Planet Earth Review

My mom told me about this 11 part series back when it originally aired on HD TV.  She has an HD TV so it must have looked fantastic.  When I saw it was going to be on Discovery channel again throughout December, I knew I had to catch it.  The only trouble is that this time it isn't broadcast on an HD channel but instead just the regular Discovery channel.  It still looks really cool on my mom's TV, and still is worth watching on ANY TV you may have.

What is it?
Each of the 11 hour long episodes focus on one aspect of Planet Earth.  Today I watched Fresh Water and Desserts.  These will be replaying throughout the month so check your listings!  I have DVRed all the other episodes which include Caves, Deep Ocean, Jungle, and more.  Throughout the episode, Sigourney Weaver narrates.  I read some reviews saying the British narrator was hard to understand, so perhaps they replaced him with Sigourney Weaver because she is definitely not British. 

What is there to see?
You will get to see things in Earth's most hidden areas that you never would be able to experience otherwise.  The things they captured on this film are not only in hidden areas, but also in dangerous areas where most people would not want to travel.  The scenery is gorgeous and the camera moves slow enough that you really get to look at it all.  I kept thinking how awesome this would be at the Imax!!  I would love it.  You will also explore the lives of animals in each of these areas.  What animal could possibly survive in the dessert?  You'll find out and you'll get to see how they survive. 

Visually speaking...
On the visual side, not all the episodes may interest you.  I thought the Fresh Water episode was gorgeous and loved every scene, however parts of the Dessert episode bored me because visually there wasn't much to see but sand and sun.  If you are worried this will happen to you, check the list of episodes and stick to the more visually pleasing ones. 

Learning a lot...
Even though the Dessert wasn't all that pretty to look at, I still learned a lot of interesting facts such as how kangaroo's keep themselves cool and how flash floods can cause flowers to bloom all across the land.  Ok, so these things won't be a huge help to you in life or your career, but it is still very interesting and sometimes unbelievable.

Seamless Transitions...
My favorite part about each episode was how they seamlessly moved from one scene to the next.  I've seen other shows like this where they would focus on one animal, then skip over to a completely different animal, and it was just all over the place.  This series in different in that they will talk about one animal, then flow right into talking about that animals predator, then flow right into talking about that predators habit.  It's easy to follow and easy to pay attention.

Conclusion
This is one TV show you should force your children to watch and you should watch it with them.  Why would you pass on the opportunity to see something that only a few people have seen in person?  Throughout the show they explain how hard it was to get certain shots and how many attempts they had to make before they actually got the shot on the perfect day at the perfect time.  Do you think you are going to do that someday?  Most likely not... so check your listings now and catch this while it's on.  It is also available for sale in DVD, HD DVD, or Blue Ray Disc at pedvd.com. Enjoy!