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'The Leopard Son'

In Discovery Channel Pictures’ "The Leopard Son," Africa’s Serengeti Plain is brought spectacularly to life. Thanks to its tremendous animal footage, expert editing, dynamic music from composer Stewart Copeland and the aristocratic boom of Sir John Gielgud’s offscreen commentary, a leopard’s coming of age is rendered into stirring, armchair entertainment.

Leopards are among the most elusive animals to film. So this movie represents something of a coup for wildlife cinematographer Hugo van Lawick, who filmed a leopard’s birth and growth over a two-year period. He and assistant cameraman Matthew Aeberhard have captured an extraordinary combination of adorable events and dramatic hunter-prey confrontations.

There’s an amusing scene in which the leopard (learning how to be the meanest cat in the valley) tries to act tough with a young giraffe, and fails. Then there are deadlier face-offs. In a mind-blowing shot, a lioness chases a gazelle across the Serengeti. As the predator and prey wheel around, they’re lost in a cloud of dust. The camera waits patiently. The cloud dissipates, revealing the dead gazelle in the lion’s jaws.

Van Lawick is lucky enough to have caught events that really show this leopard’s development from cub to killer. And he leaves us with a stunning ending. But we’re kept hanging by the constant uncertainty of the leopard’s fate. Survival in the wild, as we see all too clearly, is a matter of constant vigilance.

THE LEOPARD SON (G) — Contains scenes of natural violence — killing and devouring prey — that may disturb young children.