The African Lion

A seventy-five-minute nature film from Disney's True-Life Adventures series. The subject is a year in the life of a lion family in East Africa: the hunting, the cubs growing, the drought and the coming of the rain. Alongside the lions there are elephants, giraffes, hyenas, buffalo and the migrating herds. The footage is the result of shooting that ran for years and is extraordinarily close for its time. Directed by James Algar, the film follows the series' mould: the narrator gives the animals names and temperaments, the music follows their movements, and some scenes are cut like comedy. That approach introduced millions of people to nature films in its own day; today the series is said to have humanised the animals too far and put editing ahead of observation. Winston Hibler narrates. The footage is still among the best nature photography of the period.