As the link from previous post may require a password Ive copied some of the relevant info-
The following is from a section from Adam Benzine's excellant article over at c21 media.
Despite the busy slate, however, it has not all been plain sailing for Disneynature. The Crimson Wing: Mystery of The Flamingos, which was Earth's successor and the first in-house doc produced by the unit, performed poorly at the box office, despite having strong reviews and featuring many of the same elements that made Penguins a success.
Its lack of success typifies the two main challenges facing the company: how to keep wildlife storytelling fresh and how to draw viewers to less attractive creatures. "It was maybe too artistic to be mainstream," admits Camilleri. "People are excited to go and see a movie about cats or apes, because they mean something to them. It's much tougher to get them to see a movie about flamingos, which is understandable. But it was a beautiful film and we got incredible reviews for it and a very good reaction at festivals."
In future, he adds that the challenge will be "to try to find convincing arguments to bring people to see those kinds of films."
One way in which Disney is attempting to make its documentaries stand out from other wildlife films is by presenting their narration in a Disney-fied way. Camilleri bills the films as "edutainment," and each one is told using a tone, pace and visual style that befits the Mouse House.
While this romanticised storytelling style (in The Crimson Wing we are told that when flamingos die "their life force returns to the lake") can be syrupy at times, it does markedly differentiate the films from much made-for-TV factual fare.
"Chimpanzee is really going to be a cross between a social drama and a comedy," explains Camilleri, "whereas African Cats is really a thriller, Hidden Beauty is basically a love story, and Crimson Wing was more of a visual experience.
"We are not working on the same materials here – Crimson Wing was the perfect film to talk about flamingos, but we cannot use the same techniques to talk about big cats. Chimpanzee is going to be a comedy because those animals can be extremely funny. What's fascinating is everything that happens between them, between the groups of chimpanzees and the individuals. You can see within them who is who; they are very close to human beings."
Its not much -but I hope it sheds some light on its limited release
Maybe because they were shown in movie theaters. Wings was released directly to DVD in US. In Europe (and propably elsewhere) it was relased in cinemas.
