Enter a Rotten Tomatoes movie slug to inspect the stored movie, batches, snapshots, and reviews.
Movie ID: 1208
RT slug: duma
RT URL: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/duma
Release year: 2005
Runtime: 100 mins
Wide release date: —
Limited release date: —
Festival premiere date: —
Streaming release date: 2008-10-03
Tomatometer final: 95%
Audience score final: 80%
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Kids & Family
Directors: Carroll Ballard
Writers: Carol Flint, Karen Janszen
Producers: Hunt Lowry, John Wells, Kristin Harms
MPAA rating: PG
Executive Producers: —
Created: 2026-08-21 22:19:50
Updated: 2026-08-21 22:19:50
Xan lives on a ranch in Kenya with his mother and father. When the family stumbles upon an abandoned baby cheetah one afternoon, Xan takes the cub in and begins to care for it as if it were his own. Over time, Xan grows incredibly attached to the cheetah, which the family names Duma. But some relationships cannot last, and in this case, Xan must learn the hard lesson that not all animals are meant to be domesticated.
This is an old-fashioned, richly textured family film that will appeal to children and adults alike.
Canonical reviews: 60
Canonical fresh: 57
Canonical rotten: 3
Canonical calculated Tomatometer: 95%
Latest snapshot UTC: 2026-08-21 20:51:01
Snapshot Tomatometer: 95%
Snapshot review count: 60
Snapshot fresh count: 57
Snapshot rotten count: 3
Source note: Imported from manual review paste batch #2993 (full_snapshot)
| Company | Role |
|---|---|
| Warner Bros. Pictures | distributor |
| Gaylord Films | production |
| John Wells Productions | production |
| Pandora Pictures | production |
| Warner Brothers | production |
| Billing | Name | Character |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Michaeletos | Xan |
| 2 | Eamonn Walker | Ripkuna |
| 3 | Campbell Scott | Peter |
| 4 | Hope Davis | Kristin |
| 5 | Mary Makhatho | Thandi |
| Batch ID | Status | Mode | Created | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1224 | processed | — | 2026-08-21 22:19:50 | Processed successfully into movie_id=1208 using update_mode=merge_non_empty. |
| Batch ID | Local Snapshot | UTC Snapshot | Entered % | Entered Count | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2993 | 2026-08-21 15:51:00 (America/Panama) | 2026-08-21 20:51:01 | 95% | 60 | processed | Mode=full_snapshot. Processed 60 row(s); 0 row error(s). Parsed unique reviews in this batch=60, fresh=57, rotten=3, tomatometer=95%. Net new reviews added=60, fresh=57, rotten=3. Current canonical totals=60 reviews, 57 fresh, 3 rotten, tomatometer=95% (95.000%). Entered review count matched parsed batch count (60). Entered tomatometer matched parsed batch value (95%). |
| ID | Critic | Outlet | Fresh? | Score | RT Time Raw | Approx Published UTC | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 249149 | Michael Clark | Epoch Times | Fresh | 5/5 | 2022-02-28T12:43:29.000Z | 2022-02-28 12:43:29 | Few filmmakers can get remotely close to matching Ballard's slugging percentage. He said what he had to say, never wore out his welcome, and exited on a high note. More than a few of his lesser-talented contemporary peers should follow his lead. |
| 249150 | Heather Boerner | Common Sense Media | Fresh | 4/5 | 2010-12-18T10:57:02.000Z | 2010-12-18 10:57:02 | Enchanting coming-of-age story for kids. |
| 249151 | Felix Vasquez Jr. | Cinema Crazed | Fresh | — | 2009-04-29T03:16:22.000Z | 2009-04-29 03:16:22 | A pure children's film with an exciting story, genuine characters, and deep messages about life, love, and loss. |
| 249152 | Michael Booth | Denver Post | Fresh | — | 2008-02-08T12:20:22.000Z | 2008-02-08 12:20:22 | It's a crime what happened to the wonderful African wilderness movie Duma in 2005. Beautifully directed by veteran Carroll Ballard, Duma fell flat in the United States because of bad timing and abysmal marketing. |
| 249153 | Mary Lasse | Christianity Today | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-11-01T16:10:15.000Z | 2006-11-01 16:10:15 | A handcrafted masterpiece. |
| 249154 | Frank Swietek | One Guy's Opinion | Fresh | B+ | 2006-04-04T08:00:45.000Z | 2006-04-04 08:00:45 | It's as good as this sort of thing gets, and deserves to be seen in a proper auditorium rather than on DVD. |
| 249155 | Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone | TheMovieChicks.com | Fresh | 4/5 | 2006-04-02T05:55:52.000Z | 2006-04-02 05:55:52 | The film opens with some adorable cheetah cubs, so you're instantly hooked, but there's more to this than just a bunch of cute animals. |
| 249156 | Unknown Critic | Empire Magazine | Rotten | 2/5 | 2006-04-01T04:29:05.000Z | 2006-04-01 04:29:05 | — |
| 249157 | Nancy Churnin | Dallas Morning News | Fresh | B+ | 2006-03-31T14:49:40.000Z | 2006-03-31 14:49:40 | For those wishing they still made films like The Black Stallion, today is your lucky day. |
| 249158 | Philip Kennicott | Washington Post | Fresh | — | 2006-03-30T17:55:16.000Z | 2006-03-30 17:55:16 | Visually panoramic, a film that revels in making the expanse of a beautiful place palpable. |
| 249159 | Ty Burr | Boston Globe | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-03-18T03:23:45.000Z | 2006-03-18 03:23:45 | Too suspenseful for the youngest children, but for anyone older than 8 or 9, it evokes nothing less than awe at the harsh beauty of the natural world. |
| 249160 | Jack Garner | Rochester Democrat and Chronicle | Fresh | 9/10 | 2006-03-10T18:35:00.000Z | 2006-03-10 18:35:00 | ... a beautifully photographed journey that will thrill youngsters and strongly engage adults. |
| 249161 | Jeff Shannon | Seattle Times | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-03-03T15:42:40.000Z | 2006-03-03 15:42:40 | With ravenous alligators and lions on the prowl, Duma delivers familiar adventure, but Ballard refuses to cater to cuteness. |
| 249162 | John Monaghan | Detroit Free Press | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-03-03T15:39:48.000Z | 2006-03-03 15:39:48 | Like its title character, Duma has been left to fend for itself by Warner Bros., which is barely releasing it. A successful showing this weekend will prove that there really is an audience for this brand of thoughtful, literate family film. |
| 249163 | Carol Cling | Las Vegas Review-Journal | Fresh | B+ | 2006-03-03T11:13:26.000Z | 2006-03-03 11:13:26 | ... leads us on a journey -- sometimes humorous, sometimes harrowing, always heartfelt -- that's well worth taking. |
| 249164 | Jeff Vice | Deseret News (Salt Lake City) | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-02-17T18:27:52.000Z | 2006-02-17 18:27:52 | Director Carroll Ballard makes only one type of movie -- family adventures that feature some sort of wildlife. To his credit, however, he does them pretty well. |
| 249165 | Sean P. Means | Salt Lake Tribune | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-02-17T11:44:30.000Z | 2006-02-17 11:44:30 | Director Carroll Ballard ... not only captures stellar images of nature, but feels the call of the wild in his bones. |
| 249166 | Dan Lybarger | eFilmCritic.com | Fresh | 4/5 | 2006-02-16T22:23:16.000Z | 2006-02-16 22:23:16 | Chances are excellent that Carroll Ballard's latest film 'Duma' isn't playing in a theater anywhere near you. That's a shame. It's one of those rare children's films that actually succeeds in delighting tots and their parents. |
| 249167 | Robert W. Butler | Kansas City Star | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-02-10T14:24:35.000Z | 2006-02-10 14:24:35 | Exciting but never violent, deeply emotional but never saccharine, Duma is the sort of solid family film Hollywood is always being criticized for not making any more. |
| 249168 | Steve Rhodes | Internet Reviews | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-01-08T20:07:29.000Z | 2006-01-08 20:07:29 | An old-fashion adventure yarn [and] an absolutely delightful throwback! |
| 249169 | Walter V. Addiego | San Francisco Chronicle | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-01-06T14:56:30.000Z | 2006-01-06 14:56:30 | Family films can be simplistic or condescending, but the joy of Carroll Ballard's work is that it's neither. |
| 249170 | Peter Canavese | Groucho Reviews | Fresh | 3/4 | 2006-01-06T00:48:50.000Z | 2006-01-06 00:48:50 | Grabs for the gut by stoking primal understandings about our loving but tragically distant relationship with the wild. |
| 249171 | Jeff Strickler | Minneapolis Star Tribune | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-01-05T14:12:52.000Z | 2006-01-05 14:12:52 | [Director] Ballard's dime-store philosophizing gets schmaltzy, but the emotions seem heartfelt. And as he has done in earlier movies, he incorporates some spectacular backdrops. |
