Beaver Valley (1950)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- 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.
- Directors:
- James Algar
- Producers:
- Walt Disney
- Narrated By:
- Winston Hibler, Mogens Lind
- Writers:
- Lawrence Edward Watkin, Ted Sears
- Others:
- Walt Disney
- Aka:
- A True-Life Adventure: In Beaver Valley
- Genres:
- Children & Family, Documentary, Drama, Special Interest
- Awards:
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Reviews (1) of Beaver Valley
Nature, Nurtured: A Polished Slice of the Wild - Beaver Valley review by griggs
There’s something oddly comforting about Beaver Valley — as if it’s been playing in classrooms for generations. The colours alone are a time capsule: rich Technicolor greens and golds that look too vivid to be real, yet exactly how nature documentaries should look. It’s the kind of film you feel you’ve seen before, perhaps while half-daydreaming at school years ago.
Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures always had a knack for blending education with entertainment, and this one does it with typical charm. The narration is gently wry, the editing crisp, and the animals — particularly the titular beavers — are given just enough personality to keep things engaging.
That it won the Golden Bear feels perfectly fitting. Beaver Valley is nature as fable, beautifully photographed and a little too polished to be wild, but still impossible not to smile at.