A celebration of scientific excellence and an account of a discovery which has ramifications for natural environments the world over, The Serengeti Rules makes for compelling viewing. Based on an acclaimed book by Sean B. Carroll, who appears sporadically in the film as a narrator in one of the film’s less elegant devices, the picture draws together the work of five ecologists and naturalists, working in far-flung locations around the globe.

In Nicolas Brown’s documentary The Serengeti Rules, he follows a group of scientists around the world as they studied different ecosystems to see how nature works. They discovered surprising conclusions in what that led to similar conclusions about life on our planet.

The movie tracks the globe-trotting, eye-opening journeys of five scientists profiled in Sean B. Carroll’s book of the same name. The photography is startling and gorgeous, and even the toughest naysayers will be hard-pressed not to admit that certain animals are essential for the protection of forests, oceans, and even endangered species.

This Earth Day, movies are going green and Backyard Wilderness aims to inspire kids to become better global citizens.

The club of scholars named Neil who are good writers and also telegenic is fairly small, with Neil deGrasse Tyson (see “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”) sometimes seeming to be its only member. But let’s not overlook Neil Shubin, a paleontologist who makes an appealing guide to our evolutionary history on “Your Inner Fish,” a three-part exploration, based on his books, that begins on Wednesday on PBS.

Many nature films feature exotic creatures in faraway lands -- bat caves in the Yucatan, penguins in Antarctica, lions in the Serengeti. But what about the nature that surrounds us on a daily basis? It is just as wondrous and fascinating, if only we'd take the time to notice what's going on.

A field mouse scurries across the kitchen floor. Birds perch on tree branches just outside the house. Raccoons amble by the driveway, and frogs creep across the windows. The film Backyard Wilderness reminds us that wild animals are often close by—feeding, mating, hunting, taking care of their young—and sometimes in plain view, if we humans just take the time to notice.

There are so many once-in-a-lifetime moments in the new IMAX film, “Backyard Wilderness,” it’s impossible to say which is most powerful. (Like which of your kids do you love the most?!) It might be the scene where a wood duck hatches in its nest, 70 feet up in the cavity of a tree. Or when it leaps down (to the sound of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’”), landing on the leafy forest floor before following its mother to a pond.