This is a must have for anyone with children or an interest in animals. Christian just has a heart and soul that has awakened and strengthened a love for animals in millions of people via You Tube. This is the original documentary, nearly 2 hours in length that the 2 minute You Tube download is based on. This DVD speaks for itself. The backstory is that Christian was separated from his parents at an early age and put up for sale in a London department store. Christian's parents were zoo lions, the father came from the Rotterdam zoo and the mother from Jerusalem, and they lived at the Ilfracombe zoo. When they had cubs, the zoo sold them, and two cubs went to the department store. Two men, Ace Bourke and John Rendall, found him there and immediately fell in love with him and determined to buy him. They scraped together the money and brought the little lion home when he was only a few weeks old. Ace and John dedicated themselves to giving Christian the best life they could, and the bond that developed between them is a joy to behold. Christian was a remarkable lion, obviously very intelligent and loving, and gentle to everyone, both human and animal. As he grew, Christian began to need bigger facilities than Ace and John could provide. Thanks to a chance meeting with Bill Travers (who had starred in the movie Born Free), they hit upon the idea of sending Christian to Africa to live as a wild lion. Bill Travers contacted George Adamson to set up the project, and came up with the idea of making a documentary movie of it all, this movie, to fund the project. The movie starts with a re-creation of when Travers was introduced to Christian. Everything from then on was filmed as it happened. Christian is an absolute joy to watch in this movie. The love he shows, his intelligence, his joie de vie, are beautiful. As the movie unfolds, you begin to realize that as much as George Adamson was a bridge between the worlds of humans and animals, so was Christian. The first step when Christian arrived at George's compound, was to introduce him to Boy, a lion who had been in the movie Born Free and who George had already sent back to the wild, without losing his close relationship with him. Christian and Boy eventually became best friends, and within a year Christian was living as a wild lion. When a year had passed, Ace and John came to Africa to see Christian. After a year of struggle, tragedies, and life with a pride of lions in the wild, the relationship Christian felt with Ace and John was as strong as it had always been. In fact, Christian's wonderful relationship with Ace and John caused the other lions in the pride to accept and be at peace with them as well.