'Oceans': Underwater cast charms and amazes

MOVIE REVIEW

"Oceans," the new documentary from Disney's nature-films division, makes us invited guests in a strange and beautiful world. French filmmakers Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud — the wizards behind the hypnotically lovely "Winged Migration" a few years back — introduce us to a cast of characters to rival any Oscar-worthy drama: a yellow-and-orange blanket octopus, wafting through the depths like silk in the wind; a sea dragon masquerading as an elegantly drenched doily; a blue-and-yellow-striped ribbon eel, languidly getting tangled up in itself; a penguin meditatively strolling alone across an endless sheet of ice, perhaps pondering why he's too late for "March of the Penguins."

Narrated soothingly by Pierce Brosnan — almost too soothingly; those ocean waves seem to have made him a little sleepy — "Oceans" is a quiet pleasure. Though never quite as stirring as "March of the Penguins" or "Winged Migration," it quickly establishes its own gentle pace. There's a call for environmental action at the end, as we're reminded that "human indifference is surely the ocean's greatest threat," but it's issued calmly. (Words aren't really needed here; a shot of a rusty shopping cart buried deep underwater speaks for itself.)

The filmmakers focus instead on telling us stories, with few words and striking visuals. An array of spider crabs face off, looking like an epic battle from a lower-depths "Lord of the Rings." Garden eels gracefully bob their heads in and out of hidy-holes in the sand, in a ballet partnered with slinky razorfish. And there's a cycle-of-life story that, though beautifully filmed, just might distress sensitive kids: We see newborn baby sea turtles emerging from the sand and beginning an immediate (and sweetly wobbly) race to the ocean and to safety — but most don't make it, due to marauding birds who snatch the turtles even at water's edge. You root for the tiny racers, even knowing there's little hope.

Each story, though, quickly gives way to the next, leaving us little time to marvel over the fact that a blue whale is half a block long, or that a particularly ornate sea creature whose name I didn't catch appeared to have been designed by committee (a committee fond of shades of gray, yet unable to agree on shape). And I wouldn't have minded a few more moments to revel in a particularly lovely shot of a Costa Rican sunset, with dolphins gracefully whooshing in and out of the water below, or a little more face time with the fearsome-looking stonefish, who looks like he woke up on the wrong side of the ocean. With its remarkable, how'd-they-get-that-shot camerawork, "Oceans" happily leaves us wanting more.

Moira Macdonald:

206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com