Galapagos (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)This Blu-ray DVD has not had the hype that the Planet Earth series has had, but it rivals the series even within its limited content and definitely surpasses it in sound/editing.
This BBC series is broken into several episodes, all of which are well balanced with scientific information and amazing visuals of the Galapagos. Some episodes focus more above sea, others below, and yet others on the human interface with the islands.
The narration is top notch and the sound effects and music are beautiful - combined they really make this DVD shine. You definitely get a lot of bang for the buck on this DVD because it is a highly polished production.

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The inspiration for Darwin's theory of evolution, the Galapagos Islands are a living laboratory, a geological conveyor belt that has given birth to and seen the death of many species of plants and animals. As the western islands rise up from the sea offering a chance of life, the eastern islands sink back beneath the waves guaranteeing only death. Between the two are the middle islands; fertile, lush land in its prime that contains an incredible diversity of life. Nowhere else on the Earth are the twin processes of creation and extinction of species so starkly apparent... see it all unfold before your eyes in this stunning series filmed entirely in high definition from the BBC and the National Geographic Channel.

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Wild Pacific (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)This DVD is fantastic, lots of nature information and unusual rare flora and fauna! Mike Rowe as narrator at his best. Great watching for people who like water, and nature. Some sad scenes of course, this is REAL reality, not those fake shows that pass for reality. Highly recommend as an addition to anyone's library!

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This landmark series explores the sheer scale and majesty of the largest ocean on Earth, the isolation of its islands, the extraordinary journeys wildlife and humans have gone through to reach these specks of land, and what happened to both after their arrival. Unimaginably vast, the Pacific is 99% water and only 1% land - you could fit the whole of the world's landmasses into it and still have enough room for another Africa! The distance between these islands can be huge - literally hundreds or thousands of miles - but somehow, life made it there. Isolation does curious things - animals evolve and adapt in strange ways. Witness flesh-eating caterpillars, giant crabs capable of opening coconuts, geckos that can breed without any need of a male, frogs that have never been tadpoles... Beyond cliched images of swaying palms and idyllic beaches, this is the real, immense and surprising South Pacific.

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Yellowstone: Battle for Life (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)The BBC has released many excellent documentaries in hi-def/Blu-ray and Yellowstone is no exception. It carries on the BBC's tradition of high-quality nature programming and flair for visually-stunning photography. This series is a year in the lives of several of Yellowstone/North America's iconic wildlife: the bison, grizzly bears, foxes, wolves, beavers, and elk. Divided into three 50 minute episodes, they are titled "Winter", "Summer" and "Autumn" (in this order). For the US market, the BBC has added "Battle for Life" to the title, but this is a bit superfluous and unnecessary, maybe to make the DVD sound more dramatic. The original title is simply "Yellowstone".
The episodes are informative, entertaining, and light-hearted, largely free of the depressing reminders of human ecological destruction seen on some other BBC documentaries such as Wild Pacific [Blu-ray]. I learned some things I didn't know before. Winter is by far my favorite episode, giving me the most memorable line from the series: "At 40 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit or centigrade doesn't really matter much. At this temperature, both are the same." Despite being the home to the world's largest geothermal formation, Yellowstone is paradoxically one of the coldest places in North America. I enjoyed the pristine landscapes covered with deep snow and seeing a winter wonderland untouched by any signs of humanity, all from the comfort of my home. One particularly amazing scene is of a fox sniffing for mice under 6 feet of snow, and seeing it leap into the air, plunge headfirst into the snow like an Olympic diver, and emerge with a mouse in its jaws.
This series also features some gorgeous fly-overs, in particular, the colorful volcanic springs (Grand Prismatic Spring), which looks like a beautiful orange and blue encircled painting instead of a natural ecological wonder. I wish the producers could've spend some time showing us the colonies of extremophile heat-loving bacteria that thrive in these springs, instead of just flying over and cutting to the next scene. Bears and elk I've seen a thousand times on TV, but not these rare bacteria.
I watched these out of order on TV, but the overall effect is not diminished because of the cycle of life and the changing of the seasons. Peter Firth's voice is pleasant and affable. If you enjoyed Nature's Most Amazing Events [Blu-ray], you'll probably enjoy this too.

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In a land of beauty and peril, the dramatic lives and fortunes of these animals are inexorably bound together. Intimate and emotional, epic and engaging, Yellowstone - Tales from the Wild reveals the grandeur of this unique place as its animals struggle to survive over the course of three vividly changing seasons.

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Best of Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr (2pc) (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)- The picture is beautiful and sharp.
- The narrator actively interacted with the animals. He's just not passively filming them. For example, in Snake Bite episode, he entered one of the caves in rain-forest jungle of Indonesia to catch the giant pythons. He waded in bat-dung mud that was hip high. The scene where one of the snakes took a big bite out of his thigh is terrifying.
- The DVD shows some of the species I've never seen before like the almost-extinct crocodiles of China.
- The film poses an interesting question "Which living animal has the strongest bite?" The methods used and the journeys taken by Brady to answer this questions are both exciting and suspenseful.
- In short, this 2-discs DVD set is worth every penny. I own it.


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Reptile expert Dr. Brady Barr has spent his entire career studying some of the world's most amazing and deadliest animals. In the hit series, Dangerous Encounters, Barr's goal is to study these dangerous creatures in their natural environment before their habitat is destroyed so that he can better understand what they need to survive in the wild. Best of Dangerous Encounters features Brady's most dangerous encounters with some of the planet's most unapproachable animals including his headline-making bite from a 12 foot reticulated python. Includes 4 full programs: Snake Bite, Dens of Danger, Bite Force and Undercover Hippo.

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