[9][10][11] In the southern plains of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, lives Mara, a six-month-old lion cub, with her mother Layla, who both belong to the River pride, led by Fang, an old male lion, named after his remaining fang after he gets a distinctive broken tooth because of an earlier fight.
As the wildebeest begin to migrate to greener pastures, so does the River pride, but due to her injury and old age, Layla has trouble keeping up.
Fang, upon seeing them approaching, runs for his life, but Layla does not back away – knowing that Mara and the other cubs could be killed should the assault succeed, she fearlessly attacks the rivals.
Finally, the hyenas give up the fight and leave – Sita's bravery has kept the remaining cubs alive and free from danger.
Seeing that they can no longer stay within their pride, the young males have no choice but to cross the river, even though its level has grown and it is infested with crocodiles, nonetheless, they reach land unscathed.
Mara tries to live on her own and fend for herself, but she was banished before she was taught to hunt, and finds her first attempts at catching meals on her own, even small warthogs and especially big rhinos and buffaloes, humiliatingly unsuccessful and learns that there are benefits in belonging to a pride.
Mara has been accepted by her pride and is now ready for motherhood herself, Kali still reigns supreme on both sides of the river, and the filmmakers are still looking for Fang.
The families of the animals in African Cats were filmed on the Maasai Mara National Reserve, a major game region in southwestern Kenya.
[12] The Maasai Mara is one of the few remaining places in Africa where lions, cheetahs and leopards live in large numbers and in close proximity.
The premiere was attended by several important guests of honour, including Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Lucy Rosen.
The film download version includes the two bonus features from the DVD, plus three segments from the "Filmmaker Annotation" Blu-ray extra.
Disneynature donated a portion of the home media proceeds in October 2011 to the African Wildlife Foundation's "Save the Savanna" initiative.
[23] Jordin describes the song as being about "everybody having a path they have to take but when you have that one person next to you or a few friends, if you have your family with you pretty much you can face another day, you can get through any obstacle and you can make it through anything".
The video places Jordin in a surreal world of sparkling butterflies and magic waterfalls, as she sings about eternal love.
[24] The video premiered on Disney Channel on April 2, 2011 during The Suite Life Movie and played at the end credits of the film.
The website's consensus reads: "It isn't quite as majestic as its subjects, but African Cats boasts enough astounding footage -- and a big enough heart -- to keep things entertaining".
[27] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".