 | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Film |
| Genre | Nature films |
| Founded | April 21, 2008; 17 years ago (2008-04-21) |
| Founder | Jean-François Camilleri |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Paul Baribault (VP &GM)[1] |
| Products | Motion pictures |
| Owner | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Parent | The Walt Disney Studios |
| Website | nature.disney.com |
Disneynature is an American independentfilm studio that specializes in the production ofnature documentary films forWalt Disney Studios, a division ofDisney Entertainment, which is owned byThe Walt Disney Company. Disneynature was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered inBurbank, California.
The company's nature films are consistently budgeted between $5 million to $10 million, with their distribution and marketing handled byWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.[2] The label's event films are released onEarth Day and have a conservation campaign based on the feature of the film with an appropriate conservation charity receiving donations based on tickets sold,[3] at a pace of one per year.[4] The eight Disneynature theatrical films have a gross of $328.3 million at the worldwide box office, from a combined total budget of $162 million, withEarth the top earner at $109 million.[5]
Disney had a background in making nature films prior to the creation of Disneynature;Bambi (1942) featured forest life and was a hit.[4] From 1948 through 1960, the company produced theTrue-Life Adventures series, which won severalAcademy Awards[2] and was involved in the limited release ofHugo van Lawick'sSerengeti Symphony in the Netherlands in 1998.[6] Outside of film work, Disney parks were involved.Disneyland in 1955 opened theJungle Cruise ride.Walt Disney World includesDisney's Animal Kingdom, which is a theme park crossed with a zoo.[4] Animal Kingdom has contributed to conservation causes by nursingendangered sea turtles back to health, returning white rhinos to Africa and conducting a census ofcotton-top tamarins, a monkey species native to Colombia. In addition, since its creation in 1995, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund has given over $11 million to 650 conservation projects in 110 countries.[2]
After a long absence from nature documentaries, Disney decided to get back into the market after the French release ofMarch of the Penguins. The film was given U.S. distribution throughWarner Independent Pictures in 2005. Made on an $8 million budget, it grossed almost 10 times its budget at the U.S. box office and won theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2006.[2] Jean-Francois Camilleri, head ofBuena Vista International France at the time, had the company acquire the film for the French market. Buena Vista International France also managed to obtain a 20% ownership stake in the French version of the film, butBuena Vista Pictures Distribution's bid to distribute the film in the U.S. ultimately failed.[7] Disney CEOBob Iger, in consideration of Disney's past efforts, felt thatPenguins "should have been a Disney film worldwide". This was the impetus behind the creation of Disneynature. The film's 2007 follow-up wasArctic Tale, which only took in $1.8 million worldwide.[2] Paul Baribault, Vice President of Disney Studios Marketing, led the US efforts for Disneynature from 2008 forward, overseeing all marketing, production, brand development, and conservation programmatic efforts for the label. He was eventually named general manager of Disneynature.
