Coming Earth Day 2010: Disneynature’s ‘Oceans’

Disneynature’s incredible nature documentary ‘Earth’ just debuted on April 22nd, and they’ve already got another film ready to go for Earth Day 2010. A teaser trailer for ‘Oceans’ has been released, and by the looks of it, it will be just as popular as ‘Earth’, which has already made more than $100 million worldwide.

Official Plot Synopsis, via SlashFilm:

Nearly three-quarters of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans. French co-directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud have set out to capture the full expanse of these waters that have played such a crucial and constant role in the history and sustenance of man. The deep and abundant oceans are places of great mysteries and dangers that this film will dare to explore.

The teaser trailer itself definitely isn’t very revealing, acting more as a commercial for the Disneynature brand than for the film itself, but it does give us a peek at some of the amazing things captured in the sea by the Disneynature crew. Even if you’re not the type that just can’t get enough of nature documentaries, you gotta admit that it looks exciting.

Via [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: AllMoviePhoto.com

Cartoon Caption Contest: Win a Disney ‘Earth’ Prize Pack!

EarthFirst.com and cartoonist Jerry King have another cartoon caption contest for you, and this time we’ve got a very special prize for the winner: a Disney ‘Earth’ prize pack! Leave your entry for a funny caption for this cartoon in the comments section below. We’ll pick our favorite, and the winner will receive a prize pack valued at $60 including a canvas tote, biodegradable tumbler, reusable grocery bag, and tree seedling.

You’ve got until midnight EST on Monday, April 20th to come up with something good! We’ll announce the winner on Earth Day. May the force be with you.

And don’t forget to check out the trailer for Disney’s nature flick ‘Earth’, premiering on Earth Day, April 22nd!

Disney’s ‘Dream Home’ is Tacky, Lame, and So Not Green

I’ve just seen the future, and it’s lame. Luckily, it’s nothing more than Disney’s ‘Dream Home’, not an actual vision of how we’ll be living our lives in the years to come. Unlike the innovative, futuristic 1950’s version, this ‘home of the future’ looks like a typical suburban McMansion, but with even more worthless electronic junk. Lloyd Alter of Treehugger agrees, and he’s written a scathing review of the home:

The builder said “The 1950s home didn’t look like anything, anywhere. It was space-age and kind of cold,” “We didn’t want the (new) home to intimidate the visitors. We want the house to be real accessible to our guests.” So Disney designer Tom Zofrea made it a mix of Art Nouveau and Craftsman Style. “The design celebrates the inventive thinking and optimism of both yesterday and today” But there seems to be nothing inventive at all, just more electronic junk than I have ever seen in one place, most of it off the shelf Microsoft and HP stuff. As one commenter said in an earlier post, “Instead of fantasizing about advancements in science and technology, we are once again led to simply fantasize about being rich.”

This ‘dream home’ is the antithesis of what a true dream home of the future should look like. Instead of moving in the direction of more pointless empty space, energy inefficiency, and dozens of gadgets plugged into the wall, we should be seeing something far smarter. I choose to treat this like an alt-timeline version of the home of the future: “Look at the tacky homes we could have been living in if we hadn’t started on the path to smart green design.”

Lloyd truly said it best:

Watch the appalling video on the hideous website with the nauseating music. Walt is spinning in his cryogenic cylinder.

Link [Treehugger]