| 249172 | Chris Hewitt | St. Paul Pioneer Press | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2006-01-05T13:54:57.000Z | 2006-01-05 13:54:57 | Despite the outstanding cast of humans, Duma is the star, and Ballard obviously places a high value on exploring the real behavior of a cheetah, who is cute at times and potentially scary at others. |
| 249173 | Steve Schneider | Orlando Weekly | Fresh | — | 2005-12-08T03:15:53.000Z | 2005-12-08 03:15:53 | The awww factor of these sequences is huge -- and undeniable. |
| 249174 | Andy Klein | Los Angeles CityBeat | Fresh | — | 2005-11-23T03:17:09.000Z | 2005-11-23 03:17:09 | [Not The Black Stallion], but at least as worthy as any other feature released in the last month. |
| 249175 | Timothy Knight | Reel.com | Fresh | 3/4 | 2005-10-22T03:23:32.000Z | 2005-10-22 03:23:32 | A visually stunning and quietly moving film of rare beauty. |
| 249176 | Daniel Eagan | Film Journal International | Fresh | — | 2005-10-17T18:15:35.000Z | 2005-10-17 18:15:35 | Duma offers a compelling look at a world filled with beauty and wonder, one that children as well as their parents deserve to see. |
| 249177 | Ken Fox | TV Guide | Fresh | 4/4 | 2005-10-17T18:11:32.000Z | 2005-10-17 18:11:32 | Moving and marvelously entertaining. |
| 249178 | Scott A. Mantz | Scott Mantz' Movie Reviews | Fresh | 4/5 | 2005-10-07T03:15:44.000Z | 2005-10-07 03:15:44 | — |
| 249179 | Claudia Puig | USA Today | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2005-10-05T11:30:02.000Z | 2005-10-05 11:30:02 | Unlike many lesser movies aimed at families, this has heart, humor, thrilling adventure and stunning visuals. |
| 249180 | Chris Cabin | Filmcritic.com | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2005-10-03T13:31:04.000Z | 2005-10-03 13:31:04 | one of the better family films to come out in recent memory |
| 249181 | Jami Bernard | New York Daily News | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2005-10-01T03:24:47.000Z | 2005-10-01 03:24:47 | I can't say enough about that magisterial cheetah. |
| 249182 | Kyle Smith | New York Post | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2005-09-30T14:02:48.000Z | 2005-09-30 14:02:48 | A pleasing fable reminiscent of G-rated nature movies of the '60s and '70s, before kiddie cinema required CGI or hip cultural references. |
| 249183 | Glenn Whipp | Los Angeles Daily News | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2005-09-30T14:01:30.000Z | 2005-09-30 14:01:30 | [Ballard's] pitch-perfect adventure will engage your imagination, no matter your age. |
| 249185 | Manohla Dargis | New York Times | Fresh | 4/5 | 2005-09-30T03:16:51.000Z | 2005-09-30 03:16:51 | This soulful, piercingly beautiful story about a boy and his cheetah marks the welcome return to the screen of the director Carroll Ballard. |
| 249184 | Owen Gleiberman | Entertainment Weekly | Fresh | B | 2005-09-30T03:16:51.000Z | 2005-09-30 03:16:51 | Carroll Ballard still works in his ravishing, nearly pointillistic style of organic visual splendor. |
| 249186 | Kenneth Turan | Los Angeles Times | Fresh | 4.5/5 | 2005-09-29T17:27:08.000Z | 2005-09-29 17:27:08 | Simultaneously innocent and sophisticated, this honestly emotional fable shows why every Ballard film -- and his last was released almost a decade ago -- is a special event. |
| 249187 | Peter Rainer | Christian Science Monitor | Fresh | A- | 2005-09-29T15:42:48.000Z | 2005-09-29 15:42:48 | Ostensibly a children's movie, but adults will want to see it, too. |
| 249188 | John Anderson | Newsday | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2005-09-29T13:59:01.000Z | 2005-09-29 13:59:01 | Ballard treats the quandary faced by Xan and Duma with a sure hand. |
| 249189 | Ella Taylor | L.A. Weekly | Fresh | — | 2005-09-29T12:45:46.000Z | 2005-09-29 12:45:46 | A drama of uncommon beauty and emotional resonance about a boy's journey to return his pet cheetah to its natural habitat. |
| 249190 | David Edelstein | Slate | Fresh | — | 2005-09-29T12:15:12.000Z | 2005-09-29 12:15:12 | I like it. Maybe not as much as those other pictures, but enough to bemoan a system in which family films have been so geared to kids (and their parents) with a kind of attention deficit disorder that it's inhospitable to a measured piece of storytelling. |
