Common Sense Media Review
By Davis Ryan Cook
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Fact-packed, beautiful nature doc has animal violence.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 7+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Meet the Meerkats
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
At the beginning of MEET THE MEERKATS, a female meerkat is banished from her family because of the mating competition she poses to the alpha female of the group. On her journey throughout the rest of the documentary to find a new family, the viewer comes to learn some fascinating facts about meerkats, specifically about how rigid their social structures are so that they can band together against larger threats from the external world. Mixed in with the narration is a string of beautifully captured video and audio, captured both during the day and at night, that shows in high definition and several closeups a wide array of meerkats' daily food-finding and social habits. Porcupines, lizards, jackals, African ground squirrels, antelopes, and more all form a vital part of the vibrant Namib Desert in which these meerkats make their daily life.
Is It Any Good?
This film provides a slew of excellent video and audio footage capturing the Namib Desert's vibrant and comprehensive daily life. Plus, Meet the Meerkats also offers something rare for nature documentaries: a narrative. All throughout its half hour runtime, the documentary follows one female meerkat's journey to find a new family after her former family banished her because of the mating compteition she posed to the alpha female. Along the way, she encounters hunger, thirst, other antagonistic meerkat factions, and night predators all by herself.
What this does is make the documentary into a swirl of educational information, narrative, and audiovisual finesse that should engage any viewer on some level. However, the perennial problem remains that many potential viewers simply won't find the nature documentary interesting unless they're already interested in the subject matter, especially because of the meerkats' total lack of charisma. In the end, the documentary is a superifically and educationally enriching glimpse into a species whose individuals are so small against the larger background of their elements that they must band together against adversity.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how meerkats (and the main meerkat in particular) can look so different from humans yet still worry about some of the same problems (getting enough food, conserving energy, finding a new home etc.). What are some things that you do throughout the day that these other animals do as well?
Why are there so many nature documentaries like this one? What do we gain by making and watching nature documentaries?
How is watching nature documentaries about meerkats better and/or worse in your opinion than going to the zoo to observe them in real time?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : November 16, 2020
- Studio : HBO Max
- Genre : Documentary
- Topics : Animals ( Bugs , Wild Animals ) , STEM
- Run time : 30 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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