Movie Thoughts: Jungle Cat (1960)

• Released: April 1, 2022
• Directed by: James Algar
• Running time: 1h 9min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A documentary about jaguars and the other animals of the Amazon.

My Thoughts

I've had this one on my to-watch list for a long-ass time. So about time I watch it. I've actually never watched any of the Disney True Life Adventures documentaries before, at least not that I can recall, unless Perri counts. I still want to watch White Wilderness someday for all of its controversies, but it's not on Disney+ where I live, nor does it have a DVD or VHS release. 

As for Jungle Cat, this is a good documentary about jaguars and the various other animals of the South American rainforest. It was shot pretty well for the time and it doesn't feel very staged (I can't find any sources regarding whether or not this particular Disney documentary was staged, but it has been confirmed for others of around this time such as Perri and of course White Wilderness).

The movie, like I said, is well-shot and has some beautiful footage of jaguars and various other animals. It's also obviously educational, though I can't speak for its accuracy to real-life. It is an older movie so some aspects might be dated, but I'm not familiar enough with the wildlife featured in this picture to properly confirm or deny its accuracy to fact. I was at times a bit disappointed that this movie wasn't just about the jaguars (a large amount of time was also spent with other animals) but on the other hand its nice to get some diversity in as well. 

If this documentary is staged though there are definitely some unethical scenes of wildlife interaction (fights between jaguars or other species). There is one aspect that makes me think it might be staged is that the two jaguar cubs featured seem to vary in age rather than be from the same litter, because the black cub is almost twice as big as the spotted cub. Of course there might be general size differences plus sexual dimorphism (females are generally a bit smaller and slimmer than the males), but the difference was still quite big. But again I can't find any sources regarding whether this documentary was staged or not, so for now I'll tentatively give Disney the benefit of the doubt in this case. 

Overall I did enjoy watching this documentary and it did end up teaching me a thing or two. It's not one I'd say I recommend per se (there are no doubt more modern and scientifically accurate jaguar documentaries by now) but if you like big cats it still makes for a decent watch.