5 out of 5

Hosted by: Gordon Buchanan

First off: totally accurate title.

On the one hand, I would say: if you’ve seen a handful of animal docs, you’ve seen them all, and just keep watching for new and better footage.  Some docs are hopeful, some are remorseful, some are witty, here are some pretty fish and here’s an amazing behavior and here’s a cute baby the end here’s your award, BBC.  So, sure, ‘Super Cute Animals,’ get yer fix.  But Gordon and team managed to surprise me.  The hook was interesting – looking at why we find certain animals irresistible – and then even assuming you’ve read about the cute response before, the special digs deeper to assessing individual features (eyes, ears) of individual animals and why those things might have developed.  It’s a perfect throughput for the doc that makes every cute moment feel worthwhile and not just milking footage, and the cherry-picked factoids are astoundingly interesting.  I mean, Super Cute Animals can make me look at an elephant trunk with awe, when that’s a pretty common animal to pop up in any given animal documentary.

Gordon’s delivery is a bit oddly syncopated, as though he’s very mindful to not slip into a heavy accent, but his energy and interest seem legit, and he balances his eagerness with an intelligence that makes you trust him as a presenter and agree with his indulgence into cuteness.

Yes – if the title alone makes you want to watch, you won’t be disappointed.  But that aside, if you’re hoping for a valuable animal documentary, this was a surprising solid and fascinating hour special.