Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (2014) Reviews

• More lemurs, less people please

  utgard142015-04-18

  I watched this for the lemurs and the beautiful nature footage. I was hoping to see more focus on the animals and not on people, well-meaning though they may be. Unfortunately about half of this documentary is devoted to Dr. Patricia Wright and her associates patting themselves on the back for their conservation efforts. I applaud them for their work but, come on, they could have told us all about this through the narration without having to take the focus off of the lemurs. The footage of the animals and scenery that we do get is great but there's just not enough of it. Also it's lacking a story that these things so often come up with as we follow along the animals. Here the story is about the people protecting the lemurs. At the end Dr. Wright says "I want to share these incredible animals with the world" while she is front and center of the shot so we don't forget who the real star of this is. Like I said, I watched to see the beauty of nature and not the vanity of humans.

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• Squirrel Monkeys

  Discogodfather96222015-03-25

  My knowledge of Lemurs up until this point was simply that they existed. That and they look like squirrel monkeys. When I got the Blu-ray of this film, I groaned. "What is this? Looks like something trying to capitalize off of the Madagascar movies." Then I noticed that none other than God himself (Morgan Freeman) was doing the narration, so I decided to embrace it. I embraced it by doing what most people should before watching a nature documentary; I got really high. Island Of Lemurs is a short, enjoyable film with vast, sweeping landscapes of the beautiful Island of Madagascar and the adorable, aforementioned, squirrel monkeys. The Blu-Ray/DVD combo also features the film in 3D for those who are lucky enough to afford said technology. The only draw back to this documentary is the run time. It clocks in at just 41 minutes and for the asking retail price of $35.99, I feel that it's too steep to warrant a purchase. Unless of course you just bought a 70-inch high-def television with your income taxes and need a tester DVD to throw on and impress your friends, then Island Of Lemurs is right for you!

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• IMAX keeps delivering quality content

  Horst_In_Translation2015-09-09

  "Island of Lemurs: Madagascar" is one of the more recent IMAX nature documentaries as it came out pretty much exactly a year ago. Douglas and Fellman are very experienced in their field and also made for example "Born to Be Wild" almost 5 years ago. Here they offer us their take on Madagascar. I want to say that the title is very accurate here as this film is not exclusively about lemurs, but about the island, the people and also some other animals. However, the center of this 40-minute film are certainly lemurs. I would say that they are not the cutest animals of the planet, yet they are beautiful and fascinating to watch and these eyes... wow, so intriguing. The narration is by Morgan Freeman, which is already almost a given. i like him as an actor and I like listening to him. Good job. This documentary focuses on the work with Patricia Wright and how she has fought for and done research on lemurs in the past. It is a bit funny to see how dedicated she is, but she is really more quietly convincing and it is obvious that she does not like to be in the limelight that much. More the quietly convincing type like myself. I like that. So yeah, some really stunning animal and nature photography in this documentary. It's nice to see IMAX still deliver after all these years. It's nothing too different from other IMAX nature documentaries, so you can make up your mind for yourself if you want to watch or miss out on this one. I personally learned something new occasionally and quite enjoyed the watch. Thumbs up and I certainly recommend it.

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• The only and final frontier for lemurs is Madagascar.

  Reno-Rangan2017-01-14

  It is a documentary short with a big message. Like an episode of David Attenborough's nature documentary series. I have never seen a live lemur nor I know their character like I do for other animals. So this film was a learning experience for me and I ask you to do the same, if you have zero knowledge about these wonderful creatures. I enjoyed it, but still think they did not use the concept properly. Lacks the depth, I mean going details in scientific research. They have given, but only limited. They have started it by saying how ancient they are and who the reason for the existence of human today. How they found their perfect home in an uninhabited island millions of years ago. Very informative. It was narrated by the actor Morgan Freeman. After the brief introduction, the rest of the film focused to tell an American primatologist's effort to study these animals and educate the local people how precious they are. The pride of Madagascar. I really surprised to learn lots of things, especially about their varieties. But specifying their evolution would have been even better. Since it was a short film, there were restrictions for many things. "Lemurs are Madagascar's living treasure." Once again a film to point out the human's destruction of mother nature. Those who rely on them completely are suffering. Lemurs are the main animal in the Madagascar, but since the humans present from the last two millennia, their numbers are going down. Now Madagascar's the only and final frontier for them. Whatever happened in the past, its time in this third millennium to bring the life back of the old world. Surely every one of us has a small offering that helps to restore it, only we've to commit it right away. So this is a rare documentary. They might have already made a better documentary about the lemurs than this one, but I have never seen them. Since I am a film fanatic, this film came to my notice, but did not take it seriously until now. Mainly because nothing from the poster interested me. I thought it was one of those failed documentary films, with usually tried to impress with the technical aspect like predominated with the digital 3D visuals. I realised now how wrong I was. The poster looks very creepy. I don't think the little kids would want to watch it if they see the film poster first. I thought it was an animation, about the ancient creatures like they do for the dinosaurs. The black lemur with the big blue eyes on the poster looked like an animated character, but he's real. So watch it to educate yourself, particularly if you are a nature and animal lover. Recommended! 7/10

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