Daniel Craig or Cane Toads - which one's better?...

It’s not often that natural history documentaries become feature films but recently I have had the good fortune to cast my critical eye over two interesting but very different examples.

One Life is a BBC Earth production that plays like a slightly extended version of the acclaimed BBC One-David Attenborough television series, Life. The reason for this is that all of the footage comes from the 10,000 hours that were actually shot for the show. As such the film feels more like a highlights reel for the series albeit with narration by a Hollywood actor (Daniel Craig).

According to the press release, the film ‘offers an accessible narrative that children will love’, by which they mean a very loose narrative that revolves around the fact that just like humans, animals are born, they live and then they die – hardly a unique perspective for a wildlife documentary.

While I think it is admirable to target a younger audience with this type of material I don’t necessarily think One Life is the way to present it. On television, children have programmes like Deadly 60 and various segments on Blue Peter which deal with natural history in a fun and exciting way, without the need for a story. The flaw with this presentation can often be that the excitement is mustered through quick editing or sound effects rather than by allowing the incredible footage to speak for itself. In this respect, One Life does well, even if the narration is slightly condescending.

Children don’t need to sit through a feature length version of a 45 minute television show to be told the basic facts of life. Quite often one sequence in a programme like the magnificent Frozen Planet (which has just been airing twice a week on BBC One) will contain enough material for a younger viewer to get excited, interested and intellectually stimulated. Yes, there are cute monkeys, baby elephants and cool komodo dragons and the footage is spectacular (witness a Jesus lizard walk on water) but at the end of the day it does nothing that one episode of the series can’t do, and the entire box set of Life will cost you just one pound more; thus making the movie ultimately redundant (unless you really love Daniel Craig’s voice). That said, there are lots of special features included on the two disc edition if you're interested in the behind the scenes goings on, such as interviews and making-of footage.

More interesting is Cane Toads: The Conquest from documentary maker Mark Lewis. As you can tell from the title, the focus of this feature is one animal in particular, the Cane Toad. The film details the introduction of the Central and South American native amphibian to Australia (in order to combat a sugar cane pest) and its subsequent dominance of Queensland and the Northern Territory.

The story, the facts of which I won’t give away, is itself incredibly interesting, but Lewis also fills his film with fascinating characters, wonderfully dead-pan humour and bizarre personal stories that truly bring to life the rampage of the cane toads and the effect that their introduction has had.

Instead of focusing on the animals and their behaviour alone, Lewis explores their relationship with, and their effect on, society. As such we are treated to interviews with biologists (who explain the detrimental effect the toads are having on the indigenous population), local toad-based entrepreneurs (keep your eyes open for the strange Travelling Toad Show) and normal members of the public whose lives have changed due to the toad infestation. There are a few re-enactments of people’s stories, some humorous, some poignant, but all are shot in a movie-like way and most with the director’s tongue stuck firmly in cheek.

It is this humour that drives the film along; even as the toads rampage across the country, multiplying at an incredible rate, the director finds time to illustrate how the toads themselves probably don’t feel like a menace by playing lovely, serene music over the top of footage of them swimming.

While the issue is of great importance to many Australians, there are those who see it as an inevitability that the toads will take over the country. Cane Toads: The Conquest presents a balanced view about whether the toads should have been brought over in the first place and what should, if anything, be done about them. It may not be a concern that most countries have to face, but don’t let that put you off watching this great, short, documentary as it is one of the most interesting natural history documentaries of the year. Plus there are LOADS of toads to see!

If you want to buy or rent a short film about animals (both films are 85 minutes long) then wait a month and go for Cane Toads: The Conquest, as most of One Life will be repeated on BBC every week for years to come, and if not the box set is probably in the Christmas sales!

Cane Toads: The Conquest

Director: Mark Lewis
Certificate: E
Running Time: 85 mins
DVD Release Date: 16th January 2012

One Life

Director: Michael Gunton, Martha Holmes
Certificate: U
Running Time: 85 mins
DVD Release Date: 21st November 2011

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