Parents' Guide to

Living with Leopards

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

Intense docu about a leopard family has bloody violence.

Movie NR 2024 71 minutes
Living with Leopards movie poster: Closeup of leopard

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

  • Living with Leopards: two leopards face off
  • Living with Leopards: 2 leopards in a tree
  • Living with Leopards: Leopard on the prowl

Community Reviews

See all

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

LIVING WITH LEOPARDS is a close-up look at leopards living in their natural habitats. A small dedicated crew devotes two years to tracking and recording a mother and the drama of saving her two cubs from predators, then teaching them to become predators themselves. Eventually she must protect her next litter from the predators she has created.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (1 ):

The cinematography of Living with Leopards is stunning. Shot after shot shows off the graceful animals' beauty and their hardscrabble lives in a truly eat-or-get-eaten existence. In any case, this is not for the squeamish. Impala are stalked, gruesomely killed , then torn apart and eaten. The narrator's tendency to anthropomorphize the animals by constantly telling us what they are thinking is a drawback. After a group of baboons chase a young leopard away, the narrator says, "She realized things can change quickly out here." In fact, we have no idea if the young leopard learned a thing from her experience. During a mating sequence, narrator asserts without any way of knowing, "She makes sure he (the male leopard) knows these are going to be his cubs." Again, there is no way to know if their mating ritual has anything to with conveying this message. After the mother and her now-mature daughter have a fight, the narrator asserts, "You could see confusion in Kutjira's (the daughter's) face." No, in fact, you can't see anything in her face. The photographers are worried the male cub is too hotheaded and slow-witted to learn to survive, but when he makes a daring kill, the narrator states that the kill gave the young leopard confidence and "changed his mindset."

Despite these narrative missteps, we admire the intelligence and patience of these skillful hunters, but also feel for the beautiful prey who get eaten.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the reality of the predator-vs-prey world depicted in this documentary. What did you learn about this dynamic?

  • How does the mother leopard's attitude need to change as her cubs grow up and she takes care of a new litter?

  • Does it seem as if relationships between adult leopards and their children are far less personal than between human parents and children? Why or why not?

  • What do you think about the documentary's tendency to anthropomorphize the animals?

Movie Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended movie lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate