''True-Life Adventures'' is a series of short and full-length

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of tr ...

films released by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

between the years 1948 and 1960. The first seven films released were thirty-minute shorts, with the subsequent seven films being full features. The series won eight

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

s for the studio, including five for Best Two Reel Live Action Short and three for Best Documentary Feature. Some of the features were re-edited into educational shorts between 1968 and 1975. The latter year saw the release of '' The Best of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures'', a compilation film derived from the series.

Films

Production

The films were among the earliest production experience for

Roy E. Disney Roy Edward Disney KCSG (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009) was an American businessman. He was the longtime senior executive for the Walt Disney Company, which was founded by his father, Roy O. Disney, and his uncle, Walt Disney. At the ti ...

. This series was the launching pad for Disney's then-new distributor, the Buena Vista Film Distribution Company, Inc. Interstitial animated segments are included, and some filmed sequences are

set to music Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

Ub Iwerks Ubbe Ert Iwwerks (March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971), known as Ub Iwerks ( ), was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Iwerks grew up with a contentiou ...

blew up the

16 mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

to 35 mm for theatrical projection and provided some special effects.

Awards

The series won eight

s for the studio including five Best Two Reel Live Action Short awards for '' Seal Island'', ''

In Beaver Valley ''In Beaver Valley'' is a 1950 American short documentary film directed by James Algar. The film was produced by Walt Disney as part of the '' True-Life Adventures'' series of nature documentaries. It won an Oscar in 1951 for Best Short Subjec ...

'', ''

Nature's Half Acre ''Nature's Half Acre'' is a 1951 American short documentary film directed by James Algar. In 1952, it won an Oscar at the 24th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). The film was produced by Walt Disney as part of the '' True-Life A ...

'', ''

Water Birds A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

'', and '' Bear Country'', and three

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

awards for ''

The Living Desert ''The Living Desert'' is a 1953 American nature documentary film that shows the everyday lives of the animals of the desert of the Southwestern United States. The film was written by James Algar, Winston Hibler, Jack Moffitt (uncredited) and T ...

'', ''

The Vanishing Prairie ''The Vanishing Prairie'' is a 1954 American documentary film directed by James Algar and released by Walt Disney Productions. The theme music was given a set of lyrics by Hazel "Gil" George. It was rechristened as "Pioneer's Prayer" in '' Wes ...

'' and '' White Wilderness''.

In other media

Television episodes from Disney's anthology TV series focus on the films, and it inspired a daily panel

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

that was distributed from 1955 to 1973 and drawn by George Wheeler. Several of the films were adapted in comic book format as one-shots in

Dell Comics Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1974. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium.Evanier, Mark"Wh ...

' ''

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

'' series.

Nature's Living Album - Educational series

The following shorts were edited out of the other shorts/films/episodes for educational purposes. Either a fragment was exported out of a longer film or two or more sequences were edited together from more than two or more different films to form a "new" film. Thus they are not included on the Legacy DVDs. Films made up of stock footage from two or more Disney True-Life Adventures films and thus not listed with respective original film above: *''The Weasel Family'' (1968) * ''The Wild Dog Family – The Coyote'' (1968) * The Wild Cat Family – The Cougar'' (1968) * ''The Deer Family'' (1968) * ''The Beasts of Burden Family'' (1970)'' * ''The Bear Family'' (1970)

Documentary film

On October 8, 1975, Disney theatrically released ''The Best of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures'', a full-length motion picture documentary derived from 13 of the acclaimed ''True-Life Adventures'' films. It was written and directed by

James Algar James Algar (June 11, 1912 – February 26, 1998) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked at Walt Disney Productions for 43 years and received the Disney Legends award in 1998. He was born in Modesto, California ...

, and narrated by

Winston Hibler Winston Murray Hunt Hibler (October 8, 1910 – August 8, 1976) was an American screenwriter, film producer, director and narrator associated with Walt Disney Studios. Biography and career Hibler was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on Octob ...

Home media

VHS releases

Australian & New Zealand

* ''The Living Desert'' (September 22, 1995) * ''The Vanishing Prairie'' (September 22, 1995) * ''Jungle Cat'' (September 22, 1995) * ''Secrets of Life'' (September 22, 1995) * ''The African Lion'' (September 22, 1995) * ''White Wilderness'' (September 22, 1995) * ''Seal Island'' (March 15, 1996) * ''Bear Country'' (March 15, 1996) * ''Water Birds'' (March 15, 1996) * ''The Olympic Elk'' (March 15, 1996) * ''Beaver Valley'' (March 15, 1996) * ''Nature's Half Acre'' (March 15, 1996)

DVD release

All of the ''True-Life Adventures'' have been released on 4 double-

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

sets as part of the Walt Disney Legacy Collection, which launched December 5, 2006.

