We had the pleasure of being introduced to this breathtaking story during a Disney Social Media Moms Event. The movie is a Disneynature initiative.
Disneynature’s mission is to bring the natural world to the big screen as never before, and now presents its most ambitious project to date, taking movie-goers on a grand journey into the wilds of China. “Born In China” follows the adventures of three animal families — the majestic panda, the super cute golden monkey and the majestic snow leopard.
Featuring stunning imagery, the film navigates the vast terrain—from the frigid mountains to the heart of the bamboo forest over a period of time—on the wings of a red-crowned crane, showcasing remarkably intimate family moments captured on film for the first time ever.
Born in China is directed by Lu Chuan and produced by Roy Conli, Brian Leith, and Phil Chapman. I had the opportunity to attend a Q&A with Roy Conli and learned so much about how Disneynature films are created, and all the love involved in bringing “Born In China” to life.
Roy Conli, who worked in “Tangled” and “Big Hero 6”, explained that with animation, you start with storyboards and create a script, while with Disneynature films, it was the opposite: you send your best cinematographers out in the field, filming phenomenal footage, keeping journals of the stories they were witnessing, and then review that footage, and work backwards to create a story. “It wasn’t until we had footage that we knew what kind of story we could tell.”
You can take a peek:
“Born In China”, Disneynature’s seventh release, took about 2 years of filming. They had to send a team to film each animal. There was a lot of simultaneous filming and many challenges, like keeping warm in subzero temperatures, and the need to keep the right distance to capture the animals with a natural perspective.
You know I am an animal lover. I loved when he explained that they didn’t impose, nor interfere with the environment and did not alter the relationship between the animals in the field in any way.
Join me to to support “Born in China” in its opening week and Disneynature will make a donation in your honor to World Wildlife Fund to benefit wild pandas and snow leopards.
In theaters Earth Day 2017, (April 22nd)!
Can’t wait to hear what you think! As usual, give us a Trendy Shout!
This movie is incredible. The trailer per see gives me a heart pumping, thanks for the awesome sound effects. China is a beautiful and mysterious country. Only the media makes it ugly and overly exaggerated.
I love nature and animals and recently visited China. I read about this on another blog. I am very excited to see it for myself.
Saw the trailer you shared. I can’t wait to see this. Although I have never seen a single poster of this film in cinemas here in the Philippines.
Oh my gosh. The trailer is beautiful and makes me want to see this film. I wonder if it will be shown in the Philippines as well. I never saw this or its poster in cinemas here.
My kids would love this. It looks like a really cute! I can’t wait to see it!
love to watch this.It sounds like an interesting film.Sure,my kid will love to watch this too…
I love pandas and snow leopards. I will have to watch this.
This looks like a fascinating film. I love watching animals in their natural habitat.
I think Pandas are so cute! I am so looking forward to this movie. I am going to let out a whole lot of “awwws” in the theater when the movie starts.
I love when Disney makes these types of movies. It brings awareness and a connection for kids.
It looks like another amazing Disney movie! Can’t wait to watch it!
I’ve read great reviews about this movie. I am so excited to see it!
My kids would love this. It looks like a really cute and informational movie. Can’t WAIT to see it when it comes out.
I really need to go see this!!! The beautiful animals! My kids are so excited to see it!
This is such a special movie! My children loved it too!
I am looking forward to watching born in china as I am a fan of documentary style films , especially when it comes to nature. The cinematography is exceptional!
I can’t wait to see Born in China! Disneynature does make such beautiful films that motivates us to be more considerate of these beautiful animals and to take care of the environment. I will make sure I watch this on opening week so I can do my part and donate to the World Wildlife Fund!
This sounds amazing! I haven’t seen it yet and I’m very excited to watch with the family!
I have been so excited to see this movie. I can’t wait to take my son to see it.
I’ve been wanting to see this! Have heard nothing but great things about it. And some of the proceeds are donated to a great cause. Love that most of all!
Look at the eyes of the mom and baby pandas! I’m an animal lover to the core so I will definitely have to check this out. Thanks for your review.
This looks like an amazing movie, can’t wait to see it! Crazy that it took 2 years of filming to make!
Sounds like an interesting film to watch. I’m a nature lover and enjoy watching films that increase our nature’s awareness.
This looks like such a nice movie. I would love to see it. I think it would be a good one to take my family to.
It’s so nice that people are making movies like this now. I love that you can educate the kids in a way that they’ll understand.
I would imagine that the storytelling process would be very different in nature as you cannot control what the animals are doing in the wild, nor would you want to. I am looking forward to watching this soon.
We saw this trailer before Beauty and the Beast! It looks so great–we love the Disney Nature movies.
This is a movie that I don’t want my kids to miss. It’s something that will help educate them about how to save and care for animals.
I can’t wait to see it, it’s almost like a family tradition. We saw Monkey Kingdom and Born to be wild and love them. I know born in China will be just as amazing.
It’s going to be so cool to learn about some of these animals. I honestly don’t know too much about animals that live in China!
This Born In China trailer is fantastic. I love that Disney is doing nature videos.
I really want to see it, sounds great! It’s crazy it took over 2 years to make this movie!
You had me at pandas but to see them interact with the monkeys and leopards must be amazing to see. I am interested to hear John Krasinski in the narrator’s role. The trailer has such beautiful scenery.
I’m so excited to see Born in China! I’m a huge fan of all the Disneynature films.
Oh wow I bet this is an absolutely amazing film to see, I am going to have to keep an eye out for it.
I love these films! I know my girls will really enjoy this one!
I loved this movie. Such a great look at how animals live in the wild.
Believe it or not I’ve managed to miss all the Disney Nature films so far. I can’t believe this is the seventh! I do think I’ll make a point of watching this one though because I like Pandas and I love snow leopards. I heard this is the first time someone has ever filmed snow leopards in the wild!
This movie looks so cool I love animal movies. I can’t wait till this comes out!
I love animals so much! The snow leopard is my favorite and I love that they are in this movie!! All of the Disneynature films are wonderful.
This movie looks so good! My girls are going as a field trip for school and they are so excited.
My daughter has been dying to see this! Every time the commercials come on, she starts screaming! So excited for opening weekend!
I am actually excited to go see this movie with my kiddo. We love animals and I love seeing shows that so what animals are like in the wild I think if people are educated more about animals the more they will love them and more tendency to want to save them from being extinct.
Interesting to read how it took two years to put this all together. Going out and filming first and keeping journals of the stories and coming back to start putting it all together to make the film.
I really want to see this movie! I love all of the Disney Nature movies but I’m really stoked about seeing this one with my girls!
My daughter really wants to see this movie. She loves animals!
This looks like such a great movie. I’m looking forward to seeing it with my family. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful!
This movie looks so awesome. I am super excited to see it when it comes out.