Whispers: An Elephant's Tale

2000 • 72 minutes

About this movie

Whispers, an innocent and adorable baby elephant who's just learning to walk on his own four feet, finds himself separated from his loving mother, Gentle Heart. In his desperate search to find her, he meets the cynical loner Groove, an outcast from her own herd who never wanted to be a mother. Together, this unlikely pair braves danger after danger on their incredible journey to find water and Whispers' mother. Set in the wilds of Africa, and starring real animals who express themselves with human voices, WHISPERS: AN ELEPHANT'S TALE captures the stunning beauty of nature in all her glory as its inspiring story of family, love, and loyalty unfolds and grabs your heart.

Ratings and reviews

Whispers: an elephant's tale may have it's flaws, but this is a playful and inspiring creature feature film. The main character is whispers (an elephant calf who is always an enormous chatter-box, which could be slightly annoying). Although this film is about animals with anthropomorphism, there are a few moments where the filmmakers decided to make real elephants into cartoon characters. Well, some of them. And one voice actor (Tone Loc) is to raspy and bass low for an African bull elephant, which seems a little too much (John DiMaggio was much better). Aside from the flaws: it's amazing how it takes tons of time for the filmmakers to film this whole movie project on camera and composite the images together into a screenplay that tells the story, which makes it a big challenge. Sure, some of the elephant characters (Whispers and Groove) may be a little bit of a cartoonish nuisance, but they are not painfully obnoxious, because they have heart for each other and have empathy. Whispers in particular is a cute underdog who has the heart of a big bull elephant. The music score by Trevor Rabin really helps the story's mood and it captures the African savanna beautifully. The filmmakers know the body languages of the elephants: when elephants lift up their trunks in the air, they are trying to capture the smell of danger. And when elephants shake there heads, they meant to say "back off." Well, there are a few moments of dialogue that does not fit the elephant's body language though.The cast was a great choice, except for Tone Loc. The moral and message of the story is having courage/being brave, and about saving the elephant species from poaching. This film is solid choice for all ages 7 to 97. Recommended.

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