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Morning Light
Walt Disney Pictures

Morning Light reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 51 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
10.0 out of 10
based on 14 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 1 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG for some language

Starring Chris Branning, Graham Brant-Zawadzki, Chris Clark, Charlie Enright, Jesse Fielding, Robbie Kane, Steve Manson, and Chris Schubert

Fifteen young sailors... six months of intense training... one chance at the brass ring. This exciting True-Life documentary tells the inspiring story of a group of intrepid and determined young men and women, on the cusp of adulthood, as they embark on life’s first great adventure. Racing a high-performance 52-foot sloop in the TRANSPAC, the most revered of open-ocean sailing competitions, the crew of Morning Light matches wits and skills in a dramatic 2300 mile showdown against top professionals. From their earliest training sessions in Hawaii conducted by world-class teachers through their test of endurance on the high seas, they form an unbreakable bond in the process of becoming a singular team that is greater than the sum of its parts. (Walt Disney Pictures)


GENRE(S): Documentary  
DIRECTED BY: Mark Monroe
Paul Crowder
 
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: October 17, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Vividly captures the joy of sailing.
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63
USA Today Claudia Puig
The documentary is enjoyable, though it could have been edited more tightly. The ending, in which three of the contest participants write and perform a catchy pop song, is buoyantly fun.
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63
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
A fluffy piece of Disney nonfiction.
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63
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
An OK sports doc that owes as much to reality TV competitions as it does to the genre of nautical cinema.
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60
New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
A Disney movie about a Disney project, this slick sailing documentary feels a little too self-promotional, almost like an attraction you might stumble into at Epcot. But at least it turns out to be a fairly wild ride.
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60
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
An old-fashioned doc about a sailboat race is well produced but lacks urgency and true insight
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60
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Like the disastrously overpopulated "Amazing Race: Family Edition," Morning Light never finds a way to make us care who wins.
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50
NPR Bob Mondello
The film is more appealing for its scenery, which is as breathtakingly blue as you'd expect, than for its drama.
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50
Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
At one point during the big race, the kids get passed at close range by a team of pros so seasoned, they wrote the navigation software the kids use. I was begging the camera crew to follow them.
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
Has a made-for-television style.
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50
Variety Peter Debruge
The film feels more like the ultimate scrapbook for the participants than the vicarious thrill the pair no doubt imagined for audiences.
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50
Village Voice Tim Grierson
Two unnerving phenomena--the popularity of reality-TV competitions and the Walt Disney Company's ability to churn out entertainment starring the most squeaky-clean humans on earth--come together in Morning Light, a nightmarishly upbeat documentary.
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50
Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Morning Light, sailor's delight. All others be forewarned.
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30
Los Angeles Times Robert Abele
If the makers were hoping they'd chronicled a metaphor for life's struggle, they probably weren't counting on the struggle being monotony.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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