Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Warburton, Chris Branning, Graham Brant-Zawadzki, Chris Clark, Charlie Enright
• Directors: Mark Monroe;Paul Crowder
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
• DVD Release Date: June 16, 2009
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001HN695O
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #16,571 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Morning Light [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Morning Light concerns the 2006 TRANSPAC, an annual, open-ocean race between sailing sloops crossing the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii. The film focuses on the team manning the Morning Light, 15 young men and women who undergo intensive training over months and then are left to their own devices racing against sailors far more experienced than themselves. Morning Light is divided between a competition section that resembles a broken-hearts-and-all MTV reality show (with a total of 20 people vying for the 15 spots) and the race itself. Neither is particularly fascinating: the former just feels like an extension of television, while the racing action is dominated by technical speak and visuals that will largely appeal to viewers who have spent a lot of time on boats. The rest of us end up sitting through large patches of documentary footage that don't provide a clear understanding of what's going on or what any of it really means to the individuals involved. Morning Light did not have to look and move like cable sports channel fodder. The film could have more closely resembled, say, a Warren Miller winter sports documentary, which is almost guaranteed to appeal to non-sportsmen. As it is, a viewer feels like a fifth wheel (or the sailing equivalent). --Tom Keogh

Product Description

Experience a riveting and inspiring true life adventure aboard the high tech sloop Morning Light. Fifteen rookie sailors have one goal in mind, to be part of her crew, racing in the most revered sailing competition on Earth, the Transpac Yacht Race. From start to finish, it's a rollercoaster ride of emotions and physical challenges, beginning with six months of intense training. Only eleven will survive to race in the grueling 2,225 mile Transpac. Matching wits and skills against experienced pros and the unforgiving, unpredictable Pacific Ocean, these young men and women develop a powerful bond and prove how dedication, teamwork and an unyielding spirit can overcome the greatest of odds.

Bonus Features indluce: Stories from the Sea with host Jason Earles, ESPN Special, Making the Cut

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Documentary on Long-distance Sailboat Racing, June 24, 2009

By	Mark J (So. Cal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morning Light (DVD)

Being a sailor myself I was looking forward with much anticipation to a story about the Transpac race that starts just a few miles from where I live. Normally, documentaries on sailboat racing follow a pretty standard formula that features quick cuts, long-range helicopter shots, and a few comments from the competitors and supporters. All pretty boring stuff. This film, however, totally smashes that mold.

For the first time, we get a glimpse into the fascinating world of long-distance sailboat racing by giving us the opportunity to get familiar with the characters, the boat (aptly named "Morning Light" - which at the end of the movie provides a bit of Disney magic!) and intense preparation required to compete in one of the premier yacht races. In short, I was blown away. By the way, the photography is utterly amazing - the best we've ever seen in a sailing film.

If you've never been on a sailboat before you'll finally get to see why so many of us find it intoxicating. The boats in the film are the Ferrari's and Lamborghini's of the sea - they're always being fussed over to gain that extra knot or two, in any kind of weather and at any hour. And we get to see that in shot after shot. One great scene shows the boat hitting 27 knots, which sent chills up my spine. For a monohull sailboat, that's just sick!

But the real star of the film is the crew, which, as you've already read, features fifteen rookie sailors that are given the chance to prove themselves against some of the world's best sailors. Their stories are what brings Morning Light her character and heartbeat.

Roy Disney, who was the driving force behind the film, said, "I would like this film to appeal to people who have never been sailing and have always wondered what it's like out there... I'd like for people to understand that it's a very demanding and athletic sport." Roy, you've done a terrific job.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of time and money, could have been better, June 25, 2009

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Morning Light (DVD)

The Amazon review above stinks. Ignore it.

I would never, ever, have known of Morning Light if I had not been the only other person in an advanced meterology class in Seattle under master weatherman Lee Chesneau. The skipper Jeremy, the navigator Piet, and the back-up navigator Chris, and I, spent a full week together. I ended up feeding them and the instructor a lot of sushi.

These three were a cut above the norm, but one of the things I learned from being with them was just how normal the crew was, and the fact that they were giving up a working position in order to carry a camaraman--in other words, they came in second to a world-class professional crew even though handicapped by one cargo camaraman. I was surprised not to see this mentioned in the film.

As for the film, it had me on the edge of my seat and as mundane as some may find aspects of the film--not exactly a James Bond movie, and certainly not a drama with hotties such as Wind--for anyone who loves sailing, this is absolutely a great film to view alone or as an excuse for a gathering of like-minded folk.

