Meg Ryan takes a break from the movies and presents this fascinating documentary and her hunt for the rare white elephant.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93619 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-21
• Rating: Exempt
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 55 minutes

Video Description
DVD Special Features :

Aspect Ratio: 14.9

Synopsis
The IN THE WILD series uses Hollywood star power to promote understanding the animal kingdom. This edition of the PBS series puts quirky star of drama and comedy Meg Ryan in Thailand where she studies the elusive white elephants. Ryan's childhood love of the creatures is combined with teachings from mahouts in her pursuit to learn about these gigantic creatures and see how they live.

From the Back Cover
Meg Ryan's favorite animal has always been the elephant and she journeys to the east to a country where elephants are a vital part of this country's culture and heritage. Countless elephants were used in the logging industry as load bearers, each looked after by its personal carer or 'mahout'.

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Customer Reviews

Amazon must be confused...
Hmmm... stars Julia Roberts, Goldie Hawn, John Cleese & Anthony Hopkins does it? Didn't see them in this at all. All I saw was Ewan McGregor and some Polar Bears. But one reviewer here claims to have seen Julia Roberts and Orang-Utangs, and 3 out of 3 people found her comments useful!

And it's not in 14:9 aspect ratio (it's in 4:3) and it wasn't made in 1998 either.

But when the synopsis reads, "Ewan McGregor visits the Polar Bear in it's (sic) natural environment.", I suppose you take all of the rest with a pinch of salt. Well, I have just watched it myself, so I can fill in the blanks, so to speak.

The programme is only 55 minutes long and contains frequent (and unsubtle) fade-outs that betray its commercial television origins. There are no extras on the DVD except for a handful of extremely over-exposed, low resolution photographs in the "gallery" section.

Having said all that, the documentary itself is absolutely superb. Ewan McGregor makes an excellent presenter and you get to see all aspects of the Polar Bears' relationship with the human inhabitants of Churchill. One or two scenes may leave a slightly bitter taste in the mouth if you're a hardcore animal lover, but then I suppose it's easy to criticise if you don't happen to live there.

It's well worth a watch, but it's very short considering the price. I recommend a rental instead.

Enjoyment and Entertainment in One!
Its always to see wildlife programmes, and combining wildlife with celebrities, what more could we want!

It was lovely to see Julia as herself as we have seen her as many characters over the years. This made a great combination with the natural habitat of Orang-Utans.

It is well suited for all ages, as my young niece enjoyed it just as much as myself and my brother.

An enjoyable light "Hollywood-ified" documentary
A light documentary which I enjoyed very much. However it was very "Hollywood-ified" in places - i.e. Julia happens to be strolling through a rainforest in a pristine white t-shirt, carrying no bag, and no water and gazes up into the tree where there's a cameraman who happens to be sitting behind an orangutan. In the first 20 minutes there were a lot of lingering camera shots of Julia, when really we wanted to see more of the scenery. However, the second half was a much more enjoyable look at Camp Leakey with good footage of the Orangs hilarious behaviour.

It's definitely worth watching this if you are with children. It doesn't tell you anything more than the basics of Orangutan behaviour, but has some lovely footage of the adolescents. Don't necessarily watch if you already know a fair amount about Orangs and are wanting in depth information. I didn't really learn anything from this, but enjoyed it nevertheless.