Netflix’s Tiny Creatures Review: These Tiny Survivors Are Unconventional Heroes

Tiny Creatures premiered on Netflix on 7 August 2020. Jonathan Jones filmed Tiny Creatures entirely within the confines of a studio in his own backyard of Hingham, Norfolk. Interesting!

It Takes Courage For These Tiny Creatures To Survive

While the lockdown has led to laziness and less productivity for few, Emmy-winning filmmaker Jonathan Jones takes us into the lives of tiny animals like rats, hamsters, Burrow Owls and more, all from his backyard. He takes us through different parts of the U.S. – Arizona, New York City, Texas, Minnesota, Louisiana, Florida, New Hampshire, and Washington.

As soon as you start watching Tiny Creatures you’ll understand that it is nothing like our conventional Nat Geo animal shows. It is not wild and unscripted. Jones made the whole series in 27 days, not a day more! And it is actually fun to watch.

A hamster in New York, an owl in Minnesota, a mouse in Texas, a squirrel in Louisiana, ravens and rats in the Florida Everglades, a duckling in Washington, and a skunk in New Hampshire – these are the characters of Tiny Creatures.

The world is cruel, every animal has an upper hand. Someone who would prey on them sooner or later. While everyone talks about the fights and struggles of big animals, Tiny Creatures talks about the unconventional heroes of our food chain. Humans become the destroyers of habitats and well, that isn’t a lie. Also, little did I know that mice or hamsters can be so cute!

“Once the storylines were established, we could then build sets around our stars – cityscapes, deserts, attics – that would provide the backgrounds for their amazing journeys.” – Jonathan Jones.

In all eight episodes of Tiny Creatures, these animals are faced with life-threatening challenges in dramatic new environments they are usually unfamiliar with. While watching the series you might even feel a Disney-like touch in it. Remember how Stuart and the rat from Ratatouille went on unwanted dangerous adventures? It is just like that but not not quite.

Stream It or Skip It

“Surviving, and more importantly, living freely, in the great wild west.”

STREAM IT! Tiny Creatures is a well-woven series. At points, you might feel it is a bit unrealistic but it balances that all throughout its duration. It looks at the smallest of animals and their adventures in the wild world from an altogether new angle.

If you want to see more of Jones’s excellent skills with animals and shooting in strange lands, in Planet Earth II, Jones trekked up the Himalayas for six days to spend three weeks at an altitude of 6,000 meters filming jumping spiders, the Himalayan tahr and more.

Tiny Creatures is now streaming on Netflix.

Read our other reviews here.