A couple of tiger cubs are separated in the jungle and reunited as adults in director Jean-Jacques Annaud's "polished but cloying" Two Brothers. Aside from the four-legged thesps, Guy Pearce stars as a villainous hunter in this fuzzy yarn, which charmed most critics and did respectable business at the worldwide box office. It was no blockbuster though, with kids apparently preferring CG animated critters over the real McCoy.
Going Wild
Pearce introduces Wild About Tigers, a half-hour documentary focussed on the tigers' battle for survival against a disappearing habitat. It's packed with all the usual footage of cats in the wild, but it's hard not to be impressed by the majesty of these creatures as they hunt, tussle, mate and generally lark about.
Upping the cute factor is an 18-minute outtakes reel following tiger cubs as they chase coconuts down hillsides, climb (and fall off) trees, and scratch each other's eyes out - ah, bless. But in case you feel like replacing your tabby with one of these, The Call Of The Wild featurette will set you straight with its 50-second trail of roaring tigers egged on by a barking mad Jean-Jacques Annaud.
It turns out Annaud and his crew were locked inside cages for most of the shoot, as revealed in a batch of behind-the-scenes featurettes. Still that didn't save Pearce from having his shoulder chomped by one of the more temperamental tigers. "It hurt," he admits. "But I thought it was pretty cool to get bitten by a tiger."
Eye Of The Tiger
For little Freddie Highmore getting chewed on wasn't such an appealing prospect so animatronic tigers were brought in for a few scenes. Tiger Tech gives a small window into how, and where, these convincing doubles were brought into play. But perhaps the most intriguing of all these featurettes is Tiger Trainers, introducing the nutters whose job it is to tease out the right emotions from these wild beasties - mostly using a fishing rod baited with raw chicken. "It's not difficult to make a tiger angry," notes one of the wranglers. No kidding.
Annaud obviously wasn't around for Pearce's mauling, as he explains in his feature commentary: "I felt the need for something different... Something warm and friendly." Although there's no shortage of technical detail (mostly regarding the complicated logistics), this is also a whimsical eulogy in which he talks about "the eye of the tiger" and "the humanity" contained within it. (Grab your hankie.)
Although this selection of extras doesn't go into incredible depth about the nuts-and-bolts of moviemaking, it captures the passion of the filmmakers and offers something for both children and grown-ups. Two Brothers deserves to do a roaring trade on DVD.
EXTRA FEATURES
