Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins
Region 1 DVD cover
Written by	Caroline Hawkins
Directed by	Chris Barker Mike Slee
Narrated by	Whoopi Goldberg
Music by	Laurent Ferlet
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Caroline Hawkins Clare Birks Carole Tomko Mick Kaczorowski Mark Wild
Cinematography	Robin Smith John Walters
Editor	Oral Norrie Ottey
Running time	75 minutes
Production companies	Discovery Films Oxford Scientific Films Animal Planet
Original release
Network	Animal Planet
Release	May 25, 2008 (2008-05-25)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins is a 2008 television film created by Discovery Films and Oxford Scientific Films as a prequel to the Animal Planet series Meerkat Manor. A scripted documentary narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the film details the life of a meerkat named Flower from birth to her becoming the leader of a meerkat group called the Whiskers. The film is based on the research notes of the Kalahari Meerkat Project and primarily uses wild meerkat "actors" to represent those in the story. Shot over two years at the Kuruman River Reserve in Northern Cape, South Africa, the film employed a much larger crew than the series. Some scenes were shot at a wildlife park in the United Kingdom, while others were created using camera tricks and trained film animals.

The 75-minute film premiered at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival before its television premiere on Animal Planet on May 25, 2008. While it was praised for its cinematography, for maintaining the depth of coverage of the television series, and for its accessibility to newcomers to the series, it was criticized for not offering anything new to fans. The Kalahari Meerkat Project noted that the film was not completely accurate but praised it overall and recommended against analyzing it. Several reviewers praised Goldberg's narration, but the script was criticized as being too simplistic for adult viewers.