My wife and I both love watching animal and nature documentaries, and we were so happy to discover Disney (another household favorite) makes live action nature films with wonderful narration. We recently watched Bears (2014, narrated by John C. Reilly) and Monkey Kingdom (2015, narrated by Tina Fey) both having been released near Earth Day. Disney has produced live action animal films before as part of their True Life Adventure series (1948-1960) including winning 8 Oscars for their work. From the opening title sequence (the classic Disney castle is replaced with an icy landscape in a similar shape) to the closing credits (of the camera crew filming the movie), the innocence and magic of nature is on display. Bears was directed by Alastair Fothergill (who also directed the original Planet Earth series on the BBC in 2006), Keith Scholey (director of the tv series North America in 2013), and Adam Chapman (first credit!). Monkey Kingdom was directed by Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill (both directed the first Disneynature film Earth in 2007, narrated by James Earl Jones). Both movies give names to the animals featured to help tell a story with Bears filmed in Alaska and Monkey Kingdom filmed in Sri Lanka (near the southeast coast of India). The narration is fun and informative (never boring), you see lots of personality in the animals, and the shots they get are amazing. These are great films to watch with kids, animal lovers, or like me, have on the tv when company is over. The films look gorgeous on blu-ray, include behind the scenes features, and a music video for each movie. Disneynature’s most recent release was Born in China (2017, narrated by John Krasinski) and coming next year, Dolphins (narrated by Owen Wilson).

Bears
2014, G, 1h 18m
Distributor – Buena Vista

Monkey Kingdom
2015, G, 1h 21m
Distributor – Buena Vista

Links
Bears
IMDB – 7.4
Box Office Mojo
Wikipedia

Monkey Kingdom
IMDB – 7.3
Box Office Mojo
Wikipedia