Chattanooga, Tenn. (May 1, 2025) – Reaching as much as 13 feet tall and weighing in at a scale-torturing 15,000 pounds, the African Elephant makes basically every other animal look tiny by comparison.
Despite its enormous size, even the largest land animal on Earth can be humbled by conditions in Africa’s Namib Desert. This harsh environment is inarguably one of the most-unforgivingly arid environments on the planet with annual rainfall of less than 3.5 inches per year. (By comparison, that’s just 6% of the 55 inches of rain Chattanooga receives annually.)
On Wednesday, May 7, the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D Theater will host a new giant-screen release exploring the enormous residents of this most-unlikely place in Elephants: Giants of the Desert 3D. The film focuses on the harrowing, inspiring journey of a baby elephant named Little Foot and her herd as they employ time-tested strategies to survive in a captivating landscape that seems set against them at every turn.
“The second we started having a look at the location, we knew it was destined for the giant screen,” the filmmakers explained. “The landscape is so epic, wide, vast. It’s something a television just can’t capture; you need to be in an arena that matches that world.”
Voiced by Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts (The Impossible, 21 Grams), Elephants 3D showcases the remarkable intelligence and resilience of these towering mammals, whose instinctual behavior offers tremendous benefit to many species with which they share their desert home.
The Namib Desert, the setting of Elephants: Giants of the Desert 3D, is one of the oldest and driest deserts on Earth, with maximum annual rainfall of less than 3.5 inches.
“Elephants are a keystone species in Africa, a species that is so important that if you take it out, the entire ecosystem could struggle to survive,” says Laura Roddy, the education manager at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (TEST).
A 3,000-acre property in Hohenwald, Tennessee, the Sanctuary serves as a kind of “retirement community” for older elephants previously in human care. Currently, a dozen African and Asian Elephants live at TEST, where they exhibit the same natural behaviors seen in the giant-screen film, Roddy says.
“One of the roles of an elephant is pushing down large trees,” she says. “The elephants eat the greenery and things like that off of the pushed-down trees, but then the trees break down and become really nutrient-rich soil.
“That gives space for grasses to grow that other animals on the savanna depend on, such as gazelles, zebras and antelopes as well as predators that use them for cover.”
Elephants benefit their entire ecosystem, but Elephants 3D really homes in on the most crucial resource relied upon by every Elephant, from infants like Little Foot to the most-seasoned matriarchs: their family.
Baby African Elephant “Little Foot” travels with her familial herd through the unforgiving Namib Desert in Elephants: Giants of the Desert 3D.
“People who have been interacting with them (elephants) for thousands of years realize they’re not like other animals. They’re extremely emotionally intelligent, more so probably than humans,” the filmmakers say. “They take really good care of their elders, spend a lot of time nurturing and protecting each other.”
Audiences will feel anxious and heartened, in turns, as they follow Little Foot as she learns the ways of life in the desert from her family on a thrilling journey to a distant watering hole. Along the way, they encounter a host of other animals living out their own unlikely lives in the Namib, from lions and giraffes to baboons and gazelles.
To celebrate the launch of Elephants, the IMAX 3D Theater will host a special 6:30 p.m. premiere screening on Wednesday, May 7. At 7:15 p.m., Roddy and other TEST staff members will speak to the audience and host a post-film Q&A session.
Elephants 3D will begin daily screenings on Friday, May 9. On Saturday, May 31, the IMAX 3D Theater will host a special screening of the film for guests with sensory processing needs or sensitivity. This one-time, 2D presentation will offer an inclusive viewing environment through dimmed lighting and reduced volume.
To learn more about Elephants: Giants of the Desert 3D or to purchase advance tickets, visit tnaqua.org/imax/elephants/
In a recent episode of The Podcast Aquatic, the Aquarium’s official podcast, The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee’s education manager, Laura Roddy, chatted about working with elephants in the Volunteer State and how to help elephants safe worldwide. Listen at open.spotify.com/episode/0E9dY0GmAxxJldhQFVWBzk?si=eIVjJEXUQ3eAyqUUZUX9TA