Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films. It is a scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. The film is based on the research notes of the Kalahari Meerkat Project and primarily uses wild meerkats to represent those in the story. The Kalaharis believe the film is the first natural history prequel to be created.

About Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins in brief

Summary Meerkat Manor: The Story BeginsMeerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films. It is a scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. The film is based on the research notes of the Kalahari Meerkat Project and primarily uses wild meerkats to represent those in the story. The 75-minute film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival before its television premiere on Animal Planet on May 25, 2008. It was praised for its cinematography, for maintaining the depth of coverage of the television series, and for its accessibility to newcomers to the series. However, it was criticized for not offering anything new to fans and recommended against analyzing it. The Kalaharis believe the film is the first natural history prequel to be created. It details the life of a meerkat named Flower from birth to her becoming the leader of a group called the Whiskers.

At end of the film, an on-screen note describes Flower’s death during the third season of MeerkAt Manor and the children she left behind. It does not include footage of the project meerkATS depicted in the film. Instead, wild meerrkats represented Flower and her family by approximately eight female meerkats. Some scenes were shot at a wildlife park in the United Kingdom, while others were created using camera tricks and trained film animals. The crew used radios to keep in contact with one another as they followed the meerkAT groups around the Kuruman River Reserve in Northern Cape, South Africa. It employed a much larger crew than the series and used a new type of camera that was not affected by shaking by the low-flying helicopter. The camera required carefully to avoid scaring the animals, and the majority of the scenes were filmed partially in front of the camera.