the audience applauded

That was an excellent one.

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

After following the US version of the Meerkat Manor series through all four seasons, I was eager to see The Story Begins.I'm disappointed that this is presented as a documentary, because it is not. Obviously the footage cannot be Flower and her family, and the landscape (even "Eden") bears little resemblance to that in the series. But even most of the story is not real, because it imagines what the meerkats are thinking, even more than the series did, and attributes all kinds of magical and religious thoughts to them.One of the stupider lines was something about how Flower supposedly learns that family is where everyone is always safe. Right. Safe enough to be cannibalized by one's pregnant aunt, or have your tail chewed by a pregnant sister, or simply get abandoned by a horny or brain-damaged babysitter.The film, which mostly rehashes the same "meerkat rules" that everyone already knows from the series, is full of long meaningless pauses, and irrelevant shots of things like the sun or clouds. I guess we're supposed to be having Real Deep Thoughts during those times, but mostly I was wondering when this thing would end, and it's not even that long. They could easily have cut this down by 30 minutes, and have kept the story interesting.Also, there is one very obvious morph transition when Flower suddenly changes from infant to adolescent. I have to wonder what the editor and director were thinking with that one. It's totally out of place and inappropriate. A simple fade out and in would have been much better.Whoopi, love ya, but you are no narrator. Neither is Stockard, so don't feel bad. This should have been Sean's.So, in summary, don't bother. It does add some historical context to Flower, Zaphod, and Youssarian, but it's such a slog to get through it, the payoff is hardly worth it.Please, Please, do NOT make a sequel about Shakespeare.

I would have accepted anyone new as the narrator, although I think Astin did a fantastic job.However, Whoopi was breathy, melodramatic, and talked like it was written for 6 year old kids. The previous seasons that Astin did had some melodrama, but not like this. It seemed like every other sentence was about Flower's destiny and how the entire continent knew Flower would be the one. It was just too over the top for me.The scenery was wonderful, the footage was great, and 2 thumbs up for the meerkat actors...However, if the Next Gen season coming up is written like this one was, I will remove it from my Tivo list.

I cannot explain why I find these creatures so fascinating. It's like manatees. Who could love sea cows? I like them both.As a fan of the show Meerkat Manor, I was anxious to see the film of the beginning. I was not disappointed.Whoopi Goldberg did a great job narrating what we can only suspect was the thoughts of the Whisker family as they went about their daily lives in the Kalahari Desert. To see the birth of Flower (known to all who watch the show) and see her beginnings was really fascinating.Outstanding cinematography and a great score make this an enjoyable film that the whole family will enjoy.This really ties up some loose ends and gets me anxious to the next season which, like Star Trek, seems to go on and on with The Next Generation.