The Movie
I’m a sucker for nature flicks. In the early days of HDTV I watched Texas Wild a hundred times. Later, Planet Earth and Galapagos pinned my eyes to the wide screen. I explore vicariously these gorgeous landscapes and peer into the dens of unsuspecting critters. I had to draw the line at March of the Penguins though--too sad.
Anyway, the BBC has come though again with Nature’s Most Amazing Events, a six hour odyssey documenting the interrelationships between animal and environment as annual climatic events shape select ecosystems. The feature is divided into six segments (The Great Melt, The Great Salmon Run, The Great Migration, The Great Tide, The Great Flood and The Great Feast), and each segment is lush with the sort of eye heroin nature-lovers live for.
Video
Throughout most of the feature, detail is sharp and realistic. Close ups of beluga whales reveal their white, scarred and mottled skin. The fluffy down of an owl flutters naturally, and the whiskers on a mother lion’s snout twitch menacingly when they need to. Arctic icebergs appear to glow with a bluish light.
Some of the best scenes include the underwater shots as a camera team follows a family of humpback whales from Hawaii to Alaska.
There are a few scenes, such as a fly-over shot of a British Columbia river, where the detail drops off, but for the most part this is some mighty sharp shooting. In another scene, faint, but noticeable vertical lines appear inextricably over a slow-motion eagle snatching a salmon. Other than those rare errors, the video quality matches the magnitude of the events it captures.
Because this release was shot on high definition video cameras for television, you get 1.78:1 (16:9) aspect ratio with no black bars.
Audio
While the video quality impresses, the audio is nothing special. It’s restricted to Dolby 2.0, so from a home theater perspective, it’s kinda flat. Of course, that’s understandable. When you’re chasing a grizzly bear underwater, trying not to get hit by passing claws, there’s no room for surround sound suite of microphones. This release is all about the picture.
Bonus features
Even though Nature’s Most Amazing Events is offered on two discs, there’s nothing in the way of bonus features. You do get a basic HDTV set-up guide with test patterns, but that’s it. Interestingly, at the end of each feature segment there’s a fascinating making-of “Diary” segment that shows the incredible lengths the camera crew went to capture the shots. Why these segments weren’t developed as Bonus Features instead of worked into the main feature is a mystery.
Final Thoughts
Nature's Most Amazing Events will appeal to fans of other nature shows and the Discovery Network. Production values are fairly high throughout, and the narration by David Attanborough adds drama without creating an artificial storyline. Be warned though, it's long, and if you're like me, you may nod off from time to time. Due to the limited (basically none) bonus features, I'd recommend this for a weekend rental rather than a purchase to the casual observer, but die-hard nature buffs will still want to add it to their collections.
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