The idea of a documentary about the lives of pandas, snow leopards and golden monkeys seems simple and straightforward: watch as these cute creatures survive in the mountains and forests of China and care for their young. But Disneynature’s Born in China, directed by Lu Chuan and narrated by John Krasinski, connects the animals’ struggles and experiences to those of humans and the overarching circle of life.
The main “characters” in the film are Ya Ya the panda and her baby Mei Mei, a two-year-old golden monkey named Tao Tao and a snow leopard named Dawa. Switching from storyline to storyline, the viewers see that living in the wild is not all swinging from treetops and eating bamboo.
Although they are completely different species, each animal faces challenges seen in day-to-day human life. Tao Tao experiences jealousy over his newborn baby sister and a lack of affection from his father, Dawa faces adversity while trying to catch prey in order to feed her two young cubs, and Ya Ya acts as a “helicopter parent” who just wants to swaddle and protect her adventurous daughter.
Before showing the hardships of life, however, Krasinski talks about the animals’ general habits and hobbies, as well as the blissful happy days before challengers encroach upon Dawa’s territory and Tao Tao gets disowned by his family. These scenes are accompanied by adorable clips of playful baby snow leopards, mischievous monkies and pandas and beautiful landscape shots of the mountainous Chinese terrain.
Yet after a while, the film seems to drag on, as if the producers were running low on footage. It’s understandable that animals don’t do much besides eat, sleep, hunt and occasionally face off in territorial fights, but many scenes seem to repeat themselves. Even though Born in China follows other species, such as the native antelope, it’s not what one would call riveting.
Arguably the most notable thing about the film is lack of over dramatization of death, which is refreshing. The narrator mentions the crane, a bird that Chinese mythology claims carries the dead into the afterlife, to offer a comforting perspective on the cycle of life and to show that every living being is born, has children of its own and dies. Although it’s not the most exciting of films, Born in China uses an ancient belief to reiterate the natural course of life in a rejuvenating way.