Born Free (1966)
Directed by James Hill
At a national park in Kenya, English game warden George Adamson and his wife, Joy, care for three orphaned lion cubs. After the two larger lions are shipped off to a zoo in the Netherlands, the smallest of the three, Elsa, stays with the couple. When Elsa is blamed for causing an elephant stampede in the nearby village, head warden John Kendall demands the young lion either be trained to survive in the wilds of the Serengeti or be sent to a zoo.
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What critics compared Born Free to
The Film: Wildlife activist and actress Tippi Hedren starred in this comic family adventure written, directed by, and costarring her producer husband Noel Marshall and inspired by the surprise success of Born Free (1966).
The critical and box office success of 1966’s Born Free may have contributed to the origination of the project, but marketing Roar seemed problematic—it’s not really a thriller (some had compared it to Born Free mixed with The Birds thanks to Hedren’s presence) or even an emotionally gratifying venture (though it does have a well-intentioned message).
The financial success of the 1966 lion-centric movie “Born Free” also seemed to signal that the idea could be financially viable.
Roar has drawn comparisons to other lion movies like Born Free and Napoleon and Samantha , but thanks to the cinematography of Jan de Bont, the film also has a look that is similar to other wilderness horror movies like Grizzly and Prophecy .
This would-be Born Free celebrates the beauty and power of lions, tigers, panthers, leopards, and cougars, but in a way that is totally irresponsible and dangerous.
Mondo Cane than Born Free or The Bear, the Marshalls’ (including Tippi Hedren and a young Melanie Griffith) attempt at showcasing the possibility of humans and wild untrained animals co-habiting together not only serves to further disprove their naïve, foolhardy notions but is the cinematic equivalent of listening to a Wesley Willis record.
They gleefully orchestrate and perform peacefully symbolic movements in nature, before a giant waterfall to the strains of “Born Free.”
The key sequence is Congo’s big musical number, “Born Free,” staged in front of a waterfall, with Congo in priestly garb and Koto in an elegant blue gown.
The movie is almost a very, very acid and absurdist comedy, especially as the talk of torture and murder is juxtaposed with the gangsters' taste for sentimental karaoke ("Born Free" is a favorite).
And they say they have the perfect song to bring it all together – “Born Free.”
In the film’s opening scene, a verdant musical sequence in praise of Anwar Congo set to the tune of “Born Free,” we overhear a director barking at his female dancers: “Natural beauty!
Nowhere is that more evident than in the film’s signature musical sequence, in which elaborately-costumed murderers sing “Born Free” in front of a waterfall.
The message itself isn’t wrong, but the film has nothing else to say beyond what we’ve heard in similar films dating back to 1966’s Born Free and echoed in Free Willy, Babe,and dozens more.
Diane Warren’s breathtaking song, “Free” sung by Charlie Puth, is the “Born Free” of this generation.
The story begins with our obligatory “Born Free” reference (glad they got it out of the way), which initially made me a bit queasy but thankfully segued into a pedestrian early-morning scene in the Central Park Zoo, where our heroes Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) live out their days in pampered metropolitan bliss.
The other music is not quite so old-fashioned as Wall-E's, but it does include snippets of such venerable numbers as "New York, New York," "Born Free," and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."
Madagascar, which opens with a chorus of penguins singing ''Born Free'' (fear not ?
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Children will enjoy the ride, yet older folks will find it especially entertaining, provided they catch the many pop-culture references flung their direction, whether to the mini-series Roots, the theme music from Born Free, the Spaghetti Western scores of Ennio Morricone, or the choreography of Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins.
Yet the movie, directed by Glendyn Ivin, falls somewhere in the middle of a character-driven story about Samantha's emotional arc, Noah's coming-of-age tale and the magpie's trip from unlikely pet to embracing its wild nature, like a feathered version of "Born Free." "Penguin Bloom" is harmless enough as family fare goes, which counts for something, with an inspirational message for these trying times.
But like all animal dramas (think Bambi or Born Free), Two Brothers contains material that may be inappropriate for children younger than 7.
Taken on its own, precision-targeted, terms, this Disney + release hits the marks for old-fashioned family entertainment, with a distinguished bloodline from National (and International ) Velvet on through to Born Free and a sensibility which chimes with the Mouse House’s live-action brand of old.
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The movies give a fresh, computer animated spin to the gratifying, one-size-fits-all pleasures of, say, "Born Free," "Benji" and "The Black Stallion."
Motivated by the archetypal Disney trauma (the death of a parent), it's part frontier survival saga, part vision quest and part "Born Free," as a clumsy young Brontosaurus-like sauropod named Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) struggles to return to his family farm, accompanied by a tagalong "pet": a snarling but faithful young feral human (or "critter") that Arlo dubs "Spot."