In Beaver Valley

Release Date: July 19, 1950

Watch Date: June 1, 2023

“Another of Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures features a glimpse of nature’s own engineer hard at work in the wild. A young male beaver finds himself the head of his own family after successfully wooing a female and her kit, then quickly goes to work building a suitable home before winter arrives. Pressure mounts as a hungry coyote sets his sights on the young family, and a rollicking bevy of playful river otters threatens to derail construction. This 1950 Academy Award-winning short also includes the ill-fated journey of Salmon returning to lay their eggs and a musical interlude featuring the ‘soulful serenade of the lovelorn frogs.'”

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    We’re back at it again! Having learned a bunch of stuff, probably, we now returned to our regularly scheduled programming. Unfortunately, it was recently pointed out to me by my very loving husband that I hadn’t included a bunch of “Star” branded movies, so I had to go back in and fix our giant list. Our thousand movies rapidly turned into nearly two-thousand and with the announcement that Hulu and Disney+ will be combining…well we’re never going to be finished this journey.

    Long story short, the end result is that we have to backpedal a little bit, returning to the 1950s before we can catch back up to where we were – 1959 – so really, upon reflection, we haven’t backtracked all that much.

    But the important thing, really, is that we’re done with documentaries. So let’s celebrate by watching Disney’s classic…documentary. Alright. Guess “May-Be-Learn-Some-Shit” month isn’t quite done with us yet.

    I finally understand Bob’s frustration with ‘The Vanishing Prairie’, which I found adorable and informative. I grew up with the animals, climate, and environment that ‘In Beaver Valley’ features and so it’s kind of boring. There’s no new information, and because it’s a wildlife from the documentary from the 1950s, any piece of information I don’t recognize needs to be looked at with a raised eyebrow because…is that new, or is it just wrong?

    The only part that really caught either of our attention was the feature on the salmon run, and that wasn’t because of any new information or particularly beautiful filmography. No, it’s because the fish were compared to the souls of the damned, and a bear to the devil. Unnecessary, some might protest, and they might possibly be right, but to be caught unaware by that imagery was pretty darn hilarious, and I would probably rewatch this movie just for those two lines again.

    Honestly, Bob and I had had a really trying day before this, and it was hard to focus on the film, no matter how much we wanted to and were looking forward to a return to our routine. So even though this is an Oscar winning documentary, I barely remember it, I know Bob is in the same boat, and we probably will never watch it again. But for a movie to cuddle up with, drink hot chocolate, and talk about how crap our days were, and how badly we missed each other? We could have done a lot worse. So as background noise, at least, I would recommend it.