Earth

This morning we took the boys -- and the sleeping girl -- to their very first movie, Disneynature's Earth. This documentary was released on Earth Day, April 22nd and follows a year in the life of three different animal families, polar bear, elephant, and humpback whale. Never darkening the door of a cinema before 7pm myself, I was shocked at how many people actually go to movies at 10:35am on a Saturday and not just folks with children, twenty-somethings and singles, too. Man, if I had the free time to go to a movie sans children that early on a Saturday, you can rest assured I'd still be asleep in bed.

The boys did amazingly well, and I would rate it a rip-roaring success since we ALL made it ALL the way through the movie without having to leave even once, even when 15 minutes from the end Addison said, "I have to go peepee." The cinematography was breathtaking, truly breathtaking, worth it just for that, and James Earl Jones's voice is smooth as velvet. As he began to gently narrate the film, Addison looked over at me and whispered with shining eyes, "It's Darth Vader." Yes, dear, he's come over from the Dark Side and been hired by Disney.

Besides being a tad long, the only real glaring lacuna was God. He was nowhere to be found and yet everywhere in the film. Although Disney carefully sidestepped any reference to evolution, which I can only imagine was a calculated move so as not to alienate Christian families' wallets, I could not help but think of the Psalms and how the heavens declare the glory of God. How can you do a nature film and not speak of the amazing designer and sustainer of it all? How can you look at the beauty and variety and interconnectedness of this wonderful planet perfectly tilted to sustain life and not fall down and worship?

Disneynature will release another such documentary next Earth Day, entitled Oceans, which looks every bit as mesmerizing as this film. Plus, who can pass up a movie with a front row view of Great White sharks?