My biggest disappointment in the film is the lack of detail on training--absent my comment and my direct experience, no one would know they got advanced meterology training, or that their initial southern pick went against everything they were taught (the wind rotates counter-clockwise). Nor did I learn anything of other training.

From talking to them I learned far more about the training and the details of equipping the boat, e.g. they were each allowed one small sack of personal items, and as the boat was put together there were furious arguments about the exact weight of the navigation light at the top of the mast, and the weight of the wire from the light to the power source. That is the kind of stuff I was hoping would be in this film.

So a bit disappointing, but a superb contribution and one that I would recommend as a gift to any aspiring sailor from high school onwards.

Other DVDs in my sailing library (see my Amazon List):
Volvo Round the World Race: The SEB Stopover Reports.
Racing To Win with Gary Jobson

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, though otherwise empty, July 1, 2009

By	Alexander M. Walker "Knows Things, Great Things" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The process of determining which sports will translate into great films has no real rhyme or reason. If you thought that only fast-paced sports like soccer or football could be made into sports (Goal!, Any Given Sunday), then you'd have a hard time explaining all the successful films based on baseball or golf (Field of Dreams, Caddyshack). What sports films of the past have taught us is that even films about running (Chariots of Fire) can be superb with the proper balance of plot, character and wit. Well, Disney certainly loves the promise that holds and has started cranking out sports movies as fast as possible. Up until this point however, most of them (Iron Will, The Greatest Game Ever Played, Remember the Titans) have been narrative based. For Morning Light Disney went ahead and made a Reality TV formatted film about sailing and, well, the results are mixed.

Roy Disney decides to go all "rich billionaire with a film studio" and lends a high-speed racing yacht to 15 youths so they can train and enter the Trans Pacific (TransPac), a race across the loneliest stretch of ocean to a finishing point in Hawaii. Taking its cue from its reality roots, it doesn't just plunge into the voyage. Oh no, instead we get a solid 40 minutes of the team learning, bonding and eventually choosing the 11 amongst them who will actually get to race. Morning Light pulls out all of the traditional "real-life" stops by latching onto a few key personalities and taking us through their trials in the opening stages. Broken arms, an inability to swim and a few other circumstances befall team members, but nothing so intriguing as to boost the first half with any real excitement.

Clearly director Mark Monroe intended for the choosing of the team to be a moment of great dramatic and emotional strength - but it feels rather impotent. It's less his fault that it is that of hindsight editing. There's no question that the cameras spent an equal amount of time with each youth and then edited appropriate lengths according to their magnetism on screen, but that's really what spoils the suspense of the moment. With each person drawn into the official 11-person troupe, there's no real surprise. The film featured more of those people, and the one exception to the rule was a kid who didn't know how to swim. Yes, his story made for an interesting twist in the opening narrative, but there's no real surprise when he wasn't chosen for the team.

It's the last half of the movie, the actual race, where the human drama element of the Reality TV structure finally pays off. The race happens in starts and stops as the wind proves to be quite fickle. While bad for the progress of the race, it helps to stir emotions on deck making the bland crew more interesting. Hearing gripes and passive-aggressive comments isn't really all that amusing, but it easily beats the somewhat naïve and shallow conversations that occurred in the time leading up to the race.

The video quality is stunning. Shots of the sparkling ocean are absolutely breathtaking at times and the high-definition really shines through. Morning Light has some fantastic visuals when the cameras stray further away from the boat to take in the panoramic sites. The audio consists in large part of narration by the sailors reciting the entries from their personal journals. Let's just say each and every one of these kids sounds like a sappy inspirational writer. Their inability as narrators is made all the more glaring by having Patrick Warburton, whose voice is one of the greatest ever, narrate the opening 5 minutes of the film - then we never hear from him again. What a tease.

Blu-ray Extra Features:

There may not be many extras but the two that are present are impressively substantial. "Stories From the Sea with Host Jason Earles" features yarns from established professional sailors as they relate some of their most memorable experiences at sea. "Morning Light: Making the Cut" serves as an extension of what we see in the opening half of the film and really will only please the Reality TV junkies who crave even more human drama.

The concept deserves a watch as it's essentially a real-life, team-based Iron Will. Roy Disney may have been on to something when he dreamed this up, but I'd like to see it done with a slightly older age group to help cut out some of the infantile aspects of the crew. It may not be a perfect sports film, but it can be enjoyed by the casual viewer.