The Animal
Planet's resident animal expert Dave Salmoni takes the viewer on an
amazing journey to Africa as he attempts to save a rogue pride of lions
in Namibia’s Erindi Game Reserve. This six month journey immerses Salmoni into the lives of these lions as he takes his camera crew and
attempts to integrate with this pride of 16 lions in order for them to
gain the trust of humans and ultimately save their lives.
Using all his skills as
a zoologist and expert knowledge of big cats, Salmoni virtually risks
his life to save this pride who are in danger of being exterminated
unless they can learn to live in this wildlife reserve and accept
humans. However as the documentary progresses, we learn quite early on in the
piece that these lions are only doing what is natural to them,
fulfilling their predatory roles and unfortunately sharing the land with
"humans", especially with their cattle is not ideal.
But Salmoni has been
called to change this as he explains to reviewers that the life of lions
with a touch of laymenism by keeping it "real" as opposed to a
top heavy scientific documentary. For example, he describes the male
lions lounging around all day which is equivalent of men drinking beer
and watching TV. He also names his lions such as Brutus, the King of the
Pride or Cleopatra the Queen. In essence, Salmoni creates his own
training sessions for the lions and all five episodes of this Blu-ray is
a treat to watch.
At times, Into the Pride
will have you sitting on the edge of your chair as Salmoni builds a
relationship with each of the 16 lions and as the days go on, he slowly
becomes accepted by these wild animals, even though there are quite a
few frightful moments thrown into the piece. For example, in the first
episode, he attempts to walk near the lions so they can accept him. Of
course, he also carries a crook or a staff and pepper spray as a last
defence. It’s quite engaging to
watch and Salmoni’s passion definitely rubs off on the viewer which
makes this documentary so amazing to watch.
To compliment this
compelling rescue mission of Salmoni is the amazing cinematography of
Africa that is really highlighted on Blu-ray with its Earthy tones and
beautiful locales as we follow the story. On Blu-ray, the video quality
is rather impressive and almost makes it like you are part of the camera
crew from its exceptionally clear video, thanks to this FULL HD
presentation. Into the Pride is well narrated by Salmoni that matches the
equally good audio which is presented in Dolby Digital. However
without the passion behind Dave Salmoni and his love for big cats, this
would have been quite a pale and perhaps sensationalised documentary but
Into the Pride is far from that.
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