{ "id": "epxrtxq2ch", "slug": "animal-2021-tv-series", "title": "Animal (2021 TV series)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted", "label": "Unscripted, reality, and web-native series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual", "label": "Documentary, docudrama, and lifestyle series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual.nature_science_documentary_series", "label": "Nature, wildlife, and science documentary series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual.nature_science_documentary_series" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual", "label": "Western Europe · 2021 and later: Documentary, docudrama, and lifestyle series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021", "label": "Western Europe · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted", "label": "Unscripted, reality, and web-native series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual", "label": "Documentary, docudrama, and lifestyle series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Animal (2021) is a Netflix nature docuseries by Plimsoll Productions, premiered November 10, 2021; two four-episode seasons narrated by Bryan Cranston, Rashida Jones, Rebel Wilson, Pedro Pascal, then Andy Serkis and others, filmed during Covid-19.", "snippet": "Animal (2021) is a Netflix nature docuseries by Plimsoll Productions, premiered November 10, 2021; two four-episode seasons narrated by Bryan Cranston, Rashida Jones, Rebel Wilson, Pedro Pascal, then Andy Serkis and others, filmed during Covid-19.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_documentary_factual.nature_science_documentary_series", "markdown": "# Animal (2021 TV series)\n\n**Animal** is a British natural history documentary series produced by Plimsoll Productions for Netflix, first released on November 10, 2021. Each of its episodes follows a central animal character, such as a mother lioness, a wild dog family, a kangaroo joey, or a young giant Pacific octopus, and is narrated by a well-known actor; season one used [Bryan Cranston](https://www.edgepedia.org/bryan-cranston), Rashida Jones, Rebel Wilson, and [Pedro Pascal](https://www.edgepedia.org/pedro-pascal), and season two used [Andy Serkis](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-serkis), Anthony Mackie, David Harbour, and Uzo Aduba.[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) • [2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81145024)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Premiere | November 10, 2021 on Netflix[3](https://thetvdb.com/series/animal-2021) |\n| Format | Two seasons of four episodes each, about 45 to 46 minutes per episode; TV-PG[3](https://thetvdb.com/series/animal-2021) • [4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/animal) |\n| Production company | Plimsoll Productions, the makers of *Night on Earth*[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) • [5](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/animal) |\n| Season 1 narrators | Bryan Cranston, Rashida Jones, Rebel Wilson, Pedro Pascal[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) |\n| Season 2 narrators | Andy Serkis, Anthony Mackie, David Harbour, Uzo Aduba[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) |\n| Filming | About 80 shoots over 16 months, carried out almost entirely during the Covid-19 pandemic with local camera operators in countries closed to travel[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) • [6](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/series/serie-30450/) |\n| Audience score | 7.9 on IMDb (about 1,800 ratings)[4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/animal) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe series is an anthology: every episode is a self-contained story about one animal family, filmed on location and shaped into a narrative arc with a beginning, a crisis, and a resolution. Season 1 covers big cats, dogs, marsupials, and cephalopods.\n\n#### Season 1\n\nThe first episode, narrated by [Rashida Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/rashida-jones), follows the big cats. In Botswana's Okavango Delta, a mother lioness raises her cubs in a landscape transformed by the 2019 drought, which left weakened, desperate prey everywhere and produced conspicuously fat lions by 2020. Her story builds to a night hunt staged with the night-vision simulation technology Plimsoll had developed for *Night on Earth*. She makes a kill, then a family of hyenas arrives to take it from her. She holds her ground until the rest of the pride arrives and drives them off.\n\n**A leopard cub in Mumbai gets his first killing lesson when his mother delivers him a maimed but living adult warthog.** With his small jaws he cannot nail the cat's classic choke-hold, and mum has to step in. The lesson carries real stakes: leopards are solitary, and an injury could leave a mother unable to feed herself. Mumbai's leopards survive largely by stealing food from bins outside people's homes after dark. The episode also follows a snow leopard pursuing an ibex along the edge of a Himalayan cliff. No animals are named, and the narrative steers away from overemotional sensationalism.