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9 TV's
by Thinus Ferreira
Some of the biggest creatures on the planet who've roamed the world for over 6 million years are shown to be as majestic as ever but also in dire need of help in James Cameron's evocative, hauntingly beautiful and triumphant new natural history series, Secrets of the Elephants, on National Geographic WILD and Disney+.
Desert elephants, forest elephants, Asian elephants and elephants from Africa's savannah feature in mesmerising camera-followed stories in their beautiful, yet challenging landscapes - stunningly captured in the new four-episode series with Natalie Portman as narrator.
All four episodes will be broadcast back-to-back as part of 2023 Earth Day on Saturday, 22 April on National Geographic WILD (DStv 182 / StarSat 221) from 18:45, and is also being released on Disney+.
Get ready for a literal "cliffhanger" in the Africa savannah episode, and a perilous birth and get-up-and-go journey in the Namib desert episode - both of which National Geographic screened to critics before the series debut on Saturday.
Filmed over many months - following a wide array of elephants from newborns to so-called "super tuskers".
Secrets of the Elephants will leave you emotional as the show's TV pages turn - as if paging through a family album - reflecting on moments of communal joy, celebration, suffering, danger, rebirth, feasting, following, leading, growing up, motherhood, far-flung journeys, and yes, the sorrow and loss of the last loving and mournful trunk-touch that follows after death.
Secrets of the Elephants is a magnificent series about elephants around the world, their journeys over millennia, and now, with modern man in the picture - their decline.
The mood music and cinematography in Secrets of the Elephants are absolutely breathtaking - along with the elephants chosen - following their ever-onward journeys looking for food and water, often under some of the harshest conditions imaginable. And yet these giants endure.
Some episodes will require parental guidance as it shows elephant life in all its forms from birth to death and even a trunkless toddler - as cameras get up really close and hover far above as they capture these massive creatures who wander the Earth for over 60 years if mankind leaves them alone.
The series from Oxford Scientific Films - with James Cameron, Lucinda Axelsson and Caroline Hawkins as executive producers - features the renowned National Geographic Explorer and elephant expert Dr Paula Kahumba, as well as other experts across the various episodes.
The four mesmerising episodes are not just highly teachable and educational event television that can and should be shown in schools - Secrets of the Elephants is moving, emotional natural history television.
As a viewer, you cannot help but identify with these massive, smart creatures who remember everything and their so very human longings: To be loved, to feel protected, to play in the water, to sometimes jump in the mud, to be close to your mother, to protect each other, to grieve those lost, and to walk through the wide, scary world together.
Secrets of the Elephants on Nat Geo WILD is not just crammed full of information and knowledge about elephants, their narrowing place in our world today, and their plight - the episodes are highly successfully constructed to resonate on an emotional level that makes you feel their lives.
You live their journey and through that walk away - as they continue on - with a greater understanding of living giants who deserve and require the protection from a much smaller two-legged species.
The 4 episodes of Secrets of the Elephants are shown back-to-back on National Geographic WILD (DStv 182 / StarSat 221) on Saturday 22 April from 18:45, and are released on Disney+ on the same day.
