EARTH (2009, Blu-ray released September 1, 2009 – MSRP $39.99)
I think I’m the only Blu-ray aficionado who doesn’t yet own the BBC Planet Earth discs. I mean, I’ve seen them, for the most part, on friends and family’s screens. Stunning stuff. But if you don’t have twenty-thousand hours to sit through the whole documentary series, it feels a bit impenetrable. That’s why I love Disney Nature‘s new Earth Blu-ray disc.
Earth is damn-near a highlight reel of the Planet Earth documentary series. Award-winning British producer and director Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield have taken the most compelling story elements of the near 4000 days of cinematography captured by the BBC crew and fused them together into a fairly cohesive 90 minute, family friendly presentation for the new Disney Nature film label. The filmmakers follow families of arctic polar bears, African elephants and humpback whales for a year in a tale woven by master narrator and Dark Lord of the Sith, James Earl Jones (Patrick Stewart narrates the British release of Earth) . Using these story elements as a base, the film spirals around the globe, allowing brief glimpses at some of the more wondrous scenes captured for the series and delivering a subtle warning about the erosion of the natural world.
The Blu-ray disc is, as I’m sure you expected, absolutely brilliant to behold. Like the Planet Earth boxed set before it, the Earth disc is a show-stopper and a no-brainer as a home theatre demo disc. Wanna impress your pals with your new high-def screen? Pop in Earth and watch their jaws drop. What makes this really stand apart from the Planet Earth collection is the inclusion of a lossless audio track. Where the former set only included a compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track, Earth shatters your speakers with glorious 5.1 DTS HD (at 48kHz/24 bit)! You can almost hear the planet spinning on its axis! Ok…no, you can’t. I just made that up…
The Earth Blu-ray disc features some really nice bonus features in the way of a 45 minute documentary about the filmmaking process and a Blu-ray exclusive “Annotation” track that runs through the length of the film. While the doc focuses solely on the unique methods used to capture the footage and the lengths the filmmakers had to go to get it, the annotation track branches out, offering pop-up scientific text bites and picture-in-picture interviews with scientists, along with the filmmakers. BD-Live is used on the discs “Living Menu”, which will update regularly, offering a fresh look at different zones around the planet. Cool!
i liked the part with the polar bears.
I am still new to having a Blu ray I cannot wait to get the Blu ray. I already ordered it. Some people say it is one of the best HD visual experiences on Blu ray disk.