\n\nThe second episode, narrated by Bryan Cranston, is about dogs. Cranston, a well-known dog lover, explains the hunting strategies of canine packs. The African wild dogs set off pre-sunrise on long missions, sometimes twice a day, to keep their growing pups fed. Their defining trait is cooperation at every level, including at the kill, where the youngest eat first and even sick and elderly pack members get priority.\n\nThe third episode, narrated by [Rebel Wilson](https://www.edgepedia.org/rebel-wilson), follows a kangaroo joey growing up in Australia. Its comic set piece is a brawl between two male koalas over a female in a tree, a fight Wilson narrates with relish.\n\nThe fourth episode, narrated by Pedro Pascal, is about cephalopods and was widely judged the most colorful and audacious of the season. The production team framed the octopus as an alien, and Pascal's role in *The Mandalorian* made him a fitting choice to guide viewers through the life of a young giant Pacific octopus. Its problem-solving, camouflage, and intelligence make it, as one review put it, the closest thing we have to alien intelligence on Earth.\n\n#### Season 2\n\nSeason 2, released on March 18, 2022, continues the formula with four more animal families: apes, birds of prey, bears, and dolphins, narrated respectively by Andy Serkis, Anthony Mackie, David Harbour, and [Uzo Aduba](https://www.edgepedia.org/uzo-aduba). Each episode again follows a family through the trials of a year in the wild, from raising vulnerable young to competing for scarce food.\n\n### Characters\n\nBecause the series refuses to anthropomorphize, its characters are animal families rather than named individuals:\n\n- The lioness of the Okavango, a mother balancing cub-rearing with hunting, whose night hunt and hyena standoff anchor the first episode.\n- The Mumbai leopard mother, raising a cub in a city, who must teach him to kill without ever risking an injury that would leave a solitary hunter unable to feed herself.\n- The African wild dog pack, a cooperative hunting machine in which even the oldest and sickest members eat first.\n- The kangaroo joey and the young giant Pacific octopus, whose separate coming-of-age stories close out season 1.\n\n### Interpretations and controversies\n\nThe main debate around the series was critical rather than fan-driven: whether celebrity narration adds anything to a nature documentary at all. The Guardian's reviewer asked what *Animal* contributes to our understanding of the natural world beyond having celebrities do the voiceovers, and found some of the narration flat, concluding that [David Attenborough](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-attenborough) still reigns. [New Scientist](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-scientist) took the opposite view, calling the series a must-see. Decider noted the show reuses night-vision technology from Plimsoll's own *Night on Earth* for the lioness sequence, and flagged that the TV-PG rating earns its letters, with tigers mating and big cats feasting on carcasses, blood coating the fur around their mouths; the reviewer thought the first episode might be too intense for children under 9.\n\n### Sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations\n\nNetflix greenlit season 2 before season 1 had even aired, and it premiered on March 18, 2022 with new narrators and four new animal families.\n\n## Format and content\n\nThe series profiles eight families of the natural world. Season one covers big cats, dogs, marsupials, and octopuses, opening with an episode on big cats that follows a leopard, a lioness, and other cats; the Netflix synopsis names a mother lioness, a wild dog family, a kangaroo joey, and a young giant Pacific octopus as central characters.[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/animal/season-1/) • [2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81145024) Season two, added in March 2022, covers apes, birds of prey, bears, and dolphins.[3](https://thetvdb.com/series/animal-2021) • [8](https://www.netflix.com/title/81145024)\n\nEach episode follows one central character through its story while meeting other species along the way, combining what Netflix describes as stunning visuals, immersive soundscapes, and recent scientific findings.[2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81145024) The narration explains animal behavior including social hierarchy, mating practices, and raising young, and connects those behaviors to the effects of climate change on habitats.[5](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/animal)\n\n## Production\n\nResearch began in late 2019, and series producer Bill Markham said serious discussion took place over whether the show could continue once Covid-19 struck.[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) What followed were about 80 shoots over the next 16 months across locations around the world, with the production team coordinating much of the work remotely.[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) Because travel restrictions made many countries inaccessible, the crew used local camera operators to film there.[6](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/series/serie-30450/)\n\nThe series uses recent filming technology such as gimbals and drones, and captures animal behavior both in daylight and after nightfall.