Search - The Blue Planet - Seas of Life (Part 1) on DVD

As good as it gets

Steven Hellerstedt | 02/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If movies are the director's medium and television series the writer's, nature programs belong to the photographers. Good moving pictures, deftly edited, can make a good nature show great. The first two episodes of the BBC program THE BLUE PLANET, `Ocean World' and `Frozen Seas,' have some of the best nature photography I believe I've ever seen.



I'm not usually a great fan of nature shows. Most seem heavily loaded with warnings about global warming, human encroachment, lose of the rain forest, etc. All important issues, but usually more depressing than enlightening. Not too keen on the ones where the host adopts a grizzly cub or peels a poisonous snake off a mambo tree, either. Thankfully THE BLUE PLANET doesn't have an agenda to push or a host's ego to stroke. If you want to see a program that simply celebrates nature, this is the one for you.



Richard Attenborough hosts these programs, adding his considerable credibility to the proceedings. Highlights in the first program include the dolphins herding of the migrating sardines and the arrival of the creatures of the night from the ocean depths. There's some footage of blue whales, but because they swim alone - we don't see a human being in either episode - it's hard to get a sense of their size from the footage. Second episode highlights include a polar bear with cub on the hunt and herds of penguin huddling against the biting wind and bitter cold. Simply amazing footage in both episodes. Also included are a couple of short (9 minutes or so) featurettes profiling the film crews for the two episodes. Highest recommendation for this dvd.

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