Disneynature was announced on April 21, 2008, a day beforeEarth Day, with a starting slate of seven films. Camilleri was set to head the new division. A multi-film production agreement was made withAlastair Fothergill,BBC'sPlanet Earth series producer, for three scheduled films:Earth (2009),African Cats (2011) andChimpanzee (2012).[8] The other announced slate films and their release years were:The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos (2008),Oceans (2010),Orangutans: One Minute to Midnight (2010) andWings of Life (2011).[9] Original announced plans had the division releasing two films per year,[10] which was curtailed by April 2009 due to a nature film's long period needed to film wildlife.[4] No decision was made at that time as to whether or not the studio would donate the films' proceeds to conservation causes.[2]
The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos was the first film produced for Disneynature.[11] The first film released domestically under the new label wasEarth, opening on April 22, 2009, in the US.[2] In 2012, a Disneynature TV cable channel was launched in France. It is currently carried byFrance Telecom.[12]
Animal Planet pick up for a two-year period three Disneynature films,Oceans,African Cats, andThe Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, in April 2012 fromDisney-ABC Domestic Television.[13] In April 2014,Jane Goodall was named Disneynature ambassador.[14]
Disneynature has recently expanded to China with the production ofBorn in China. The production was made possible due to an expansion of Disney's relationship withShanghai Media Group starting in 2014.[15] FollowingBorn in China,Ghost of the Mountains andExpedition China were released toNetflix to reflect the incredible journeys involved in creating these films. In 2016, the company released its first compilation film,Growing Up Wild,direct-to-video (Blu-ray andDVD) and video on demand.[16][17]
Paul Baribault, vice president of studio marketing and Disneynature, was appointed general manager of Disneynature officially in 2018, after having been operating in the capacity for several years. Camilleri resigned his posts with Disney in March 2019. Helene Etzi was appointed to take over his responsibility as head of Disney's French operations. The unit's first streaming films forDisney+ wereDolphin Reef andElephant.[1]
| Film | Release date[5] | Behind-the-scenes documentary | Market[9] | Narrator[17] | Budget (millions) | Worldwide gross (millions)[5] | Production company |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos | October 26, 2008 (France) October 27, 2010 (United States) | N/A | Worldwide | Mariella Frostrup[18] |
| ||
| Earth | April 22, 2009 | N/A | North America, South America and Italy | Patrick Stewart (UK) James Earl Jones (US)[2] | $47 | $109 |
|
| OceanWorld | 2009Cannes Film Festival,Marché du Film | N/A | North America | Marion Cotillard | 3D Entertainment[3] | ||
| Oceans | April 22, 2010 | N/A | North America | Jacques Perrin (FR) Pierce Brosnan (US) | $80.0 | $82.7 |
|
| African Cats | April 22, 2011 | N/A | Worldwide | Patrick Stewart (UK)[19] Samuel L. Jackson (US) | $5 | $30.9 | Big Cats Productions[20] |
| Chimpanzee | April 20, 2012 | N/A | Tim Allen[21] | $5 | $34.8 | Great Ape Productions[20] | |
| Wings of Life | April 16, 2013 | N/A | Meryl Streep | Blacklight Films[9] | |||
| Bears | April 18, 2014 | N/A | North America | John C. Reilly[22] | $5 | $21.3 | Bearsar Productions |
| Monkey Kingdom | April 17, 2015 | N/A | Tina Fey | $5–10 | $17.1 | Crazy Ape Productions[23] | |
| Growing Up Wild[a] | December 6, 2016 | N/A | Daveed Diggs[16] | ||||
| L'Empereur (March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step) | February 15, 2017 | N/A | France | Lambert Wilson (FR) Morgan Freeman (US) |
| ||
| Born in China | April 21, 2017 | Ghost of the Mountains | Worldwide | John Krasinski | $5–10 | $25.1 |
|
| Expedition China[b] | |||||||
| Blue (France) | March 28, 2018 | Diving with Dolphins | France | Cécile de France | Silverback Films[25] | ||
| Dolphin Reef (US)[17] | April 3, 2020 | North America | Natalie Portman | Silverback Films Disney+[26] | |||
| Penguins | April 17, 2019 | Penguins: Life on the Edge | Ed Helms | $7.7 | Silverback Films[27] | ||
| Elephant | April 3, 2020 | In the Footsteps of Elephant | Worldwide (Disney+) | Meghan, Duchess of Sussex | N/A |
| |
| Polar Bear | April 22, 2022 | Bear Witness | Catherine Keener | N/A | Silverback Films[28] | ||
| Tiger | April 22, 2024 | Tigers on the Rise | Priyanka Chopra[29] | N/A | |||
| Sea Lions of the Galapagos | April 22, 2025 | Guardians of the Galápagos | Brendan Fraser | N/A | Silverback Films[30] |
For some reason, the team nixed the Natalie Portman-narratedDolphins last year, only a week before its release. (A version was released in France under the name Blue.)
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