MovieChat Forums > Island of Lemurs: Madagascar (2014) Discussion > A bit short?

A bit short?

posted 10 years ago by FairlyAnonymous
9 replies | jump to latest

Who goes to the movies for a 39 minute documentary? I have nothing against documentaries, but 39 minute documentaries are simply TV material. They aren't theatre material. Seems like a rip, if you ask me.

[–] MrCoatsworth 10 years ago

Yeah, it seems short. But it's 39 minutes of the cutest animals on the planet. I'd go to the theater for Lemurs if it was 15 minutes long.

[–] FairlyAnonymous 10 years ago

But the point of the documentary is to be informative. I WANT INFORMATION!!! 39 minutes isn't enough time to inform me more than Wikipedia can in 10 minutes. Oh well...

they are cute... at times (this coming from a guy who has gotten to hold lemurs)

[–] pacscistaff 10 years ago

http://islandoflemurs.imax.com/mobile/synopsis.html

I wasn't sure from the posters, but it was shot with an Imax 3D camera. That usually makes it look pretty bigger than lifelike. That's also what brings in a lot of families and school groups to the theater. They LOVE 3D Imax movies, no matter how short they are.

"Ohhhh, WHERE IS IT?"-Edgar suit.

[–] almighty_cinder 10 years ago

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic/imax.htm

Click just a few of these. You'll see that most of the IMAX-exclusive documentaries like this are around 40 minutes.

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"Fine. You want to eat? Let's see if you can eat... PIZZA!!!"

[–] xbs2034 10 years ago

Yeah, I fully expected the film to be around that length, both because of tradition, and that many of these nature/science IMAX documentaries were, and still are, shown at museums with showtimes an hour apart.

I saw it at a digital IMAX in a multiplex this weekend, and felt the running time fit. Basically what I was looking for was to enjoy the visuals (as these tend to be just about the best looking films IMO), and many of them were spectacular, but as far as story goes, it was lacking compared to many other documentaries and could have easily gotten boring had the film been over a hour long. Plus the theater did give a discount due to the short running time, tickets were 12 dollars, and I checked and that same IMAX screen was switching to Divergent for the evening shows with a ticket price of 19 dollars.

[–] threenails10 10 years ago

I saw it today and I felt like I learned nothing about these creatures almost. It was too short and this is really one just for the kids and ones my age when I used to love these types in elementary.. that being said, I did like what I saw overall and it was enjoyable with what was there... also, I LOVE Lemurs so I might be biased a bit here on how much I actually did like this short film.. although, just not much new info for a big lemur fan.

[–] MrCoatsworth 10 years ago

I haven't seen it, but from what I've read, I gather that, if you want to learn something about Lemurs, you should rather watch David Attenborough's Madagascar.

[–] threenails10 10 years ago

thanks for the heads up on that. :)

[–] agentalbert 10 years ago

Thanks for the info. I was thinking of seeing it today, but then saw it was only 39 minutes long. Paying the 3D Imax ticket price for something so short seems silly, so I'll pass.