Customer Reviews

An Elephant Called Slowly

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At last! At last! I have waited 20 years to own this movie! I saw it the last time it was on TV (and on crackly home recording since). The unofficial sequel to Born Free, Slowly is the story of Bill Travers' and Virginia McKenna's return to Kenya after falling in love with the country when filming Joy Adamson's story about Elsa the lion cub. Whilst house-sitting for a friend, they find themselves the neighbours of three unruly elephants who, according to the local gamekeeper, have "adopted" them. It is very funny, very silly, the scenery/wildlife is breath-taking and the music is amazing. Watch out for the stars feeding the baby black rhinos lollipops - gorgeous! I highly recommend this movie to anyone with a sense of humour and a heart.

My 2 year old daughter loves this movie! It is great for teaching her the names of all the animals and talking about the wonderful scenery. Nothing bad happens and there is no profanity, etc. I highly recommend this movie as something to watch *with* your child to talk to them and experience it with them. It is really too simple for an adult to watch, but fabulous to train your child learning about the world.

Although it's in docudrama style, several of the characters play "themselves" in this charming African tale about a baby elephant named Slowly. Real-life married acting couple Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna (who played George and Joy Adamson in the 1966 film Born Free) return to Kenya where they meet up with George Adamson (portraying himself in all his oddball glory) and his cavalcade of exotic animals including cheetahs, lions, rhinoceroses, buffalo, ostriches, and pachyderms. Bill and Ginny find themselves the reluctant adoptive "parents" of three mischievous baby elephants named Slowly, Kadengi, and Eleanor (who, of course, wind up causing all kinds of comic situations and stealing the hearts of everyone who gets in their way).

Staci Layne Wilson

Married couple Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna ("Born Free," "Ring of Bright Water") return in the first sequel to "Born Free." In the first movie, "Born Free," Travers and McKenna played the role of the Adamson's, the real life African animal preservations who raised lions in captivity and re-released them into the wild. In "An Elephant Named Slowly" and "The Lion at World's End (aka "Christian the Lion")" they play themselves returning to Africa and Adamason's compound. This would be followed by "Living Free," and "To Walk with Lions (2000)." "An Elephant Named Slowly" plays it mostly for laughs with Bill and Ginny coping with a beat up jeep that only starts when a special password is spoken into it's motor, being held at bay by a family of frisky elephants, and a gag about beans, beans, and more beans. Inspired more by Dean Jones comedies than anything else, this film will delight children and fans of the series. A jazzy score and cartoon title sequence add to the fun.

Having watched Born Free, which has the same director and lead actors as this film, I was looking forward to watching An Elephant Called Slowly. Although Born Free chronicled part of George Adamson's life, he actually appears in this film for a brief cameo. We also get a brief glimpse of the lions who appeared in Born Free. The stars of this film, the elephants, are just as interesting. We get a good introduction into elephant behavior. The characters, the actors portraying themselves, also travel around their African home and introduce us to all sorts of animals. Humor is used quite a bit in this movie- alot of it slapstick. My two young boys enjoyed this movie, I recommend it, especially for animal lovers.

We ordered this because we have enjoyed Born Free and the other one about the otter. They are both first rate. This one was uneven in the story line and appeared to be something that was thrown together rather than something planned. Still I am glad to have it in our collection.

My two-year-old has an obsession with elephants so I did a little research to try and find something for her to watch besides Dumbo and Babar. I came across this video and actually ended up getting this and Born Free, which has the same actors. To be honest, we never made it through this movie the first several times we tried to watch it -- it seemed a little slow in the beginning. However, once we had watched Born Free five hundred times we decided to give this one another try and I'm so glad we did because this movie is absolutely darling. Every time we watch this film I love it more than the last. It really doesn't have much of a plot, it is really more of an educational tour of the wildlife of Kenya loosely tied to the story of the actors (who play themselves in the film), who are "adopted" by three orphan elephants while they are housesitting for a friend. The elephants aren't as prominent characters as the lions were in Born Free but somehow it doesn't matter, the movie is just so sweet and charming -- and the music is wonderful, it is happy, bouncy, my family loves dancing to this movie as much as watching it.

There are a couple of scenes which show the food chain in action, one with a cheetah where you don't actually get a good view of the kill and one with wild dogs where you do (though you don't see as much blood as you'd think). I think the scenes bother me most, I really don't think my daughter gets it just yet -- but when she does this will be a really gentle way to explain how things work in nature.

We couldn't love this movie more, I'm so happy we found it -- I'll probably buy a few extra copies to have just in case it's discontinued or we wear ours out.

My two-year-old has an obsession with elephants so I did a little research to try and find something for her to watch besides Dumbo and Babar. I came across this video and actually ended up getting this and Born Free, which has the same actors. To be honest, we never made it through this movie the first several times we tried to watch it -- it seemed a little slow in the beginning. However, once we had watched Born Free five hundred times we decided to give this one another try and I'm so glad we did because this movie is absolutely darling. Every time we watch this film I love it more than the last. It really doesn't have much of a plot, it is really more of an educational tour of the wildlife of Kenya loosely tied to the story of the actors (who play themselves in the film), who are "adopted" by three orphan elephants while they are housesitting for a friend. The elephants aren't as prominent characters as the lions were in Born Free but somehow it doesn't matter, the movie is just so sweet and charming -- and the music is wonderful, it is happy, bouncy, my family loves dancing to this movie as much as watching it.

There are a couple of scenes which show the food chain in action, one with a cheetah where you don't actually get a good view of the kill and one with wild dogs where you do (though you don't see as much blood as you'd think). I think the scenes bother me most, I really don't think my daughter gets it just yet -- but when she does this will be a really gentle way to explain how things work in nature.

We couldn't love this movie more, I'm so happy we found it -- I'll probably buy a few extra copies to have just in case it's discontinued or we wear ours out.