Ellie Claussen
The BBC'S Blue Planet is simply jaw-dropping. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say it contains some of the most beautiful sequences ever captured on film. From familiar creatures on and near the surface of the ocean to some more unrecognisable and just plain bizarre ones in the murky depths, next to nothing is left out. Weighing in at a hefty 8 hours, some people may want to check out the edited highlights brought to you in the form of the film "Deep Blue" but I would heartily recommend you give the series a go. I don't think it will disappoint and if your kids enjoyed the aquatic world brought to them by Pixar's Finding Nemo I'm sure they will love this too. I just wish all television was this entertaining.
what-8
This series has a lot going for it with beautiful footage of the some of the most impressive underwater environments on this planet. Being a staggering five years in the making, one would be hard-pressed to expect any less. I did get the impression that some scenes from the first episode where repeated in the latter ones, which is naturally only a minor gripe.David Attenborough is great as a narrator and comments are informative, leaving enough room for one's imagination, and well spaced out, so that viewers get plenty of time to reflect upon the breathtaking imagery. If you get the opportunity try not to watch a translated version of this series.A definite must-see for anyone interested in the intricacies of our blue continents and easily the best documentary on this subject I've ever seen.
rodeler
As a SCUBA diver, I can appreciate the incredible physical strain the cameramen must have endured to get the shots underwater. This series is MUCH more than that, though. The narration is perfect, the scenes bordering on implausible and the subject matter enthralling. The day to day struggle for life taking place out of the view of we terrestrial dwellers is mind boggling. This DVD set has open my eyes to another planet right here on Earth. I urge everyone to watch this series.
evanpelt
The Discovery Channel billed this as a show that would show us things we have never seen before. By the time the four hours are over, you will see the same things over and over and over but little of it will be new to you.The cinematography in this production was fabulous. The way the footage was put together was terrible. The same footage was used many times. In some cases the narration was practically a word for word repeat of a segment shown an hour or two before. I lost count how many times we saw feeding frenzies of tuna/dolphins/sharks/diving birds preying on sardines/herring/mackerel.There are so many wondrous things in the oceans. Unfortunately this show doesn't show many of them. *At least* half of the four hours was spent on Tuna, dolphins, whales, sharks, sardines, mackerel, polar bears, penguins and the like. I think most of us have seen them on film before ;-)
The amount of time spent of the unusual things was so disappointing. I would have liked to have seen more on the phytoplankton and zooplankton. They are so tiny yet are the basis of life in the ocean and they have such beautiful shapes. More time could have been spent on the deep sea animals (although seeing the same footage two and three times over the course of the four hours was useless). So many things were left out it was frustrating.Another really big failing was the lack of a logical flow or progression. It was sometimes difficult to keep track of where in the world the action was happening. The action moved from ocean to ocean and from surface to deep sea and back and forth again and again in a very confusing manner.A sense of the scale of many of the animals was totally lacking. In many cases you had no idea if the creature was microscopic or several feet long.If they had cut out the repeats and had progressed logically from the ocean surface to the sea floor this could have made a great two hour show.
In short, I loved the cinematography, it was beautifully shot, but whoever put it together and wrote the narration blew it.