THE ELEPHANT QUEEN
A beautiful family story of survival, loss, and new life.
Should You Watch It?
If you want a family documentary with genuine emotional weight, The Elephant Queen is worth your time. It follows a family of elephants through drought, starvation, loss, and new life, showing how they protect, love, and rely on one another. The story is well told and keeps viewers intrigued throughout.
The film also includes scenes that may trouble younger children. Animals hunt one another, dead animals and animal skulls appear, and frogs and fish are shown mating. These moments belong to the natural world the documentary presents, but parents should decide how their children will receive them.
For middle schoolers and up, The Elephant Queen is a beautiful choice; younger children may need a parent’s discernment.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAthena, a 50-year-old elephant matriarch, leads her family through life near a waterhole known as “The Kingdom.” When the water begins to disappear and a deadly dry season approaches, the family must leave home and cross the African savannah in search of refuge.
Along the way, the documentary also follows beetles, geese, frogs, turtles, and tiny fish struggling to survive. It is a story of family, endurance, and the bonds that help creatures face hardship together.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is an exceptionally well-told documentary. The Elephant Queen presents a heartfelt family story that keeps viewers intrigued throughout, almost like a Disney Nature documentary.
The emotional narration deepens the story, while the incredible music and colors give the journey added beauty. Inventive and unique camera shots also help tell the story. The result is a moving, engaging film about animals enduring the best and worst that nature has to offer.
The Worldview
The Elephant Queen presents a strong moral worldview centered on family. Athena and her family of elephants do everything they can to protect one another. The film celebrates love, loss, new life, and the way family members help each other endure difficult circumstances.
The documentary also includes light environmentalist elements, since the breed of elephant shown is endangered. It presents the natural world with both wonder and harshness, including hunting, starvation, death, and mating. Its central moral emphasis is not human responsibility before God, but the strength and kindness found within the elephant family.
The film’s longing for protection, belonging, and new life echoes Scripture’s understanding that life and family are gifts: “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong moral worldview as families protect and love each other through good and bad times, and new life is celebrated, plus some light environmentalist elements mentioning endangered species
Foul Language
No obscenities or profanities, but elephants are shown defecating, and beetles are shown landing in the elephant feces to form a ball of feces and takes it with them to bury and slowly eat
Violence
Some animals try to hunt one another, frogs eat other smaller frogs, dead animals are shown, a young elephant dies, and animal skulls are shown
Sex
Frogs and fish are shown mating
Nudity
Naturalistic animal nudity such as seen a young elephant calf gets milk from it’s mother’s nipple
Alcohol Use
No alcohol
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Nothing else objectionable.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Athena’s family protects and cares for one another through hardship. What does your family do to show love when someone is struggling?
Galatians 6:2 · 1 Corinthians 13:4–7The elephants must leave their home when the waterhole dries up. How can hardship draw people closer together rather than pull them apart?
Romans 12:10–12 · James 1:2–4The documentary shows both new life and death in the natural world. How does Scripture describe God’s care for His creation?
Genesis 1:31 · Psalm 104:24The film includes an endangered species and environmentalist elements. What responsibilities do people have toward the world God made?
Genesis 2:15 · Psalm 24:1The Final Word
The Elephant Queen is a beautifully made, deeply heartfelt documentary about family, endurance, and new life. Its scenes of animal death and mating call for parents’ discernment with younger children, but middle schoolers and older viewers can find much to appreciate. Our answer is WORTH THE TRIP — MIDDLE SCHOOL AND UP.
