Back in 2002, the BBC began filming the massive nature documentary Planet Earth. It would take four years to complete. Forty camera teams filmed more than 200 locations to be THE biggest nature documentary of them all. Back in the 1950s, though, the Walt Disney Company produced Academy award-winning nature films under their “True Life Adventures” label. But Disney has since ventured away from producing nature documentaries. That is, until it released Earth in theaters on Earth Day 2009.
Earth is brought to life by filmmakers Alastair Fothergill (BBC’s The Blue Planet) and Mark Linfield (BBC’s Planet Earth). Their crew is armed with the latest camera equipment that allows them an extremely close-up view that allowed them to document a year in the life of three animal families. The stories include a polar bear mother and her cubs, a humpbacked whale and her baby, and a group of elephants. All of them have to travel great distances for them to survive as the seasons change (as well as issues of global warming). These stories are intercut with other animals and their natural habitats. All of this is animal activity is narrated by the great James Earl Jones in a 90 minute feature-length film.
In all actuality, though, Earth is just a shortened and smoothly edited version of BBC’s Planet Earth. Disney decides to follow a few of the animals and attempt to tell a story, but the story manipulation doesn’t really work. You love to watch these cute animals as they do their thing at first, but then your heart breaks as you watch them suffer and even die. There is no graphic violence shown, but kids still know that some of the animals they quickly began to love have now died. This is all a part of life, but be prepared to explain this to your kids if you let them watch this.
Despite the fact that Earth doesn’t know what it wants to be, it is still a beautiful sight to behold. James Earl Jones is excellent as the voice that ties everything together. But most of the best and funniest moments come when the film strays away from the central animals to take a look at all the oddities that exist out in the wilderness. Much credit must be given to the cast and crew that worked on the documentary, even if a majority of the footage is culled from the massive Planet Earth series. Still, for nature lovers this is probably the best looking nature documentary that Disney has ever released.
This set contains both the Blu-ray and standard DVD version of this film. The video on the Blu-ray disc is presented in 1080p/AVC at the 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen color ratio, which is enhanced for 16:9 TVs of course. This transfer is great. Small details are clear and all the colors are crisp and vibrant.
The audio included on the Blu-ray disc is available in either English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Surround sound, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, or French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French as well. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French as well. As expected, the Blu-ray is stellar in the sound department, taking full advantage of the side speakers.
Filmmaker Annotations –
These are basically pop-ups with the filmmakers commenting on what is going on in the film at the moment. They are playable as a separate stream on players with Bonus View capability (Profile 1.1). Pretty nice complement with the feature film.
“Earth Diaries: The Making of Earth The Movie” Featurette –
This runs 42 minutes and it explains the philosophy and editing strategies as well as describing how the BBC team got the footage that the Disney crew used as a starting point for this film.
If don’t have the time to watch all of BBC’s Planet Earth series, Earth is a more manageable version for kids.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment presents Earth. Directed and Written by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield. Starring James Earl Jones (voice narrator). Running time: 90 minutes. Rated G. Released on DVD: September 1, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
