MartinHafer This is the first of a new generation of nature documentaries from Disney and they picked a VERY difficult topic to cover. Instead of the usual locations like jungles or plains, this one is filmed in the most hellish place in Tanzania--near the Kenyan border in a region made toxic to most life by volcanic ash. However, surprisingly, 2.5 million flamingos return to Lake Natron each year- -despite it having a pH of 10.5 and being made up of a mixture of ash and salt. The film follows the flamingos for a year--as the return to do their courtship rituals, lay and hatch eggs and then grow into adulthood. It's all quite lovely with nice cinematography yet Disney chose not to release this to theaters--though it would have been lovely to see on the giant screen. My only reservations are that kids might be a bit shook up because nature is pitiless and you see a lot of flamingos die. Also, biologists might dislike how the narration often becomes much too prosaic and not exactly scientific. Still, the overall effect is breathtaking and if you see it, try to see it on as large a TV as possible.

Leofwine_draca Like MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, THE CRIMSON WING is a nature documentary focused on a single subject, produced by Walt Disney Studios of all people. Thankfully this isn't a twee or sentimental type account of the material, rather a solid, fact-focused documentary packed full of gorgeous photography of the birds.It turns out that Lesser Flamingos are the birds behind the myth of the Phoenix, and the correlation of their lifecycle to that of the legendary bird rising from the ashes is an engaging one. But this is a film that offers more to the casual viewer, with plenty of tragedy and chaos along the way. There are the inevitably tear-jerking scenes involving the chicks that didn't make it, and such moments are tragic beyond belief.THE CRIMSON WING offers strong commentary by experienced narrator Mariella Frostrup and a lean, mean, running time which excises extraneous material from the narrative. Best of all, though, it has fantastic cinematography that helps to fuel a colourful, engaging and thorough exploration of the topic.

Dalbert Pringle Well, I must say that I was really quite impressed with this "Disneynature" documentary that took an in-depth look at the flamingos of Africa who (once a year) arrive by the 1000s at Lake Natron (in Tanzania) in order to mate and raise their young.In part, this thoughtful documentary was, without question, a very sad tale from the viewpoint of the survival of the flamingo chicks who must quickly gather their strength in order to endure the hardships that immediately come before them and challenge their very existence.With its excellent photography and its equally superb soundtrack music (from The Cinematic Orchestra), I certainly recommend this DVD very highly to those of you who are interested in witnessing such an amazing phenomenon like this one from the world of nature where many astounding marvels are there for us to behold.

dbborroughs I saw this as part of the New York International Children's Film Festival weekly screenings at the IFC Center in Manhattan. The blurbs they had posted on their website and the link to the trailer made this seem like it was something I would love to see.The film follows a year in the life of the flamingos from their birth in a the middle of the inhospitable lake Natron, which is so full of salt nothing can live there, through their growing up to the point where they can leave and then back to their return to the lake the next year. Actually most of the film is on their time at Natron with the chicks struggling to live.A visually stunning film, this movie is so full of fantastic images it will have your mouth hanging open and tears rolling down your cheeks. Its a stunningly beautiful film at times and it was a treat to see the images on a huge movie screen.The film is also very heart breaking. The film does not shy away from showing the young (and not so young) birds as they meet their doom either at the hands of the predators, who wade in and take their fill, or from the salt shackles that form around the legs of some of the chicks which make their getting around slow or even impossible. If the film doesn't have a regular US release, which it appears not to, I'm guessing its because the heart breaking scenes of the death of the chicks have given Disney pause as to how to market the film to families.For me the flaw of the film is that as it stands now its too long by a good fifteen or twenty minutes. Once the chicks begin to mature and head off to the various lakes around Africa the film kind of has nowhere to go (actually once the birds get off the salt islands the film slows). The filmmakers don't follow the birds much and outside of the narration that "they go where they will" and some flying sequences, we see little. Then, magically, a year has passed and the birds return again. The film is essentially repeating itself (Even the narration repeats itself)and it suddenly seems to have no point other than to show this one piece of the life of the flamingos. Don't get me wrong its not a bad film, Its just that its one that's been stretched to 75 minutes to make the minimum length required for a feature film.I like it its worth seeing, just be wary if you bring the kids since some of the sequences with doomed chicks may upset some of the children in your brood (A couple of kids in the theater were desperate to be reassured by mommy and daddy) The first 50 minutes is 8 out of 10, the second half less, with the over all petering out making the film less then it really should be.