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This Blu-ray DVD is awesome! The images of each footage is so clear and defined that you feel like your right there standing next to the filming crew! 01. Pole to Pole: Illustrates a “journey” around the world and reveals the effect of gradual climatic change and seasonal transitions en route. 02. Mountains: All of the main mountain ranges of the world are explored with extensive aerial photography. 03. Fresh Water: Describes the course taken by rivers and some of the species that take advantage of such a habitat, as is provided by such habitats. All of which ultimately illustrates that, though only three percent of all the world’s water is fresh, all life is ultimately dependent on it. 04. Caves: Explores the planet’s “final” frontier, as it presents to viewers the world of caves and tunnels found throughout the world. 05. Deserts: Features this harsh environment that covers approximately one third of the planet, as well as the various forms of life that have adapted to survive its harshness. 06. Ice Worlds: Primarily looks at the regions of both the Artic and Antarctica. 07. Great Plains: Deals with savanna, steppe, tundra, prairie, and takes a look at the importance and resilience of grasses in such treeless ecosystems — systems that contain the largest concentration of animal life on Earth. 08. Jungles: Examines jungles and tropical rainforests, two environments that occupy only three percent of the land yet are home to over half the world’s species. 09. Shallow Seas: Is devoted to the shallow seas that fringe the world’s continents — an area that may only constitute only eight percent of the oceans, yet it also contains the most marine life. 10. Seasonal Forests: Surveys the coniferous and deciduous seasonal woodland habitats — the most extensive forests to be found on Earth. 11. Ocean Deep: Concentrates on the most unexplored area of the planet, the deep ocean. Each episode runs approximately 58 minutes in length. This includes “Planet Earth Diaries,” a 10-minute feature that details the filming of a particular event. Also, the DVDs have each episode being narrated by the wonderful vocal talents of David Attenborough as it was in the program’s original BBC release, instead of with Sigourney Weaver’s narration as was used in the American airing of the series on the Discovery Channel. The BBC’s Planet Earth is available in Standard Definition DVD, High-Definition DVD, and Blu-Ray DVD formats.Read full review
Review done by New York Times ----------------------------- Nature often looks better at a distance. “Planet Earth,” an 11-part mother of all nature series to be shown on the Discovery Channel for five consecutive Sundays, beginning tomorrow night, understands this truth. The BBC, which produced the series with Discovery, used helicopters, long lenses and all manner of cutting-edge film techniques to bring us the photographic spoils of a five-year global odyssey. Often the filmmakers show Earth in the most flattering light. In Antarctica “the cliff tops are stained pink,” the narrator Sigourney Weaver says, “with the droppings of tens of thousands of nesting penguins.” Seen from afar, the droppings look lovely. But “Planet Earth” does not always see waste matter through rose-tinted lenses. Close-ups can be equally dramatic. In a cave in Borneo the camera ranges across what appears to be a moving mountain. This, Ms. Weaver explains, is a 300-foot-high mound of bat droppings, “its surface carpeted with hundreds of thousands of cockroaches.” One would have been enough. The cockroaches eat the droppings. Occasionally something bigger drops — a bat, say — and the cockroaches eat that too. This brings us to the last element of the trinity of nature shows: beauty, repulsiveness and bloody slaughter. “Pole to Pole,” the first of the series’s hourlong episodes, is a scan of the planet, a précis of things to come. It includes serious evidence that the natural world, however wounded by global warming, continues to be red in tooth and claw. A wolf captures a caribou; a snow leopard (the species is rarely seen) eats a deer; and a seal falls prey to a shark. It’s a jungle out there — except when it’s a desert. Early on, a tired, thirsty elephant calf trudges alone through the Kalahari Desert, following its mother’s tracks — in the wrong direction. The elephant is going to die, but we don’t see that on “Planet Earth,” just as we don’t see a wounded polar bear expire, although we know it will. This series skillfully takes us to the brink of heartbreak and then pulls way back — letting us relax and revel in long shots of caribou migrating across the Canadian tundra — or hones in on a cute family of kangaroos licking their skinny forearms to cool off in the 120-degree heat. The severest climates and most monotonous landscapes on Earth seem to produce the cuddliest animals. Polar bears, seals and penguins populate the poles; kangaroos, big-eared foxes and long-lashed dromedaries enliven the desert. It is as if nature evolved to accommodate a nature show. The planet, of course, is changing faster than its inhabitants’ ability to keep up with it, and that sad fact colors many of the episodes. As the polar ice cap shrinks, polar bears must swim farther than ever for food. This leads to the aforementioned bear’s quixotic 60-mile voyage to find dinner: in this case, an ill-judged attack on a walrus herd. Among this series’s many rare feats is that it often encourages you to root for the predator rather than the prey: fitting at a time when the planet itself seems as vulnerable as a newly hatched penguin.Read full review
