Oceans is Disney’s remake of the French film by the same name (except for an accented é and a French accent).  The Disney movie was released last spring on Earth Day and follows their previous year’s Earth Day release of Earth.  Both movies represent a return for Disney into the nature film genre that was once a staple of their portfolio.  The twin Jacques who created both Oceans and Océans are not new to the nature genre either.  Perrin and Cluzaud created the groundbreaking nature documentary Winged Migration.  It is all about birds and you know that I own a copy of the DVD because of that.

With Oceans, the Jacques have tried to repeat their film success, which they had once created above the ground with Winged Migration, but this time below the surface of the sea.  Their photography more than duplicates their previous success, but they are unable to recapture the novelty of their original work.  Pierce Brosnan’s droning baritone narration doesn’t help either.  Oceans shows many varied and interesting aquatic species, but fails to make the audience want to connect with any of them.

Their theme of human perpetrated environmental damage falls flat in this movie.  The argument has been too diluted, too Disney’ed.  I’ve photographed the images with this post at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, earlier this year.  One of the aquarium’s exhibits aptly makes the Saint Louis connection, with a can of Budweiser.  The aquarium’s exhibitors, with just this one display, did a better job than the makers of the movie Oceans of making the environmental connection.  Oceans is now out on DVD.