[1](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/) • [5](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/animal) Bill Markham served as series producer, with Martha Holmes and Tom Hugh-Jones as executive producers; Anuschka Schofield, Adrian Seymour, Alex Minton, and Rob Morgan produced.[6](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/series/serie-30450/)\n\n## Reception\n\nOn IMDb the series holds a 7.9 rating from roughly 1,800 users.[4](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/animal) Critical response to season one was mixed. Stuart Jeffries of *The Guardian* scored it 60, writing that despite the latest technology, including gimbals and drones, it was unclear what the series added to the understanding of the natural world beyond celebrity voiceovers, which he called a mixed blessing. Joel Keller of Decider scored it 80, crediting the photography, energetic narration, and family-centered narratives.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/animal/season-1/) Common Sense Media rated the series suitable for ages 10 and up, citing graphic hunting and mating scenes, and praised its educational value and conservation messaging.[5](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/animal)\n\n## Availability\n\nThe series streams on Netflix, where it has been available since November 10, 2021, in a large majority of the platform's regions; one catalog tracker lists it as available in 131 of 132 surveyed countries, with audio tracks in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, among others.[9](https://www.flickfinder.net/tv/animal-2021-137646) • [10](https://flixboss.com/series/animal-81145024)\n\n## Other works called Animal\n\nThe title Animal attaches to several unrelated 2021 works, which are distinct from the Netflix series: a French documentary film directed by Cyril Dion in which teenagers Bella Lack and Vipulan Puvaneswaran travel the world meeting scientists and activists, released in French cinemas on December 1, 2021;[11](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/406497/en/interview/410702/) a scripted drama series titled *[Animals](https://www.edgepedia.org/animals-2026-film)* directed by Ben Affleck for Netflix, about an L.A. mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped, with [Matt Damon](https://www.edgepedia.org/matt-damon) and [Gillian Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/gillian-anderson) attached;[12](https://www.productionlist.com/production/animals) and a 2021 development-listing drama about a 1970s British scientist researching chimpanzee behavior.[13](https://mande.net/production-listing/television/animals-series-drama)\n\n## References\n\n1. ['Animal': Exclusive Clip Of Bryan Cranston, Rashida Jones, Rebel Wilson-Narrated Netflix Natural History Series, Deadline via IMDb (November 8, 2021)](https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63458659/)\n2. [Animal, Netflix Media Center](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81145024)\n3. [Animal (2021), TheTVDB.com](https://thetvdb.com/series/animal-2021)\n4. [Animal (2021) streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/animal)\n5. [Animal: Parents' Guide & TV Review, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/animal)\n6. [Animal, Serie 2021, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/series/serie-30450/)\n7. [Animal season 1 Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/animal/season-1/)\n8. [Watch Animal, Netflix Official Site](https://www.netflix.com/title/81145024)\n9. [Where to watch Animal (2021), FlickFinder](https://www.flickfinder.net/tv/animal-2021-137646)\n10. [Where to watch 'Animal (2021)' on Netflix, Flixboss](https://flixboss.com/series/animal-81145024)\n11. [ANIMAL by Cyril Dion, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/406497/en/interview/410702/)\n12. [Animals, Production List](https://www.productionlist.com/production/animals)\n13. [Animals - Series, M&E Production Listing](https://mande.net/production-listing/television/animals-series-drama)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Documentary, docudrama, and lifestyle series › Nature, wildlife, and science documentary series*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/animal-2021-tv-series", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/animal-2021-tv-series.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Animal (2021 TV series)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/animal-2021-tv-series. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Animal (2021 TV series)](https://www.edgepedia.org/animal-2021-tv-series)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/animal-2021-tv-series](https://www.edgepedia.org/animal-2021-tv-series). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Animal (2021 TV series)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/animal-2021-tv-series. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Animal is a Netflix nature docuseries by Plimsoll Productions, premiered November 10, 2021; two four-episode seasons narrated by Bryan Cranston, Rashida Jones, Rebel Wilson, Pedro Pascal, then Andy Serkis and others, filmed during Covid-19." }