Product Description

Every great story has a magical beginning especially when that story involves the real-life adventures of a unique family of meerkats known as the Whiskers and their most beloved member, Flower. As prequel to the Meerkat Manor television series, this feature film traces the rise of Flower from a young meerkat pup to the leader of the pack. Watch as Flower blooms into a remarkable matriarch and forges a legacy amidst the unforgiving landscape of one of the harshest deserts on the planet the Kalahari. Narrated by Academy Award® -winning actress Whoopi Goldberg, Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins will warm your heart and leave you awed by the magic of Flower s journey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15655 in DVD
• Brand: GENIUS PRODUCTS INC
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 75 minutes

Amazon.com
Popping Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins into the DVD player and pressing play seems like a guaranteed win-win, and ultimately it is, but oddly enough Whoopi Goldberg's narration detracts from some other wonderful things happening in this feature film. Based on the television series narrated by Sean Astin, this elaborate story of the Whiskers clan crossing the "Great Divide" (the highway) to look for alternate territory is sweet and funny, thanks to the meerkats rather than the sometimes sappy script. In it, Flower is born into a charismatic litter, including Petal, Thumper, and Hazel, who reveal wilderness to be a dangerous place. As Flower witnesses repeated Whisker clan hardships, including battles with various impressive predators, Flower grows into the natural leader that she eventually becomes. Over the course of the story, one meets several matriarchs, both of the Whiskers clan and of their warring tribe, the Lazuli gang. At times, the narration is spot-on, while at other times Goldberg's narration teeters confusingly between documentary and fantasy, between adult and child humor. Not to say there is anything inappropriate here for kids. In fact, one of the films' best attributes is its ability to show death as an integrated part of the life cycle. Additionally, it is a pleasure to witness meerkats at close range, especially during several clan battles set underground. (Baby meerkats abound throughout, making for footage that is quite irresistible!) Told as a folk tale about animals and land who "share secrets every day," Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins may not be Milo & Otis or Babe, but I'll take baby meerkats any day. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

For Flower
Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins DVD


This movie is a tribute to Flower, the matriarch of the Whiskers clan of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert. It follows Flower from the time she was just a pup until she becomes the Matriarch of the whiskers Clan.

If you enjoy Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet, you have to get this movie. I agree that Sean Astin, the regular narrator, would have done a better job narrating than Whoopi.
Highly recommended for fans of Flower, and Meerkat Manor the series.

Gunner May, 2008

Whoopi is Awful
I love Meerkat Manor and I really like Whoopi Goldberg, but she is really awful as the narrator of this film. She mumbles through the whole thing and is often indecipherable. We're essentially watching a nature show, and Whoopi keeps deadpanning jokes and stumbling through the lines in an unnatural way. They should have just kept the same narrator as from the regular show.

Not so bad.
In my opinion, the movie really isn't as bad as everyone says; I've got one problem with it, and that is the actual footage of the Meerkats shown in the movie are just random Meerkats that basically happened to 'do what the film crew wanted them to,' and when they did, they edited the tape together to give us the movie. If the movie was actually filmed like the Meerkat Manor series in which the actual named Meerkats are being filmed in their lives, then the movie would have been much more pleasing.

Whoopi's narrative is a bit different from what viewers may be used to, but I think she adds something 'special' and different for the movie, since the movie IS a bit different from the series. It's a good 'prequel' to the series for someone who has never seen it.

I still favour the series over the movie, but the movie is still worth seeing if you love meerkats and are open-minded to a different narrator.