Planet Earth

December 3, 2007

Rated: Unrated Runtime: 550 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Planet Earth is the definitive nature documentary of our time. Ask anyone who’s seen it what they thought and you’ll see their face light up as the relay to you their favorite scenes, and just how amazing the series is. If they saw it in HD, they’ll probably say things like “you just won’t believe” and “it’s so freaking cool!” while they are telling you about it.

If you never watch any of the Discovery Networks, and don’t have any friends who watch their networks then it’s remotely possible that you don’t know what this show is. Planet Earth is a big budget (around $25 million) documentary that was shot over 5 years using all HD equipment that takes a look at every corner of the globe. Mountains, oceans, caves, valleys, jungles, deserts… you get the idea. They also went to great lengths to capture rare animals on film, some for the first time. If anything this is my one complaint with the show.. being reminded “this was the first” or “our cameraman waited virtually motionless for 5 days to get this shot” all the time got a bit old. Though, I suppose you could make a drinking game out of this. Mmmmmm…

There are differences between the DVD release of Planet Earth and what you saw on Discovery Theater, the most obvious is with the narrator. The DVD is the original BBC production narrated by David Attenborough, which to my ear is superior to the narration by Sigourney Weaver that we heard on TV. He showed more emotion and lended more excitement to the series at the points where excitement was merited. Weaver wasn’t bad, but Attenborough is better.

There’s another difference that has to be mentioned here, and it’s not a good one. The DVD version of the series has far more material on it than the HD-DVD or Blu-ray versions. There’s a 10 minute making-of for each episode plus an entirely separate program called “Planet Earth – The Future” that were excluded from the more expensive versions. Why?! There’s PLENTY of space on the high definition formats for this material so I’ve only come up with one reason for them to have done this… marketing. If you have a HD-DVD or Blu -ray player then you will obviously purchase that version of the program. But then.. you’re missing material, so you might just decide to pick up the regular DVD as well. I doubt many people fell for this trick and I call shenanigans on the Discovery Channel for trying this.

Let me be clear, if you have HD-DVD or Blu-ray, don’t even consider getting the regular DVD format. After watching both HD-DVD and regular DVD, there’s no comparison to the quality. While each scene in HD-DVD just begs to be seen, the DVD version looks a bit soft and looses that “immediacy” that HD is known for. I’ve said before that a comparison between a Hollywood movie in HD and upscaled DVD can result in similar enjoyment, this does not hold true for Planet Earth. Much in the way that games like Halo 3 are system sellers for the Xbox 360, Planet Earth is a system seller for HD. The moment you see it for yourself you’ll be saying “gee.. I should get me one of these HD things.”

Obviously Planet Earth gets 5 stars, there’s just nothing else nearly as good in this genre. The DVD version reviewed here isn’t perfect, and thanks to the stupid marketing decision of the Discovery Channel the HD versions aren’t perfect either, but it’s still a must have. My suggestion is to buy the HD version that fits your system, then rent the regular DVD’s from Netflix so you can see the extras.

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Posted by John | Filed Under 5 Stars, DVD, David Attenborough, Documentary, Unrated