98% Born To Be Wild

All Critics (44) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (1)

A decent weekend diversion, this IMAX documentary is cute enough to engage your kids, while teaching them the most basic lessons in ecological responsibility.

Their stories are touching and inspiring, but let's face it, the visuals are what make this movie. Born to be Wild takes you to places you've never been and makes you wish you had.

The hip soundtrack adds momentum, and the reassuring narration of Morgan Freeman lets us know these lucky orphans will have a fighting chance for survival after taking their first steps -- or swings -- back into the wild.

Given the sheer scale of the format, Imax provides an ideal context in which to experience 3D, allowing the eyes to wander about each periphery-filling frame and focus on whatever catches our interest, the way we do in the real world.

While there's an important story here - how these two women take in endangered animals with the intention of later releasing them back into the wild - the main attraction is the general adorableness.

It's sort of poetic justice that the wretched "Sucker Punch" is getting kicked off four Manhattan IMAX screens after just two weeks by this charming nature documentary.

Few will be unmoved by the two women's courage and persistence, though Morgan Freeman's intoning voiceover is less persuasive.

A nice family outing, this, but those after an in-depth discussion had better look elsewhere.

It's just 40 minutes long, but in that short time it produces more "awwww" moments than any feature-length film to hit theaters this year.

Neither soppy nor schmaltzy, Born to Be Wild is a fascinating glimpse into another dimension of our world

There are plenty of ooh and ah moments in this splendid documentary for all ages in which we are privileged to enter a special world where orphaned baby elephants and orang-utans are nurtured

In Born to be Wild, the milk of human kindness nourishes the animals. And the audience.

Invites you on a thrilling IMAX 3D cinematic safari to wildlife 'orphanages' in Kenya and Borneo, where baby elephants and orangutans are nurtured and trained to return to the wild.

Trades on an indisputable fact: Ecologically friendly movies about cute animals are just about impossible to resist.

'Born to Be Wild' is one of the finest films of the year. Anyone who ever has loved an animal in a wild environment (or, for that matter, shared a home with one) must see this extraordinary movie about animal rescue.

... unusually deft for a 40-minute documentary ...

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and Morgan Freeman's voice.

I'm a fan of the diorama approach [to 3D], but Born to Be Wild makes the case that a nature documentary in IMAX 3D can and perhaps should bring us as close to the action as possible.

David Lickely's work as a director is impressive and intimate, and the use of the 3D helps make it feel like you're there in the environments with these animals.

What it lacks in length, the 45-minute movie makes up in entertainment value.

This may make me sound like less of a man, but I'm going to say it anyway: Born to Be Wild is by far the most adorable movie I've seen in the theater in a long time.

This enthralling 3D IMAX documentary about animal activists and naturalists in Borneo and Kenya and the orphaned baby orangutans and elephants they rescue is a must-see for animal lovers of all ages.

A cute and touching look at animals in peril and the dedicated humans who care for them.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/born_to_be_wild_2011/

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