Volume 1: Wonders of the World

Disc 1 * Introduction by Roy Disney * ''White Wilderness'' (1958) * ''Water Birds'' (1952) * ''Beaver Valley'' (1950) * ''Prowlers of the Everglades'' (1953) Disc 2 * ''Mysteries of the Deep'' * "Wonders of the Water Worlds" * "The Crisler Story" Bonus Features * "Backstage with Roy Disney at Disney's Animal Kingdom: Birds" * "Tribute to James Algar" * "Filmmakers' Journal" * "Collectors' Corner" * "Original Theatrical Trailers"

Volume 2: Lands of Exploration

Disc 1 * Introduction by Roy Disney * ''The Living Desert'' * ''The Vanishing Prairie'' * ''Seal Island'' Disc 2 * ''Islands of the Sea'' * ''Nature's Strangest Creatures'' * "Prairie" * Behind the True Life Cameras Bonus Features * Backstage with Roy Disney at Disney's Animal Kingdom: Desert Insects * Backstage with Roy Disney at Disney's Animal Kingdom: Snakes * Filmmakers' Journal * Collectors' Corner * Trailers & Promo

Volume 3: Creatures of the Wild

Disc 1 * Introduction by Roy Disney * ''The African Lion'' * ''Jungle Cat'' * ''Bear Country'' Disc 2 * ''The Olympic Elk'' * "Cameras in Africa" * "The Yellowstone Story" Bonus Features * Tribute to the Milottes * Backstage with Roy Disney at Disney's Animal Kingdom: Elephants * Backstage with Roy Disney at Disney's Animal Kingdom: Cheetah Medical Exam * Filmmakers' Journal * Collectors' Corner * Trailers & Promo

Volume 4: Nature's Mysteries

Disc 1 * Introduction by Roy Disney * ''Secrets of Life'' * ''Perri'' Disc 2 * ''Nature's Half Acre'' * "Searching for Nature's Mysteries" * "Adventure in Wildwood Heart' Bonus Features * Backstage with Roy Disney at Disney's Animal Kingdom: Butterflies * Tribute to Winston Hibler * Filmmakers' Journal * Collectors' Corner * Original Theatrical Trailers

Disney+

Many of the films are hosted on Disney's streaming platform

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

, although as of March 1, 2022, some had not yet been added to the service in the United States, including ''Seal Island'' and ''White Wilderness''.

Reception

Although critics denounced the series' anthropomorphizing of animals, educators honored the ''True-Life Adventures'' films. In 1954, the professional teacher organization

Phi Delta Kappa PDK International (also known as PDK or Phi Delta Kappa International) is a US professional organization for educators. Its main office is in Arlington, Virginia. It was founded on January 24, 1906. Membership Currently, membership consists o ...

International awarded

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

its Education Award, and the

National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stude ...

honored him with the American Education Award.

Legacy

A 1982

Canadian Broadcasting Company The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government ...

documentary titled ''Cruel Camera'' interviews a cameraman who worked on the series, who said he disliked the inaccuracy of the narration. In a notorious example he discussed, the lemmings' mass suicide in ''White Wilderness'' was staged, with the same small group of lemmings repeatedly shoved off a cliffside—rather than hundreds intentionally jumping as stated by the narrator—into

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Bow River The Bow River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the Canadian Rocky Mountains and winds through the Alberta foothills onto the prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, the two then forming the South Saskatchewan River. These w ...

, rather than the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

as is depicted. In 2003, the

Alaska Department of Fish and Game The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) is a department within the government of Alaska. ADF&G's mission is to protect, maintain, and improve the fish, game, and aquatic plant resources of the state, and manage their use and development in ...

discussed the lemming-suicide myth and in 2022, business magnate

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...

referred to the story after calling for

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

to be released into the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

, tweeting, "Ironic that Disney would disparage an entire class of rodents when their main character is a rodentjealous maybe?" In 2007, Disney established a new nature film label called

Disneynature Disneynature is an independent film studio that specializes in the production of nature documentary films for The Walt Disney Studios. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France. The company's n ...

, which produces feature films similar to the ''True-Life Adventures'' series. On March 20, 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, including the nature-themed

National Geographic Films The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...

References

External links

Volume 1 DVD Stats

True-Life Adventures
at the

INDUCKS The International Network of Disney Universe Comic Knowers and SourcesFrom Inducks lecture
held at ...

* {{True Life Adventures Film series introduced in 1948 Disney documentary films Documentary film series Films adapted into comics Disney comic strips Educational comics 1955 comics debuts 1971 comics endings Comics about animals Children's comics American comic strips

Films

Production

Awards

In other media

Nature's Living Album - Educational series

Documentary film

Home media

VHS releases

Australian & New Zealand

DVD release

Volume 1: Wonders of the World

Volume 2: Lands of Exploration

Volume 3: Creatures of the Wild

Volume 4: Nature's Mysteries

Disney+

Reception

Legacy

See also

Documentaries

References

External links