lions'' is a documentary that tells the stories of several adolescent lions as they're driven out of their prides. The lions are described as "kings" looking for their own kingdoms.
42	* ''Series/IslandOfTheSeaWolves'' follows various animals through a year on Vancouver Island. Many of the animals are given names.
43	* ''Series/MeerkatManor'' is the TropeCodifier. It's a series showcasing the lives of two groups of meerkats in a RealityTV-esque manner. In its case, it was known that the show uses some ManipulativeEditing for narrative reasons. ''Meerkat Manor'' uses several different individuals to 'play' the same meerkat.
44	* ''Rise Of The Warrior Apes'' is a dramatized documentary about the lives of two rival chimpanzee troops.
45	* ''Series/SavageKingdom'' takes place in Savute, an arid region of Botswana's Chobe National Park. It's a documentary series about rival animal clans who are at war with each other in a never-ending conflict for survival. The story starts with queen Matsumi and her pride of Marsh lions, but also focuses on African wild dogs, hyenas, and leopards. The different species have their own "kingdoms".
46	* ''Series/{{Serengeti}}'' focuses on one year in the lives of several animals living in the Serengeti. It features both predator and prey animals, which means there aren't any "bad guy" characters.
47	* ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'':
48	** ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is predominantly a traditional documentary (insofar as a series about dinosaurs can be considered such) but even it uses narrative tropes, such as ScavengersAreScum.
49	** ''Prehistoric Planet'', a LighterAndSofter cut of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' aimed at children, did this. The main series is more traditional.
50	** The ''WesternAnimation/WalkingWithDinosaurs'' movie takes this even further, by giving every dinosaur shown his name and personality, and due to ExecutiveMeddling, voiceovers.
51	* ''Series/WalkingWithBeasts'': Building upon the success of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', ''Beasts'' had a much tighter narrative focus in each of episodes and clearly defined characters than its predecessor, such as a ''Smilodon populator'' called Half-Tooth. Despite this, it still very much acts out as a nature documentary, even going so far as to be DarkerAndEdgier than ''Dinosaurs''.
52	* In a sort of FollowTheLeader to ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', ''Series/DinosaurPlanet'' is much more story-driven than typical for a dinosaur documentary. The focus animals of every episode are given individual names (like a ''Velociraptor'' named White Tip or a juvenile ''Daspletosaurus'' named Little Das), while the narrator "humanizes" the dinosaurs through insights into their thoughts and feelings.
53	* ''Series/PrehistoricPlanet'' occasionally has long drawn narratives in its segments, most notably the''Triceratops'' one in "Forests". However for the most part it's more interested in showing animals in RandomEventsPlot form, much as real life.
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:WebAnimation]]
57	* ''WebAnimation/{{Dinosauria}}'' is essentially an anthology version of these. Each episode, though short, has a proper narrative, sometimes taking creative liberties but still based on actual fossil evidence. It is notably also compeltely devoid of narration.
58	[[/folder]]

Context Main / NarrativeDrivenNatureDocumentary