Produced by the BBC over the course of several months, utilizing the skill and perseverance of dozens of camera teams, "Planet Earth" is the mother ship of nature documentaries. "What a strange thing to review!" you may think, "No one watches nature documentaries except for science teachers, and small children who aspire to be science teachers." But oh the power of suggestion. And oh the might of Oprah. And oh the underappreciated wonder of PBS. A DVD that has been on the bestselling charts for several months, which has been featured in countless magazines, newspaper columns, and web blogs. Not to mention a 9.8 rating on IMDb!!!
40 camera teams took over 5 years, traveling to over 200 locations to film some of the most glorious, spectacular, and surprising places and creatures on Earth. We travel to Africa to witness the flooding of the Okavango basin, where hundreds of species will gather together to drink, swim, mate, and kill, respectively. We visit the North and South Poles, journey to the Amazon, find ourselves in the middle of a locust swarm, perch in treetops full of monkeys, and discover a cave which holds a load of bat dung the size of a small hill - covered with cockroaches. You will squirm, coo, cringe, laugh, cry, cheer, get hungry, lose your appetite, and look at your household pets with newfound respect.
Some sequences caught on camera have never before been filmed, such as the event of a Snow Leopard hunting on the treacherous slopes of the Himalayan Mountains. Other moments will have you wide-eyed and open-mouthed, like the moment when (in slow motion) a massive Great White Shark shoots up out of the ocean, its body completely out of the water from nose to tail, to snap up a seal in its terrifying jaws in one bite.
At the end of each hour-long segment (there are 15 hours total!), there is a short behind-the-scenes look at the lengths these camera teams had to go to get some of this footage. A man sits in a tent in the Amazon for weeks to get a few minutes worth of Birds of Paradise rituals, while having a ghastly 80's song stuck in his head the entire time. An underwater cameraman gets too close for comfort while filming piranhas strip a victim to a few bony molecules in a matter of minutes. And then there's footage of two cameramen playing chess in their cabin on a frozen tundra; they hear a noise and look up to see a polar bear peeking inside the window at them. "Get the gun! Get the gun!" one of them yells.
You will never think of things the same way. Your perspectives will be forever changed. Unless you have a heart of Antarctic ice, you'll walk away with a deeper respect and greater appreciation for all life. But you'll probably be so engrossed in the amazement and splendor of it all that you won't even notice. This ain't your eighth grade science teacher's nature documentary! And be thankful for it!
Originality = A
DVD Features = A
Acting = A
Enjoyability = A
Visuals = A
Overall = A
