Add Milkweed, and it is near perfection.

MY impressions of The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies...

... is that it borders near perfection for a television feature, with the exception of no mention of the importance of mi...Read complete review

MY impressions of The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies...

... is that it borders near perfection for a television feature, with the exception of no mention of the importance of milkweed and Monarch Waystations. This omission is serious in that it is the one way that citizens can become engaged in maintaining the integrity of the monarch's summer breeding grounds. Not informing the audience of this is hard to forgive. I suspect that milkweed is featured in the 80 minute Canadian DVD version vs. NOVA's 56 minutes.

The slow-motion camera close ups and accompanying music during pupation and eclosure borders on the poetic. It almost brought tears.

The aesthetic sensitivities of the producers shine with the graceful transitions of scenes and music. While in Mexico, the viewer is treated to the strumming of spanish guitar and festive marimbas.

The aerial and scenic shots were breath-taking from the fir forests in Mexico, over the vast water expanse of the Great Lakes to the concrete jungles of the industrial belt. The spider web "food chain" and crop dusting deaths were realistic; ankle-deep monarch winter scenes were sobering.

The wild and cultivated gardens and meadows featured cardinal flower, phlox, sunflowers, Queen Anne's Lace, purple larkspurs (?), soapwort, purple aster, culver's root, lantana, goldenrods, Liatris, purple coneflowers, buddleja, tall verbenas, tropical milkweed (at Monarch Watch) and white asters. The wildflowers in the Mexico sanctuaries looked to be Senecio.

A new fact I learned from Lincoln Brower is that it is the oldest and largest trees in the sanctuaries that retain the most heat during the winter. Thus the critical nature of saving the remaining giants. It makes sense but I'd convinced myself that the reforestation plots would have to do in the decline and eventual absence of old-growth forests. Now, not so much...

I appreciated the voices in the interviews/translations with Alicia Garcia, Eduardo Salinas and Baltazar Gutierrez . I loved the interaction of Lincoln Brower with Homero Aridjis, one of Mexico's "best loved writers" especially when he spoke of the "spontaneous miracle" and was blessed by these words.

The altars and graveyard scenes with flowers and candles brought back memories of my Mexico trip of November 1, 2004. I had carried with me two tiny film canisters of soil from the graveyard where my parents rest. I love the imagery that the locals pray for the safe return of the butterflies AND the spirits of their loved ones... The town scenes of geraniums, cannas, dahlias and marigolds drifted me back to my appalachian raising where flowers were everywhere, and revered as much as food and water. ..

The interviews with Chip Taylor, Lincoln Brower, Bill Calvert and David Gibo were great - at ease and informative. I loved the hands-on tagging scenes at Haskell wetlands in Kansas. Quite a contrast with the kids in the central highlands of Mexico who often go to bed hungry and cold. And how cute was that jack-o-lantern made out of a big gourd? The scene of plowing cattle straight up that cloddy red soil in Angangueo looked exasperating! What a hard life they live.

The crazy-quilt patchwork nature of the denuded hillsides in the distance, the tequila agaves in the fields, scenes of vultures circling overhead, and the soft glow of a full moon stitched it all together beautifully.

Thank you, film maker Nick de Pencier and writer Elizabeth Arledge and the dozens of researchers, producers, editors, translators, assistants...

And Jorge Arriagada's music? Hauntingly beautiful capturing the magic of the miracle at every point.

A blessing for those who paused for an hour to bear witness to the beauty and mystery in our lives.

It will be a honor to share this program in educational settings for one year.

Ina Warren.