An Enjoyable Journey
If you look up reviews for this release, consumers seem to be split between really enjoying it, and really thrashing it because it uses footage from BBC’s “Earth”. Personally, the “Earth” documentary is something I can watch fairly often, even more often than a lot of movies, simply because it’s gorgeous, informative, and entertaining. The footage is rather captivating, which is why you’ll see “Earth” playing in a lot of waiting rooms.
Disneynature’s “earth” is as compelling to me, thanks to using the same footage and another unmistakable voice in James Earl Jones. While Patrick Stewart did the BBC’s documentary, James Earl Jones does the honors for Disneynature’s version. James Earl Jones’ concise script lets the serene soundtrack and beautiful footage do most of the talking, which is a good choice, but whenever he does talk it’s always something worth hearing.
Despite having the same footage as BBC’s “Earth,” “earth” promotes a different theme. The documentary was filmed over the course of some 4000 days and viewers will follow along the journeys of several wildlife families. Up first is an adorable polar bear family that is just appearing from hibernation. We’ll get to see two small cubs take their first steps, or attempts at first steps, and follow the father as he searches for food. A large group of elephants, under attack from a pride of lions is also shown, with plenty of night footage. You’ll see some frightening predatory acts of a great white shark as well as dozens of different birds from the jungle. The footage this team captured is honestly some of the most amazing I’ve ever seen, and it’s all raw, real events from nature which makes it all the more captivating.
With the Disney name on the box, you might think this would be great for kids, and while there is very little to no blood and gore, there are several scenes that might make you think twice about showing this to children. Personally, I don’t think there is anything too harsh here not to show, but the scenes with the great white shark, the cheetah chasing down its prey, and the lions attacking the baby elephant might be cause for some concern. Then again, these events are a part of nature and the circle of life as James Earl Jones reminds us.
Overall, the one and a half hour documentary is quite enjoyable, even having had seen BBC’s “Earth” a few times over.
On Blu-ray
This is one of those releases that only makes sense to own on Blu-ray. The footage itself is incredible, but the quality of the footage is also outstanding. For real footage of nature, this is demo-level material that you’ll see being shown off in department stores. I really have no complaints about the image quality at all. The audio doesn’t disappoint either. For the most part a very soft and light hearted score plays, although that changes some during predator-prey scenes. As I mentioned earlier, the narration is nicely written and delivered.
This Blu-ray version includes not only the film on Blu-ray, but a second disc with it on DVD. The first disc also contains several extra features, including a BDLive-enabled menu that grabs the time and weather conditions of your approximate location and displays this data in the lower right corner of the screen. I would have liked to have seen a better color scheme used to navigate the menu than just white and brighter white with bits of yellow, but it’s functional enough.
The extras include “Earth Diaries: The Making of earth the movie,” a forty-two minute SD feature. This is a very interesting piece that shows the photographers and crew in action, and what they had to go through to get the footage that made it into the documentary. The other feature is video commentary or filmmaker annotations that you can enable while watching “earth.” When you do, a small picture-in-picture screen appears while the movie plays, with the crew talking about various shots and so forth.
In conclusion, I enjoyed Disneynature’s earth, despite having the same footage from BBC’s “Earth.” Truthfully, if you already own “Earth,” you really don’t need Disneynature’s abridged version. That said, there isn’t anything wrong with “earth,” it’s just that a more complete, and yes more expensive, package of this same footage has already been released.
