Meghan Markle's Disney documentary movie Elephant will not be out until April 3 on the Disney Plus streaming platform. However, early reviews have been coming in with critics panning the Duchess of Sussex's work as the documentary's narrator.
Empire resident critic Ian Freer gave Elephant three stars and wrote that Meghan's "excitable tone" was a perfect fit for the story of a family of elephants journeying through the jungles of Africa. However, Freer also wrote that Meghan sounded like she was "over-eager to please," which bordered on annoying. The critic, however, said that the movie had stunning visuals and an amiable story that may be fun for the children to watch.
The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw said that Duchess of Sussex matched the sugary story of Elephant with her "spectacular torrents of schmaltz." Bradshaw said that the movie was visually and technically comparable to David Attenborough's nature documentaries. However, it had splices of Disneyfied cutesy narratives.
Owen Glieberamna of Variety wrote that Elephant failed to be majestic as the jungle creatures despite its awesome visuals. He said that Meghan was delivering her narration like a Disney singsong. The storytelling was inviting and wholesome but the critic said the film felt longer than an hour.
Bookers have been betting that Meghan will not likely win an Oscar for her narration. Her chances of getting an Academy Award for Elephant are 20 to 1, according to The Sun.
Elephant is the Duchess of Sussex's first project as a non-working member of the royal family. Meghan, however, recorded the movie sometime in the fall of 2019, before she and Prince Harry left to spend their Christmas holiday in North America.
Meghan and Prince Harry are officially no longer going to represent Queen Elizabeth and the Crown in royal engagements as of April 1. Like the elephants in the documentary, they will begin their 12-month journey outside of the royal family's protection.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are now staying in Los Angeles where they have formed their own team of staff. They plan on building a new non-profit and hope to affect real changes in the world. In the process, Meghan and Prince Harry would also like to build their own commercial enterprise to become financially independent from the Sovereign Grant.
As non-working royals, however, Queen Elizabeth allowed Meghan and Prince Harry to retain their patronages of some of the charities they support in England. They also have a small team in London who will be carrying out their work while they are abroad.
