Filmed over the course of five immensely challenging years, it remains a fascinating eight-episode exploration of the world's oceans, beautiful underwater expanses and coastal vistas, and rich, diverse sealife, with narration from David Attenborough and music composed by five-time Academy Award nominee George Fenton. One of those pre- Planet Earth series is executive producer Alastair Fothergill's The Blue Planet: Seas of Life. Along with renowned naturalist (and British national treasure) Sir David Attenborough, who joined the BBC in 1952, the BBC Natural History Unit has made dramatic strides in the field, eliminating the once unbridgeable chasm between viewers around the world and some of the most amazing sights on Earth, above the waves and below. Established in 1957, the BBC Natural History Unit has been on the front lines with many a landmark series. But the BBC has been producing outstanding programming for the better part of seven decades, from radio broadcasts like The Naturalist in the 1940s to groundbreaking television like Life on Earth in the late '70s to, most recently, stunning, riveting shows like Africa. Unconverted standard definition video all but sinks the ship.įor some, natural history documentaries and series begin and end with Planet Earth and its 21st century progeny. Overall, 'The Blue Planet' delights again.The Blue Planet: Seas of Life Blu-ray Review One roots for the animals, whether prey or predator. Instead, it feels like its own individual story with real, complex emotions and conflicts. Picking favourite scenes is hard, though there is a lot of tension and emotional impact when certain animals fall prey to predators, like the salmon to the salmon shark, the herring to the killer whales and the dangers jellyfish pose. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more. Attenborough's narration helps quite significantly too, he clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. There are things already known to me, still delivered with a lot of freshness, but there was a lot that was quite an education and after watching the full series it honestly felt like the series taught me a lot. Can't fault the narrative aspects in "Seasonal Seas" either. Some of my favourite work from him in fact, coming from someone who's liked a lot of what he's done. It not only complements the visuals but enhances them to a greater level. George Fenton's music score soars majestically, rousing the spirits while touching the soul. Standing out even more is the photography, never before or since 'The Blue Planet' has there been more stunning underwater sequences. It has gorgeous scenery and rich colours, while the animals and marine life are captured in all their glory. Visually, "Seasonal Seas" is a wonder, same with all the series' episodes and Attenborough's work in general. It was really interesting to see how the seas and the marine life adapted and were affected by the four seasons, handled in a way that was ceaselessly fascinating and left the viewer in awe visually. "Seasonal Seas", and the subsequent episodes, confirms my feeling that 'The Blue Planet' was consistently great and more and there was not a bad episode of the eight. To me, the series overall is wholly deserving of its acclaim and the individual episodes are rated far too low. As said in my reviews for the individual episodes of 'Frozen Planet', it is a shame that despite being one of IMDb's highest rated shows, the ratings here for each episode individually has such a wide divide between them and that for the show overall. It is also one of his most ground-breaking, in that it's the first comprehensive series of oceanic natural history and including and exploring creatures and their behaviour that had never been seen before. It leaves me in complete and utter awe every time, with how much is learnt about all the different seas and marine inhabitants and how it all looks visually. 'The Blue Planet' is one of my favourites of his. He has done so many treasures and even his lesser output of a long and consistently impressive career is still good. David Attenborough, as has been said many times, is wholly deserving of being called a national treasure, although it is a term he happens to not like.
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