Born in China

The latest Disney nature documentary ventures into the plains, mountains and forests of China, telling parallel stories of a snow leopard and her two cubs, a golden snub-nosed monkey suffering sibling jealousy of his newborn sister, a doting giant panda mother and her daughter and the birthing migration of a chiru antelope herd. Director Chuan Lu and a battery of photographers too numerous to name capture some amazing footage, even if the stories seem to have been contrived in the editing room and the English-language narration (by David Fowler and Brian Leith, read by John Krasinski) occasionally becomes cloying and platitudinous. Still, that’s a minor point. The footage really is fascinating, even mind-boggling, and at a swift, economical 76 minutes, the movie hardly has time to wear out its welcome. J.L.