True-Life Adventures

True-Life Adventures series is a collection of fourteen full length and short subject documentary films produced by Walt Disney Productions roughly between the years 1948 and 1960. The series won eight Academy Awards for the studio including three Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature awards for The Living Desert, The Vanishing Prairie and White Wilderness, and five Best Two Reel Live Action Short awards for Seal Island, In Beaver Valley, Nature's Half Acre, Water Birds, and Bear Country. It inspired a daily panel comic strip that was distributed from 1955 to 1971 and drawn by George Wheeler. Several of the films were adapted in comic book format as one shots in the Dell Comics Four Color series. The films were among the earliest production experience for Roy E. Disney. Also this film series was the launching pad for Disney's new distributor, Buena Vista International. TV episodes are from Disney's anthology TV series.

In 2007, Disney established a new nature film label called Disneynature.

Films

# film name type date educational film
1 Seal Island Two-reel short December 21, 1948
2 In Beaver Valley (a.k.a. Beaver Valley) Two-reel short July 19, 1950
3 Nature's Half Acre Two-reel short July 28, 1951
4 The Olympic Elk Two-reel short February 13, 1952
5 Water Birds Two-reel short June 26, 1952
6 Bear Country Two-reel Short February 5, 1953
7 Prowlers of the Everglades Two-reel Short July 23, 1953
8 The Living Desert Feature November 10, 1953 Following educational films were excerpted from The Living Desert:[1]
  • Animals at Home in the Desert (1974)
  • Predators of the Desert (1974)
  • What Is a Desert? (1974)
9 The Vanishing Prairie Feature August 17, 1954 Following educational films were excerpted from The Vanishing Prairie:[2]
  • The Buffalo – Majestic Symbol of the Plains (1962)
  • Small Animals of the Plains (1962)
  • Pioneer Trails, Indian Lore and Bird Life of the Plains (1962)
  • Large Animals that Once Roamed the Plains (1962)
10 The African Lion Feature September 14, 1955 Following educational films were excerpted from The African Lion:[2]
  • The African Lion and His Realm (1968)
  • Birds, Baboons, and Other Animals – Their Struggle for Survival (1968)
  • Elephants and Hippos in Africa (1968)
11 Secrets of Life Feature November 6, 1956 Following educational films were excerpted from Secrets of Life:[2]
  • Secrets of the Ant and Insect World (1960),
  • Secrets of the Bee World (1960)
  • Secrets of the Plant World (1960)
  • Secrets of the Underwater World (1960)
12 Perri Feature August 28, 1957
13 White Wilderness Feature August 12, 1958 Following educational films were excerpted from White Wilderness:[2]
  • The Arctic Region and Its Polar Bears (1964)
  • Large Animals of the Arctic (1964)
  • The Lemmings and Arctic Bird Life (1964)
14 Jungle Cat Feature August 10, 1960Following educational films were excerpted from Jungle Cat:[1]
  • Animals of the South American Jungle (1974)
  • Jungle Cat of the Amazon(1974)

Educational shorts

The following short were edited out of the other shorts/films/episodes for educational purpose - 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 "new" film. Thus they are not included on the Legacy DVDs.

Films made up of stock footage two or more Disney nature films and thus not listed with respective original film above:[1][2]

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 series written and directed by James Algar, executive produced by Ron Miller and narrated by Winston Hibler.

Home market

VHS releases

Australian & New Zealand releases

DVD release

All of the True-Life Adventures have been released on DVD over four discs as part of the Walt Disney Legacy Collection which launched December 5, 2006.

Volume 1: Wonders of the World

DISC ONE

DISC TWO

Bonus Features

Volume 2: Lands of Exploration

DISC ONE

DISC TWO

Bonus Features

Volume 3: Creatures of the Wild

DISC ONE

DISC TWO

Bonus Features

Volume 4: Nature's Mysteries

DISC ONE

DISC TWO

Bonus Features

See also

Documentaries

References

  1. 1 2 3 Disney Shorts: 1970ies
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Disney Shorts: 1960ies
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