Just how exciting can a documentary about eleven college kids on a boat sailing across the Pacific to Hawaii be?  Well, you’ve got some options there.  You could take the MTV approach, and focus on the sniping, sexuality, and teen-angst drama-queenism.  You could take the Donald Trump or Survivor approach, and make it all about who made the cut and who didn’t.  You could take the Dangerous Jobs or Deadliest Catch approach and feature countless near-deadly incidents, ratcheting up the old fear factor.

Of course, I’ve only spent a week or so on board a vessel under sail, so I’m probably not the best critic to answer that question.

And to be honest, the producers of Morning Light do incorporate small elements of all the familiar reality-TV tropes of which (I think) we’ve all begun to tire.  But to be fair—and much more complimentary!—they also unearthed the natural drama in this tale of youngsters undertaking their first trans-Pacific sailing race.

And this is Disney, you know?  So creativity does enter the picture a bit.

Roy E. Disney and Leslie DeMeuse, themselves seasoned veterans of the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii, conceived the idea of recruiting a crew of relative greenhorns and letting them man a rather expensive (!) custom-designed racing yacht over 11 days and 2225 miles… all by themselves.  Why?  As one of the crew tells us, “This is going to be my first story… an epic story.” Or “a big flop.” As Disney tells them when he introduces them to their “weapon”—the 52-foot Morning Light—it’s a nearly year-long journey that will “change every one of your lives.”

The documentary takes us through the selection process, by which 30 interviewees were cut down to 15 trainees—11 ultimate crew members and 4 alternates—into months training in both Hawaii and the waters off Los Angeles and through the race itself.

Actually, this is the film’s weakest element.  The strictly linear nature of Mark Monroe’s narrative delays too much of Morning Light’s dramatic elements, leaving the first act incredibly slack and feeling like little more than a Disney reality program titled Mickey Grows Up.  Given that interest doesn’t ratchet up until the crew actually hits the water—nearly halfway into the film—the audience would have been better served by introducing us to the Morning Light at sea (even close to the finish line?) and then tell us how she found herself there.

But if you find your attention wandering a little in the early going, I advise you: stick with it!  As training winds town and teamwork gels, and then as the Morning Light launches its voyage toward the Diamond Head bouy, you’ll be enthralled with the natural drama that evolves, and the particularly stunning footage you’ll see at about the 1170-mile mark.

It’s a little hard to believe that a dozen college kids could be quite as clean-cut as the crew appears here, and crew-selected skipper Jeremy Wilmot almost seems a little too ready-for-primetime to be real.  But Disney and his crew did a fine job of selecting sailors who could be both effective corporate ambassadors and world-class competitors.  Just like other corporate-sponsored teams.  Results aside, when Wilmot concludes that “I dealt with it well… and gracefully,” you feel his emotion with him; and when the lone female crew member, Genny, asks wistfully, “What’s next?” you’ll be convinced that Disney’s objectives have been met.  These young adults really have been prepared to face the world in a new and exciting way; and by bringing us along on the trip, Disney has inspired us, too.

I’d have been grateful to learn a little more about the technical side of sailing, such as the function of the “kite,” and when and why you’d want to deploy or it take it in.  But this is just a quibble.  Disney has a long history of melding human drama with the glories of nature, and Morning Light is as strong an entry in their true-to-life tradition as I’ve ever seen.  And boy does it stack up against the competition.

Rent it or buy it.  Whichever.  I doubt you’ll find it a flop!

Morning Light is rated PG for “some dialogue.”  Really, that’s about it.  And the (very) few actual cuss words included in the footage are bleeped.  Enjoy this with your family, with no worries.

Courtesy of a national publicist, Greg screened a promotional DVD of Morning Light.