The great prairie — Wikipedia

The Great Prairie (original title : The Vanishing Prairie ) is an American documentary film directed by James Algar, released in 1954.

Produced by Walt Disney Pictures for its True-Life Adventures collection, this documentary is interested in the disappearance of large American meadows which existed at the time of pioneers, in particular the savannah between the Mississippi river and the rocky mountains.

The film obtained the Oscar for the best documentary film during the 27th Oscar ceremony in 1955, and won the best documentary silver bear in the same year during the 5 ^{It is} Berlinale. James Algar had already received this same Oscar the previous year for his documentary The living desert .

The film presents life during the day for a year of antilocapres, meadow dogs, America’s, couguars, bison and many other Midwest meadows.

Unless otherwise stated, the information comes from the following sources: Leonard Maltin ^{[ first ]}

• Title : The Great Prairie
• Original title : The Vanishing Prairie
• Realization: James Algar
• Scénario: James Algar, Winston Hibler, Ted Sears
• Narrator: Winston Hibler
• Photography : Tom McHugh, James R. Simon, Paul Kenworthy, Cleveland Grant, Lloyd Beebe, Herb Crisler, Dick Borden, Warren Garst, Murl Beusing, Olin Sewall Pettingill, Stuart V. Jewell
• Montage : Lloyd L. Richardson
• Music: Paul J. Smith
• Sound: C.O. Slyfield (Director), Harold J. Steck (recorder)
• Animation effects: Joshua Meador, Art Riley
• Effective Scognate: UBS OWS
• Producers: Ben Sharpsteen (delegate), Erwin Verity
• Production company: Walt Disney Production
• I founded distribution: good view distribution
• Native country : UNITED STATES
• English language
• Format: Technicolor, according to a source in 16 mm
• Duration: 71 minutes
• Exit dates:

During a trip in August 1948 I don’t Alaska ^{[ 2 ]} , Walt Disney Meeting Alfred Milotte, owner of a store of cameras and his wife teacher Elma ^{[ 3 ]} . They initiate a discussion on the documentaries devoted to Alaska whose result will be the position of photographer on the series of animal documentaries True-Life Adventures . The first episode is Seal island ( On Seal Island ) released in December 1948 ^{[ 2 ]} . Several short films are made in this series thanks to sequences shot by naturalists photographers ^{[ 4 ]} . The success of the courts and means of the True-Life Adventures series broadcast between 1950 and 1953 pushed the studio to produce feature films ^{[ 5 ]} . In 1953, a thematic compilation was the subject of a documentary feature, it is The living desert on desert animals in the southwest of the United States ^{[ 4 ]} . The shooting of Alive desert Barely completed during 1952, Disney asked the photographers to film the large American meadow which extends between the Mississippi river and the rocky mountains ^{[ first ]} . Thanks to the start of filming before the release of Alive desert , the new film, entitled The Great Prairie released the following year, in August 1954 ^{[ first ]} .

Despite Disney’s habit not to reveal too much the back of the decor, some elements of the production have been revealed ^{[ 6 ]} . Joe Hyams indicated in an article the secret of the scene of the birth of a bison, the photographer Tom Mchugh had hid with his camera under a skin of Bison and had patiently the horde, then having found a female he Whereas she puts down ^{[ 6 ]} . The scene with prairie dogs is actually a reconstruction in a controlled environment ^{[ 6 ]} . Just as for a vivarium, the photographers reproduced a burrow and placed behind a tainless window filmed animals after a period of adaptation to this new environment ^{[ 7 ]} .

Naturalist photographers have produced more than 120,000 feet (36,576 m) film in 16 mm but only 30,000 feet (9,144 m) were used for the film ^{[ 7 ]} .

Like the film The living desert , The Great Prairie is a brilliant collection of animal sequences ^{[ 6 ]} . It takes up the principle of the collection which depicts the cycle of life through examples taken here among the animals of the Midwest ^{[ 6 ]} . He was well received by the public despite some criticisms of the use of music to dramatize the scenes like that of the two mouflons fighting to the sound of Choir of Gypsies ( Anvil Chorus ) extract from The Troubadour (1853) also gave ^{[ 6 ]} .

The film was the occasion for a conflict between Disney and the New York State Censure Commission, confrontation dreaded by all ^{[ 6 ]} . The Commission has decided to prohibit the broadcast of the film The Great Prairie In New York State due to the birth scene of a bison, which surprised Walt Disney ^{[ 6 ]} . He replied to the commission that if he had had the slightest reason to believe that this scene would shock the public she would never have been projected on the screen … and that it is shameful to want to make people believe in the children of York that bison is also brought by storks ^{[ 6 ]} . A complaint was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union Against the Commission without talking about the many debates both in the press and elsewhere, and the commission has decided to withdraw the prohibition of dissemination ^{[ 6 ]} .

Extracts from the film were broadcast on television in the show Disneyland On ABC on November 11, 1954 with extracts from Seal island (1948) ^{[ 8 ]} . Several documentaries from the True-Life Adventures series were broadcast in the program Disneyland During his first year alongside compilations of short animation films of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Dingo or Pluto ^{[ 9 ]} .

Film extracts were used to produce four educational short films released in 1962 ^{[ ten ]} :

• The Buffalo – Majestic Symbol of the Plains
• Small Animals of the Plains
• Pioneer Trails, Indian Lore and Bird Life of the Plains
• Large Animals that Once Roamed the Plains .

Steven Watts writes that the series often provides strong reprimands about the impact of man on nature before concluding in an optimistic tone ^{[ 11 ]} . In The Great Prairie The conclusion is that nature always manages to adapt to the new constraints and that man becomes more and more aware of what he causes ^{[ 11 ]} .

• Audiovisual resources :