I want to start off by saying...WOW !! Planet Earth's first episode "From Pole to Pole" provides an overview of the entire series. It whisks us from the Antarctic to the North Pole, and a variety of climes in between, without simply repackaging footage from subsequent episodes. We're given a glimpse into the lives of Emperor Penguins, Polar Bears, Great White Sharks hunting sea lions in breeding season, the nearly extinct Amur Leopard of Eastern Russia, a massive herd of caribou in North America, a pack of wild dogs on the hunt in Africa, and other rare and fascinating species. As the episode titles indicate, the remainder of the series focuses on specific ecosystems and the wildlife they nurture. Each episode is a glory of high-definition cinematography that utilizes new technology to capture vivid imagery from distances that give us a window into animal behavior sans the disruptive influence of camera crews tromping through their habitats. Like all nature series, each episode of Planet Earth draws its dramatic intensity from the relentless struggle between life and death—and the show is, indeed, dramatically intense. Placid shots of achingly beautiful flora, fauna, and sprawling landscapes are juxtaposed against the never-ending contest between predator and prey. Planet Earth is absolutely riveting, but not for the feint of heart. The most dramatic and controversial of its violent set pieces is the "Great Plains" episode's difficult to watch encounter between an elephant and a pride of 30 hungry lions. Shot in the dead of night, the sequence delivers a palpable sense of terror and raw savagery that evokes equal parts sympathy and fascination. Best of all, the show's genuine drama doesn't rely on anthropomorphizing the animals. It simply presents them as they are. It is the astounding breadth, scope, and depth of Planet Earth that makes it revolutionary. "Ocean Deep," "Ice Worlds," "Jungles," or any of the other episodes have the smarts and substance to hold their own against similarly themed Discovery Channel documentaries. That each of the unique episodes is woven into a sprawling but cohesive 11-part whole makes Planet Earth a unique and special snapshot of the planet on which we live. Combine that with the show's innovative and surprisingly intimate cinematography and one need only watch a few minutes of the first episode to realize that nature documentaries will never be the same. In terms of supplements, each episode of the series is followed by a 10-minute featurette detailing the production of one of the episode's segments. Though brief, the pieces provide a concrete sense of the new technologies used to deliver the show's stunning views of nature, as well as the trials suffered by the various crews trying to capture rare footage in remote parts of the world. A fifth disc contains a follow-up series called Planet Earth: The Future. Split into three episodes—"Saving Species" "Into the Wilderness" and "Living Together" The whole show runs approximately two and a half hours in length. It assembles a group of environmental talking heads to discuss the ecological ramifications at the heart of Planet Earth. This 11-part examination of the majestic beauty of Earth's remotest landscapes and rarest species is guaranteed to take your breath away. As I am running out of caracters to finish my review, let me say Planet Earth is the most impressive nature show I've ever laid eyes on. If you're a fan of the genre, it's a must-see.Read full review
I own both the BBC and Discovery versions, and they are both a feast for the eyes. Be wary, as the runtime, narration, and resolution for the different editions are EXTREMELY dissimilar!! Be VERY careful, as just about EVERY version you find on ebay (and shipping within the USA) will most likely be the shorter running Discovery Edition, which mostly has a monopoly on the US market. If you want the BBC version, you typically have to purchase online through a british vendor (ie Amazon.uk). The BBC version is well worth an investment (if you must choose between the two), especially since you can usually procure it for about $35-$40 USD when the dollar is strong against the pound. Concerning 1080i vs 1080p: Both state on the box that they are 1080i capable--this is not entirely true. The BBC version is mostly in 1080p, while some extras and bonus content are encoded in 1080i. For the Discovery version however, the entirety of the videos are in 1080i due to poor encoding. David Attenborough BBC Edition: Most people prefer his narration because he put a lot more heart into it. However, some find this edition annoying because he talks more than Sigourney in the US version. NOTE that this version has an extra 10 minutes added to EVERY episode when compared with the truncated US version as seen below. This features an extra bonus disc that isn't available with the Discovery version---so this includes 5 discs total, and 2 bonus episodes. Sigourney Weaver Discovery Edition While most people are disappointed with her narrating style (not as much "acting" and emotion in it), most will agree that this is not a BAD version. The intros to each episode are more beautiful than the generic version for the BBC edition, but each episode is missing an extra 10 minutes due to US programming/commercial issues. This version does NOT feature any bonus content (as in the dvd and BBC blu-ray versions). There are 4 discs total, and is overall the weakest investment of the Planet Earth Collections.Read full review
Quality of the video and audio allows me to get the most out of my large Sony 1080P TV and HT system. The documentary itself was ambitious, to say the least. Phenomenal footage. Snow Leopards, Caves with crystals, Lions hunting elephants, and Great Whites doing aerial acrobats in super slo-mo...All incredible. The only down side to the 4 disc Blu-ray version is they don't give us the special features about how they got the footage. The 5 disc DVD set shows how they set up certain shots. How the guy sits in a tent in New Guinea for 2 weeks to get 20 minutes of footage of the most amazing birds you've ever seen. How they rigged a gyroscopic pulley system to shoot a 100 ft. mound of guano... GREAT, but NO SPECIAL FEATURES!
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