Irwin Allen followed up his well-received documentary
The Sea Around Us
with the equally entertaining
Animal World
. The film begins with a thumbnail history of life on earth, then shows the audience how ancient habits and instincts die hard. Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen, the team responsible for the stop-motion animation in 1949's
Mighty Joe Young
, lavish their expertise on the film's opening dinosaur-battle sequence. The "actuality" footage is culled from 27 different countries, representing the handiwork of nearly 100 naturalists and filmmakers. Highlights include several life-and-death struggles in Africa, a battle between an eel and an octopus, and the birth of a starfish. After watching
, one genuinely regrets that Irwin Allen abandoned the documentary form in favor of such TV silliness as
Lost in Space
and such cumbersome movie blockbusters as
The Towering Inferno
.