The first film from Disneynature, The Walt Disney Company's new releasing company for nature documentaries, is called "earth". We had a chance to see it at the El Capitan Theatre opening weekend, and many of the screenings that Saturday during the day were sold out, so we ended up attending an evening show.

Above the theatre marquee was a giant mural inspired by the film, done by well-known artist Wyland.

You can see how big the mural is in relation to its surroundings.
This mural actually reminds me of one of the segments of "Fantasia 2000".

A slightly closer look.

The mural itself.

The tag at the bottom right of the mural.

A side view of the mural and marquee.

A different view of the mural.

The theatre marquee itself is animated, showing various pictures.

We normally purchase VIP tickets for screenings of Disney movies at the El Capitan Theatre, but in this case, we decided to forego those and just sit in regular seats. We did still sit up in the balcony, though a bit further back than our normal seats.

There are side balconies that look like where box seats should be, and they are usually decorated with something relating to the movie being shown. In this case, they had some beautiful dolphin sculptures.

The dolphin sculpture in the left balcony.

The dolphin sculpture in the right balcony.

For many of the shows at the El Capitan Theatre, there is some kind of stage show that precedes the movie. In this case, instead of a musical production, some live animals were brought out on stage for people to see, and information about each animal was given by an expert.

First up was a porcupine.

He was actually pretty cute, and the expert talked about how his quills worked.

Next up was an arctic fox. We used to see these at Sea World San Diego, which had a pair named Boris and Natasha.

They're absolutely beautiful, and this one was on a leash.

This picture from the overhead video screen gives you a better view.

Next was another beautiful animal, a member of the cat family called a serval. The serval was a bit skittish at first, and it took some coaxing by its handler before it would go center stage into the spotlight. When it encountered the ruffles on the table, it played with them for a while, and then later, as it was leaving the stage, it laid down to play with the ruffles of the back curtain as well.

The spotted serval is also on a leash.

You can see the serval, and its very long ears, much better on the overhead video screen.

The husband found this page about keeping a serval as a pet. I think they're beautiful creatures, but I really can't imagine having one as a pet.

Last up was something I didn't think was all that cute, but it was still interesting - a baby alligator.

The handler had a good hold of the alligator.

Yeah, sorry, not my idea of cute. Creepy is a better word

For each animal that was brought out, the expert would give a little bit of information, and then they would take a question or two from the audience about the animal.

I really enjoyed seeing all the animals (even the creepy one), and I thought it was a great prelude to the film being presented.

For my "earth" spoiler review, please click here.

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Last updated June 15, 2009.