Where I Watched It: Netflix

English Audio Description?: No

Yes, this might be considered unfair for me to be slinging mud at Netflix for not providing audio description for a documentary short from a foreign country, and just audio dubbing, but i would argue that the minute this thing made the Oscar shortlist, it became relevant, and the second it gets a nomination, I have the power on my side to demand audio description. If you’re gonna run an Oscar campaign here, you can spend the money to make it accessible.

The same will go for RRR, should that break into the Best Picture race. i will be up Netflix’s ass.

But, I take what I can get. Unfortunately, this film is 50% about the “Elephant Whisperers” and actual elephants, and without audio description, I know nothing of the Dumbo wannabes. no size description. Nothing. I just get dubbed audio, meaning I don’t need to crash course on DuoLingo to watch this thing.

It’s Ok. I mean, in the pantheon of documentaries like this, I’m not sure this one offers any special perspective. Then again, this is the documentary branch that nominated When We Were Bullies, so they have about as much credibility as I would picking out a shade of paint for your house.

i stopped taking the documentary branch serious after that nomination, as that film should have come nowhere near an Oscar nomination. But this? This is average. It’s fine. I wasn’t blown away, but perhaps with audio description, and actually knowing where the elephants were, or at least something about them, I might have been a bit more moved.

I don’t understand dubbing. Now that I see what audio description is, why are they wasting money on dubbing, when they could just have audio description? Dubbing only helps lazy people who don’t WANT to read. if they can’t see the subtitles, chances are their vision is shitty enough to benefit from audio description. if they can’t read subtitles, they can’t see someone texting on screen, or what someone wrote on a notepad. No one actually NEEDS dubbing. It’s a pointless service that perpetuates stupidity. When i could see, i read my damn foreign language titles. And if I could, i would, but I can’t. And I know this dubbing track doesn’t really help me, it just helps some lazy dude somewhere not have to “read a movie”. Just wait, bro. Wait till you can’t read anything.

Final Grade: C