| 249191 | Ben Kenigsberg | Village Voice | Rotten | — | 2005-09-27T13:05:03.000Z | 2005-09-27 13:05:03 | Surprisingly flat. |
| 249192 | Ed Gonzalez | Slant Magazine | Fresh | 3/4 | 2005-09-25T09:36:29.000Z | 2005-09-25 09:36:29 | Ballard's new film not only scales much of the same terrain as Fly Away Home and The Black Stallion but it also exudes their humanist power. |
| 249193 | Jeffrey Westhoff | Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2005-08-12T12:57:53.000Z | 2005-08-12 12:57:53 | This is an old-fashioned adventure uncomplicated in its telling but rich in meaning. It belongs to a vanishing breed. Treasure it while it remains. |
| 249194 | Peter Sobczynski | eFilmCritic.com | Fresh | 4/5 | 2005-08-05T23:49:52.000Z | 2005-08-05 23:49:52 | A thrilling and visually stunning entertainment that will excite and enrapture viewers of all ages. |
| 249195 | Stephanie Zacharek | Salon.com | Fresh | — | 2005-08-05T16:21:50.000Z | 2005-08-05 16:21:50 | Duma, and the sort of intelligent, visually rich filmmaking it represents, are endangered species. |
| 249196 | Wade Major | Boxoffice Magazine | Fresh | 3.5/5 | 2005-08-05T15:36:44.000Z | 2005-08-05 15:36:44 | A disarmingly charming throwback to such old-fashioned humans-and-animals adventure tales as Born Free and Ring of Bright Water. |
| 249197 | Michael Wilmington | Chicago Tribune | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2005-08-05T09:11:49.000Z | 2005-08-05 09:11:49 | Exactly the sort of movie parents starved for a good family picture in the theaters should be seeking out. |
| 249198 | Roger Ebert | Chicago Sun-Times | Fresh | 3.5/4 | 2005-08-04T11:04:53.000Z | 2005-08-04 11:04:53 | It's an extraordinary film, and intelligent younger viewers in particular may be enthralled by it. |
| 249199 | Josh Larsen | Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | Fresh | 3/4 | 2005-08-04T09:58:25.000Z | 2005-08-04 09:58:25 | ...stays wild at heart even as it tugs at ours. |
| 249200 | Kirk Honeycutt | The Hollywood Reporter | Fresh | — | 2005-08-03T03:32:27.000Z | 2005-08-03 03:32:27 | Carroll Ballard has created in Duma another remarkable story of people and wild animals set against a rugged landscape. |
| 249201 | Richard Roeper | Ebert & Roeper | Fresh | — | 2005-08-01T11:59:49.000Z | 2005-08-01 11:59:49 | It really is in the best sense of it, a good family film. |
| 249202 | Stella Papamichael | BBC.com | Fresh | 3/5 | 2005-05-24T03:15:27.000Z | 2005-05-24 03:15:27 | Like the eponymous cat, it'll leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. |
| 249203 | Jim Lane | Sacramento News & Review | Rotten | 2/5 | 2005-05-14T03:23:14.000Z | 2005-05-14 03:23:14 | When I saw it, Ballard's knack for boring small children was intact, but this time the movie is so dramatically inert that even the best-intentioned parents probably won't require their kids to sit through it. |
| 249204 | Scott Foundas | Variety | Fresh | — | 2005-05-03T12:48:53.000Z | 2005-05-03 12:48:53 | This intelligent, beautifully made production is a welcome reprieve from such crass (if successful) family pics as Are We There Yet? and The Pacifier. |
| 249205 | Larry Ratliff | San Antonio Express-News | Fresh | 3/4 | 2005-04-26T08:04:05.000Z | 2005-04-26 08:04:05 | (Carroll) Ballard (Fly Away Home) is simply the best in the business when it comes to corralling wild animals into the constraints of feature films. |
| 249206 | Carla Meyer | Sacramento Bee | Fresh | 2.5/4 | 2005-04-22T15:18:51.000Z | 2005-04-22 15:18:51 | Cat fanciers and adventure lovers will like Duma, an engaging story of a boy and his cheetah. |
| 249207 | Rob Blackwelder | SPLICEDWire | Fresh | 2/4 | 2005-04-21T15:45:06.000Z | 2005-04-21 15:45:06 | While it would hold up well against other routine kiddie-animal matinees, all through "Duma" I kept thinking of last summer's (similiar but superior) "Two Brothers." |
| 249208 | Kathy Cano-Murillo | Arizona Republic | Fresh | 3/5 | 2005-04-21T15:33:35.000Z | 2005-04-21 15:33:35 | Kids and animals are often a risky combination, but put them together in a movie such as Duma and you have a winning team. |
Showing the latest 100 canonical reviews for this movie.