Carroll Ballard still works in his ravishing, nearly pointillistic style of organic visual splendor.
Comment
09/30/05
Duma (2005)
93
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:59
Fresh:55
Rotten:4
Average Rating:7.5/10
Consensus: This is an old-fashioned, richly textured family film that will appeal to children and adults alike.
Theatrical Release:27-05-2005
Synopsis: Set in the exotic country of South Africa, Duma tells the powerful adventure tale of an unbreakable bond of friendship between a cheetah named Duma and an intrepid young boy named Xan (Alexander... [More]
Starring: Hope Davis, Alex Michaeletos, Campbell Scott, Eamonn Walker
Director: Carroll Ballard
Reviews for Duma
Simultaneously innocent and sophisticated, this honestly emotional fable shows why every Ballard film -- and his last was released almost a decade ago -- is a special event.
09/29/05
Top CriticOstensibly a children's movie, but adults will want to see it, too.
09/29/05
Ballard treats the quandary faced by Xan and Duma with a sure hand.
09/29/05
A drama of uncommon beauty and emotional resonance about a boy's journey to return his pet cheetah to its natural habitat.
09/29/05
I like it. Maybe not as much as those other pictures, but enough to bemoan a system in which family films have been so geared to kids (and their parents) with a kind of attention deficit disorder that it's inhospitable to a measured piece of storytelling.
09/29/05
Surprisingly flat.
09/27/05
Click to read the article
09/26/05
Top CriticBallard's new film not only scales much of the same terrain as Fly Away Home and The Black Stallion but it also exudes their humanist power.
09/25/05
This is an old-fashioned adventure uncomplicated in its telling but rich in meaning. It belongs to a vanishing breed. Treasure it while it remains.
08/12/05
A thrilling and visually stunning entertainment that will excite and enrapture viewers of all ages.
08/05/05
Duma, and the sort of intelligent, visually rich filmmaking it represents, are endangered species.
08/05/05
A disarmingly charming throwback to such old-fashioned humans-and-animals adventure tales as Born Free and Ring of Bright Water.
08/05/05
Exactly the sort of movie parents starved for a good family picture in the theaters should be seeking out.
08/05/05
It's an extraordinary film, and intelligent younger viewers in particular may be enthralled by it.
08/04/05
Top Critic...stays wild at heart even as it tugs at ours.
08/04/05
Carroll Ballard has created in Duma another remarkable story of people and wild animals set against a rugged landscape.
08/03/05
Top CriticIt really is in the best sense of it, a good family film.
08/01/05
When I saw it, Ballard's knack for boring small children was intact, but this time the movie is so dramatically inert that even the best-intentioned parents probably won't require their kids to sit through it.
05/14/05
This intelligent, beautifully made production is a welcome reprieve from such crass (if successful) family pics as Are We There Yet? and The Pacifier.
05/03/05
Top CriticWhat’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube 
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds