Director: Mike Slee.
Starring: Gordon Pinsent, Patricia Phillips.
Running Time: 40 minutes.
Synopsis: FLIGHT OF THE BUTTERFLIES follows hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies migrating from Canada and across the U.S. to Mexico.
For many cinema-goers, 3D viewing is a hit and miss affair. FLIGHT OF THE BUTTERFLIES proves that on very rare occasion, directors and writers can get it right with their choice, and it is actually hard to imagine the film in question being quite as good an experience without the use of 3D. Right from the title card with thousands of butterflies fluttering in layers across the screen, the audience are encapsulated as Mike Slee begins to deliver an unexpected forty minute slice of perfection.
Concerning the struggles of zoologist F.A. Urquhart’s forty year quest to discover where the North American monarch butterfly migrated to in the summer, audiences are in for a touching, inspiring and informative ride on the butterfly’s wings. Mike Slee makes his film stand out from other documentaries – setting aside the 3D for a second – by using the real life story of F.A. Urquhart alongside pieces of information about the monarchs. This makes the story all the more touching as Gordon Pinsent delivers a great performance as the man who perfected a way to track butterflies using sticky fruit labels with a group of ‘citizen scientists’.
The rest of the cast don’t play a large part in FLIGHT OF THE BUTTERFLIES, but they do offer it some depth, transforming it into a short film rather than simply a straight documentary. The music is beautifully complimentary and, combined with the direction following the joint story of Dr. Urquhart and a single family of butterflies across a continent, really creates a perfect balance.
Mike Slee takes his audience on a journey up and down the east coast of North America, across great lakes, mountain ranges, up above the clouds and to the beautiful landscapes of the monarch’s final resting place. It is in these moments that the 3D medium really shows its power, as though a hole has been cut in the cinema wall and the audience stands looking across the field, or are up in the clouds with a tiny insect that can cross a continent. A film for all ages and interests, for once it is definitely worth paying a little more for this 3D experience.
FLIGHT OF THE BUTTERFLIES will receive a UK IMAX release on Friday 6th September.
