Pride (DVD)

...Tanzania the rock collections the pride like to laze by, coupled with the sheer dry heat, shimmering from the sand is intoxicating and almost lulls you into a false sense of security for them. You easily feel part of this group of lions in an extremely weird way, and I don’t mean you feel like a lion, but simply you feel comfortable and at ease with the pictures on the screen. Talking or not, everything is as it should be. It is not surprising to ...
...Effects - Digital Effects at the 2005 RTS Television Awards, as it truly is superb.

The story looks at the role of Suki as the main star of the film, a young lioness cub, with much to learn about survival and family loyalties. She craves excitement and finds her peers extremely boring and her parents even more so. Despising the way the others kill for food, she vows to be a vegetarian when she no longer needs her mother’s milk, and ... more

Suki and Linus are lion cubs. They are adventurous and eager to learn what life will have in store for them. Their mother is a patient and loving lioness, part of the pride, peacefully residing in the beautiful landscape of East Africa.

That is, until they are attacked by two Wanderers, male lions who are not part of their pride. The fight results in the death of one of the other lionesses and ignites Suki’s awareness of the rest of the world around her. In fact it ignites her discovery flame so brightly, she wants to see for herself what lies beyond the dangerous crocodile infested river the Wanderers had crossed over from.

Setting out on a journey of self-discovery and natural curiosity, Suki has to take the rough with the smooth in a typical teenage rebellion of defiance and self-importance. This is the journey of her life!

One of the best things about this film is the fact that it is not a cartoon but real lions and yes, there has been some CGI added to make their mouths move as if speaking, but it has been done so well that it actually looks perfectly natural. I was in awe the first time I saw this film on the BBC, and in fact we had missed the beginning and I knew I had to see it all the way through. I managed to get hold of a copy from the BBC website shop and it has grown to be one of my favourite family films ever.

I will start by describing the fantastic scenery. It is like watching a natural history wildlife programme on the Discovery channel. The colours are amazing and extremely vibrant for a dusty landscape. The brilliant blue of the sky and the glowing sun, simply shine through in the opening scenes, making you feel very wistful for a holiday. It immediately sets your mind at rest that this will be an excellent film, not a comedy, like most talking animal type films.

The setting, in East Africa, is beautiful as well. Filmed in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania the rock collections the pride like to laze by, coupled with the sheer dry heat, shimmering from the sand is intoxicating and almost lulls you into a false sense of security for them. You easily feel part of this group of lions in an extremely weird way, and I don’t mean you feel like a lion, but simply you feel comfortable and at ease with the pictures on the screen. Talking or not, everything is as it should be. It is not surprising to me that this film won an award for Best Visual Effects - Digital Effects at the 2005 RTS Television Awards, as it truly is superb.

The story looks at the role of Suki as the main star of the film, a young lioness cub, with much to learn about survival and family loyalties. She craves excitement and finds her peers extremely boring and her parents even more so. Despising the way the others kill for food, she vows to be a vegetarian when she no longer needs her mother’s milk, and although this is ludicrous in real life, it really lends itself well to her character and seems entirely normal for Suki. It’s almost like a lot of teenage girls life stories, in that the Wanderers excite her, like the bad boy your mum always hoped you would avoid, and make her want to seek them out and see the world from her own inexperienced eyes. She feels invincible and the stubborn streak in her will not be quashed by her mother’s warnings.

As far as actors go, you have a ripe picking, although you will not cast your eyes over a single familiar face, just their distinctive voices. With a truly stellar cast for all the lions, including Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Robbie Coltrane and John Hurt, it is easy to see this is a British production. While it does seem a little odd when you first see the film, to have a bunch of lions in East Africa, all with British accents, it actually grows on you after a while and is very endearing. They have chosen some very distinctive voices to bring these lions to life and the matches are perfectly inescapable. For instance, Suki’s voice is played by Kate Winslet and her young, yet very wilful voice conjures up the cub so well, as does Helen Mirren as her mother, Macheeba. The wise and patient, yet long-suffering character of Macheeba is brought to life by Mirren, the same way the other roles are distributed throughout the pride. I cannot imagine any other voice for each lion now and having watched the film countless times, I never tire of hearing them.

This brings me onto the makers of this film. John Downer is one of the world’s best natural history filmmakers and has made some cracking documentaries about lions as well as elephants. He joined forces with TV writer, Simon Nye, who wrote Men Behaving Badly, and produced this amazing cross between natural history, a small amount of family comedy and drama.

They filmed the very much alive, habituated lions that I have come to know and love from this film then used computers to manipulate the images in order for the lions to appear to be speaking. Simon Nye had written children’s programmes before and having four children of his own he felt the need to create an engaging family drama but under a slightly different umbrella to the norm. I think the sheer beauty of the backdrop for this film makes it shine above other films of this ilk, like Babe and Charlottes Web. The African set gives it that air of mystery and escapism, that grotty farms and streets just can’t pull off.

Finally I have to give Sean Bean a mention as the voice of Dark, the dangerous Wanderer who Suki is intoxicated with. The lion itself is a magnificent animal, a true image of a lion in all its glory. Huge mane and massive paws, with a menacing, yet protective air about him. Sean Bean, however, gives this lion a whole new concept and his voice gives Dark the edge he needs to be a real baddie. A deep, ominous and threatening tone completely takes you over when he first speaks; yet further into the film his protective side edges out and takes on a softer approach, yet never quite tipping over into a complete pushover. Suki and Dark were my favourite lions in this film and that is pretty much wholly down to the expert acting from Bean and Winslet who truly made this film as brilliant as it was.

There are not many places to get this on DVD and three years ago I really struggled to find it. However it is obtainable from Amazon for £11.98 now and the BBC website where I originally got mine from seems to have stopped doing it. You may think this is a high price to pay for a DVD these days, especially one made in 2004, but I would not hesitate to buy this again and in fact paid £17.99 for my copy all that time ago. This is testament to how good it was and with the full five stars from me, I hope this will inspire others to watch and love this brilliant film. 

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