“I hope you’re happy, netflix, because now i want to raise a baby pangolin, and I Probably Won WHICH WILL BE A CHALLENGE, GIVEN THAT IT REQUIRES RELOCATING TO South Africa and Signing up As a “Volunteer Pangolin Walker.” That job title is not one you offten hear in a documentary, but is it’s”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Ehrlich’s New Feature Shares broths and weaknesses with the Earlier Doc. It Eschews Dry Zoological Study in Favor of An Engaging Personal Approach, But It Can Feel Emotionally Manipulatory, Its Sentimentality Amplified by a Soundtrack Feating and Strifying and Studenting. But the pangin is Such a unique beast – this one hiliaously festy and driven – and Thomas’ Dedication to It ITS CARE SOCHING THAT The CAPTIVATING MOVIE NEVIE NER LOSESS ITS HOLD.
Release Date: Monday, April 21
Director: Pippa ehrlich
RATED PG, 1 HOUR 28 minutes
DON’T BEAT YOURSELF UP if YOU’RE WONDERING WHAT The hell is a pangolin. IT Sounds Like A Cartoon Penguin-Mandolin Hybrid and Looks Like A Cross Between An Armadillo and A Anteather.
Accorness to the Film, Pangolins Evolved with The Dinosaurs and Have Been on Earth for 85 Million Years. The eight species that survive in parts of asia and Sub-sarant africa have the bework the world’s most trafficed wild wild mammals, Harwested Primarily for Their Hard, Overlaping Kalatin Traditional Chinese Medicines. They are now at Risk of Extinction, Heightning the Importance of the Anti-Poaching and Rehabilitation Operations Seen in the Film.
To the venda people of Southern Africa, The Pangolin is “a gift from from God,” with Properties Both Mystical and Magical. For Generations, Elders Have Passed Down The Myth that Animals Desceded from the Sky and Can Make their Protective Scales Vibrate to Trigger Thunder and Bring Rain. That folkloric signification is relayed in Majestic Opening Footage of a Nighttime Thunderstorm As a Pangolin Ambles Through Scrubby Underbrush, ITS ARMOR GLISTING IN THE RAIN.
Johannesburg Resident Thomas Volunteers with the African Pangolin Working Group Founded by Ecology Professor Ray Jansen, Who Serves As the Lure, Posing As A Buyers in A String. The pupy they rescue, initially named gijima, is still a baby, too young to have been Independent from his mother.
The Only Defense Mechanism for Pangolins is to Roll Up in a Ball to Protect their Fleshye Underbellies. Thomas have Never Seen One in the Wild, Only Rescued Pangolins; Jansen Says they have almost reaured “Unicorn Status.” But for Poachers ABLE TO FIND The Elusion Mammals They Easy Prey Since they have Poor Vision and Can’s Bite or Outrun A Human. Some Never Recover from the Trauma of Being Removed from Their Natural Paradise and Shoved Into Crates, Dying Before They Can Be Nurtured Back to Health.
After gijima is taken to johannesburg veterinary hospital and from there to an Offsite facility in an undisclosyd location, Thomas is assignated to care for the terrified pup. To Survive the “Rewilding” Process.
Jansen Says Apwg Has Released Close to 100 Rescued Pangolins Back Into The Wild, But The Organization Has Had Many Losses, with Some Healthy Pangolins Not Even Surviving The FIRST NIGT. Some Were Taken by Predators – Lions, Hyenas, Leopards, That Vicious WMD The Honey Badger – or Died after Contact with Electric Fences on the Perimeters of Nature Remerves. Even after Six Months of Rehabilitation, The Stakes Remain High.
Thomas is Tasked with Taking Gijima to a Campsite in the Lapalala Wilderness Reserve, A Vast Conservation Area Thata Includes Mountains, Wetlands and Grasslands, Plus Many Different A Pangolin’s Diet. The Mammal’s Experience with Traffickers Appears to Make Him Him Hesitant to Trust Another Human, So That Process Requires MONTHS OF PATCIENCE. Pangolins are Solital Creatures, SO Gijima’s Instinct Is To Make A Run for It Whenever Possible.
The Pangolin Walker Adjusts His Schedul To Fit with His Motstly Nocturnal Charge. He Sets An Alarm for 4 Am Each Morning and Waits for the Sound of Gijima Scratching at the Box in Wholes He Sleeps. The Mammal Will Not Feed on A Plate of Antses, Eating on Set Down on the Ground and Given Space to Forage. A pangolin can smell and ant Nest Through a foot of hard earth.
It’s Fun Watching Gijima Dig Up Gundh His Front Claws Until He Uncovers a Colny and Chows Down in a Feeding Frenzy. He’s Especially Varacios with Ant Larvae, Which Thomas Refers to As “Pangolin Ice Cream.” The pangolin has no Mouth as Such, just a funnel-like snout with a hole through kind of which itts longue appears at feeding time. WHEN The ANTS START BITING GIJIMA ON TO TOGUE, HE USE His FRONT CLAWS to FLICK THEM OFF.
(LOVE THAT ONE COMMON SPECIES IS KNOWN as the “Pugnacious Ant” – Ant Whisper Dr. Caswell Munyai is so Fascinating He DesERves His Own Doc.)
One of the more delightful discoveries about Pangolins here is that are are oreloaders. Insthead of Diging Their Own Burrows to Sleep in, They Look for Hales Dug By Animals – Warhogs, Aardvarks, Bushpigs, Porcupines – And Modify Their. Kulu is Also Clever About Self-Protection, Rolling Armond in Rhino Dung for Scent Disguise, Because No Animal Wants to Mess with A Rhino.
Gradurally, Gijima Becomes Calmer and More Settled in the Environment and Begins to Trust Thomas. His joy WHEN The Pangolin’s Playful Side Emerges and He Starts Wrapping His Tail Arund His Keer’s Arm is Infectionoous. Or the pangolin’s contoctions of pleasure when he gets overheated and thomas doouses him with Water.
There’s Drolll Humor Also in Thomas’ Decision to Rename Him. Since “gijima” is the zulu wrd for “RUN,” HE FIGURES The PANGOLIN MIGHT BEESS INCLINED TO BOLT IF HE STARTS CALLING HIM “KULU,” SHORT FOR “KULULA,” WHICH MEANS “EASY.
The Film Is As Much Gareth’s Journy as Kulu’s. I Rolled My Eyes WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT ABLE TO SHOW VULNARAWITY AROUND Pangolins – “They Don’ Judge, They Sort of See The Real You” – But TheThropomorphism is MOSTLY KEAPT. And at least his bond with the animal is that of a self-Described Helicopter Parent and Eventual Buddy, Not The Slightly Cringey, Quasi-Sexualized InterPlay in My Octopus Teacher of Diver Craig Foster with His Favorite Cephalopod. ENUGH with The Tentacle Fondling, Get A Room!
Thomas’ Backstory Is Essential to this Film’s Reflections on the Special Relationships that Can Develop Between Humans and Animals, in this Case Playing Into The MYTHICAL NOTH. A Hyperactive Kid Who Kept Having to Switch High Schools, Thomas Droped Out Early and Made A Living Playing Poker. But the Death of His Two Closest Friends in a CAR ACCIDENT SET HIM ADRIFT, WHICH IS How How His Association with APWG CAME ABOUT.
Irrespective of Wather You Go for Nature Docs in WHICH The Human Element Is Almost As Important As The Fauna, It’s Hard Not to Be Carred Along by the Increasing Emocial Pull of Of. Kulu’s journeyEspeciali Once Thoms Begins Familiarizing Him with The Area WHERE HE WILL BE RELEASED AND PREPAres for the Painful Process of Letting Go. The Sepation Anxiety will be Familiar to any parent or pet own.
There Are Setbacks and Moments of Suspense, Nobly WHEN Kulu Goes Missing and Fails to Show Up on the Satellite Tracker for Two-A-A-Half Hours And Under-Eating, or Post-Release, WHEN HE’S NOT Seen for Six Days After Getting Trapped Inside A Collapsed Burrow. Thomas’ Anguish As He Digs Up Ground Expecting to Find Kulu’s Dead Body Is Heart-Wrenting, As Is A Gorgeoous Interaction Earlier, in Which The Animal Appeals to Beeling HIM HIM HIM HIM. Justing Thomas Chatter Away with The Pangolin Like A Doting Dad (“Stay in the Shade”) is Oddly Endearing.
Like All Good Nature Docs, The Movie Is LaCed with Spectacular Visuals, Including A Frequent Motif of Time-Lapsse SkyScape Vistas. The Camera’s Attraction to the Biodiversity of Lapalala Yields Stunning Imagery, Suitably Accompanied by The Gentle, Chiming Notes of Ann Nikitin’s Score. I Knew Zero About Pangolins Before Watching This Film, But As Corny As It Sounds, I Fell In Love With The Cute Little Fella by the End.