A baby elephant named Whispers finds himself separated from his mother. On his search to find her, he pairs up with an outcast from another herd and together they brave the wilds of Africa.A baby elephant named Whispers finds himself separated from his mother. On his search to find her, he pairs up with an outcast from another herd and together they brave the wilds of Africa.A baby elephant named Whispers finds himself separated from his mother. On his search to find her, he pairs up with an outcast from another herd and together they brave the wilds of Africa.
Angela Bassett
- Groove
- (voice)
Joanna Lumley
- Half Tusk
- (voice)
Anne Archer
- Gentle Heart
- (voice)
Debi Derryberry
- Whispers
- (voice)
Alice Ghostley
- Tuskless
- (voice)
Betty White
- Round
- (voice)
Kat Cressida
- Princess
- (voice)
Joan Rivers
- Spike
- (voice)
John DiMaggio
- Tough-Tusk
- (voice)
- …
Tone Loc
- Macho Bull
- (voice)
Jeannie Elias
- Stranger
- (voice)
- …
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFilmed in Botswana over a period of 18 months.
- SoundtracksGreat Heart
from Johnny Clegg & Savuka
Lyrics by unknown author
Featured review
Just watch one of the Jouberts actual wildlife documentaries instead
In Africa, a baby elephant (Debi Derryberry) is born to Gentle Heart (Anne Archer). Sometime later their herd is attacked by poachers (which they call "Takers") and they baby is separated from his mother. The baby is eventually found by Groove (Angela Bassett) from another herd of elephants, and because the baby has lost his ability to trumpet he is mockingly called Whispers by other elephants. Now Whispers must face a perilous journey to reunite with his mother.
Whispers: An Elephant's Tale comes to us from filmmakers and conservationists Dereck Joubert and Beverly Joubert who have worked on several books and films for National Geographic. Produced and based on a story by the Jouberts, Whispers marks their first (and so far only) foray into narrative features with this collaboration with the Walt Disney Company remaining a one off experiment that seems to have been mostly forgotten. Upon release the film received negative reviews from whatever critics saw it, and according to box office estimates the film only made about $500,000 against its estimated $4 million budget. On the surface Whispers seems like something that's well enough intentioned, but in execution it feels like a rather clumsy attempt at children's entertainment from someone who's not well versed in narrative storytelling.
With Whispers, the movie is essentially a mix of wildlife footage shot by the Jouberts over an 18 month long period that was then dubbed over by various voice actors and celebrity voices to jury-rig a narrative out of the footage and the end result unfortunately isn't great. Not only is the nature of the wildlife footage not conducive to forming a seamless narrative, but the dubbed over voicetrack on the footage is really annoying with some obnoxious groan worthy jokes or contemporary references that couldn't feel more forced or awkward if they tried. While I'm aware the objective of this movie is making the animals relatable to small children, I've seen this type of thing done better for kids through usage of a narrator rather than crudely done silly "hyuck hyuck" dialogue that the writers think will appeal to kids. Even if you want to go for something more broad like that, Chris and Martin Kratt did that sort of thing better with their PBS shows like Kratts' Creatures and Zoboomafoo so Whispers was trying to get you to pay for something you could watch on PBS for free.
I really can't recommend Whispers: An Elephant's Tale on any level. As a documentary it's anemic and not all that informative, as a narrative it's shallow and unengaging, as a comedy it's stupid and lowbrow, and as children's entertainment it's pandering and condescending.
Whispers: An Elephant's Tale comes to us from filmmakers and conservationists Dereck Joubert and Beverly Joubert who have worked on several books and films for National Geographic. Produced and based on a story by the Jouberts, Whispers marks their first (and so far only) foray into narrative features with this collaboration with the Walt Disney Company remaining a one off experiment that seems to have been mostly forgotten. Upon release the film received negative reviews from whatever critics saw it, and according to box office estimates the film only made about $500,000 against its estimated $4 million budget. On the surface Whispers seems like something that's well enough intentioned, but in execution it feels like a rather clumsy attempt at children's entertainment from someone who's not well versed in narrative storytelling.
With Whispers, the movie is essentially a mix of wildlife footage shot by the Jouberts over an 18 month long period that was then dubbed over by various voice actors and celebrity voices to jury-rig a narrative out of the footage and the end result unfortunately isn't great. Not only is the nature of the wildlife footage not conducive to forming a seamless narrative, but the dubbed over voicetrack on the footage is really annoying with some obnoxious groan worthy jokes or contemporary references that couldn't feel more forced or awkward if they tried. While I'm aware the objective of this movie is making the animals relatable to small children, I've seen this type of thing done better for kids through usage of a narrator rather than crudely done silly "hyuck hyuck" dialogue that the writers think will appeal to kids. Even if you want to go for something more broad like that, Chris and Martin Kratt did that sort of thing better with their PBS shows like Kratts' Creatures and Zoboomafoo so Whispers was trying to get you to pay for something you could watch on PBS for free.
I really can't recommend Whispers: An Elephant's Tale on any level. As a documentary it's anemic and not all that informative, as a narrative it's shallow and unengaging, as a comedy it's stupid and lowbrow, and as children's entertainment it's pandering and condescending.
helpful•00
- IonicBreezeMachine
- Aug 29, 2022
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Whispers - den lille elefanten
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $4,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 12 minutes
- Sound mix
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was Whispers: An Elephant's Tale (2000) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer