This DVD is supposed to be about animals who bond with other animals of a different species, but it really didn't cover that subject as much as I would have liked. Obvoiusly there are people who enjoyed this video because it received several 5 star reviews, but when I finished watching it, I felt frustrated and perplexed because it wasn't what I expected from the ad and other hype that is online.
I pre-ordered this because I saw some clips on You Tube and thought is lookied great. The notion of cross-species friendships is so interesting, and I was keen to see more of this kind of fun and touching animal interest story. I thought this would be perfect to show the children in my life But ANIMAL ODD COUPLES would be pretty boring to most kids. All the best clips from the show can be seen for free on You Tube.
Unfortunately, this movie was crammed with stuff that just wasn't interesting - scientist after scientist pontificating about things that are only inportant to them, but boring to the average person. There was a whole 20 minutes devoted to a study of monkeys in Cuba, and how animals of the same species relate to each other - and since the entire video is only around 60 minutes, I consider it little aside a bit excessive to use up that much time on a subject that wasn't even part of the main point of the story. It might be OK in the proper movie, but that isn't what this video was supposed to be! The constant "expert" opinions became very irritating and I just wished they would get back to the stories of animals bonding with members of other species. After all this study, would you believe that these "smart" scientists finally came to the conclusion that the rest of us have known for centuries? That animals form friendships and can expericnce genuine emotions???? Gee Whiz! But we were duly informed that science cannot definitavely state that animals grieve... ! (sigh) I could have told them that animals do, indeed, grieve when one of my pair of mated doves died.
Enough of the scientific wheel spinning already!!! Just let ordinary people tell us their cool experiences with animals who have formed relationships with members of other species. The parts that actually stuck to this theme were very good, but it was just bloated with other stuff that was irrelevant to the central idea of interspecies friendships. This is what this video is advertised to be and this is certainly NOT what this video delivered. It was especially frustrating when they showed frame after frame of animals interacting with other species, and they let most of these stories go by without a single word, while they droned on and on about their studies and such. In all, only about 4 or 5 interspecies stories were even covered. I felt so let down.
So. anyone watching this video should at least know that you are getting too much dry science and not enough actual stories about animals. If that is OK with you, then go for it, but it isn't what I bargained for.
