蒙哥一家的故事Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins‎(2008)

蒙哥一家的故事,Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins‎,猫鼬大宅门海报

本片记录了一家生活在南非喀拉哈里沙漠里的蒙哥（学名猫鼬）的故事。

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins (Wikipedi-20100118)

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 American television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films as a prequel to the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. A scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the film details the life of a meerkat named Flower from birth to her becoming the leader of a meerkat group called the Whiskers. The film is based on the research notes of the Kalahari Meerkat Project and primarily uses wild meerkat "actors" to represent those in the story. Shot over two years at the Kuruman River Reserve in Northern Cape, South Africa, the film employed a much larger crew than the series. Some scenes were shot at a wildlife park in the United Kingdom, while others were created using camera tricks and trained film animals.

《猫鼬大宅门：故事开始》是美国探索频道影业与英国牛津科学影业于2008年联合推出的《动物星球》连续剧之《猫鼬大宅门》的前传电视电影。电影剧本作者为胡比·戈柏，影片展示了一只名叫弗劳尔的猫鼬从她出生到成为维斯克猫鼬群体领袖的故事。影片基于卡拉哈里猫鼬项目的探索笔记并借用了野生猫鼬充当电影演员。影片历时两年在南非的北开普省的卡拉哈里河保护区拍摄，雇员人数超过了连续剧本身。一些场景在英国野生动物园拍摄，还有一些是采用了特效以及受训的动物进行表演。

The 75-minute film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival before its television premiere on Animal Planet on May 25, 2008. While it was praised for its cinematography, for maintaining the depth of coverage of the television series, and for its accessibility to newcomers to the series, it was criticized for not offering anything new to fans. The Kalahari Meerkat Project noted that the film was not completely accurate but praised it overall, though one reviewer found the "fictionalization" regrettable. Several reviewers praised Goldberg's narration, but the script was cited as being too simplistic for adult viewers.

75分钟的影片在2008年三角地电影节上首映，之后于2008年5月25日在《动物星球》连续剧中进行了电视首映。影片的摄影术因其维持了电视剧的报道深度以及便于初次观看连续剧的新观众的理解而受到赞誉，批评的意见是对于连续剧的粉丝们而言毫无新意。尽管有一位评论家认为影片令人遗憾的进行了虚构，但卡拉哈里猫鼬项目组对影片的评论是略有失真但面面俱全。一些评论家赞扬了戈柏的脚本，但也认为对于成年观众而言过于简单。