The Living Desert

The first feature-length entry in Disney's "True Life Adventure" series, The Living Desert opens with a close-up glance of percolating desert geysers seemingly dancing to the appropriate musical accompaniment. Among the wildlife specimens depicted are the roadrunner, the chuckwalla, the skunk, the scorpion and the kangaroo-rat. The narration, by co-writer Winston Hibler, is often undercut by weak attempts at humor, but when Disney plays it straight, such as in the battle between a rattlesnake and a tarantula, the film is at its strongest. Much of the footage was photographed by N. Paul Kenworthy Jr. as part of his UCLA doctoral thesis.

The film was originally released to theatres in a package that included the live-action short Stormy and the animated featurette Ben and Me.

The Living Desert was added to the National Film Registry in 2000.