Earth, Blu-ray + DVD (2009)
Disneynature Series
Narrator: James Earl Jones
Filmmakers: Alistair Fothergill, Mark Linfield
Studio: Disney 100728 [Release date: Sept. 1, 09]
Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 color 1080i HD
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French & Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Filmmaker annotations, “Earth Diaries: The Making of Earth the Movie,” Standard DVD version on Disc 2
Length: 90 minutes
Rating: *****
This is the first feature film from a new Disney venture which intends to be a worthy successor to the Academy-Award-winning Disney shorts of the 1950s – the True Live Adventures series. Some of the footage for this nature documentary came from the vast library of the BBC and the Discovery Channel Planet Earth series. Some of the shots made use of a new remotely-operated hi-def zoom camera which mounts out in front of a helicopter for thrilling views which were never before possible.
The film ties together the stories of three different animal families in various parts of the world: a mother polar bear and her two cubs coming out of hibernation with the male miles away attempting to find food in spite of the ever-smaller ice floes due to global warming, a herd of African elephants migrating across the Kalahari Desert toward water, and a humpback whale and her new calf making a 4000-mile journey from the tropics to Antarctica. In between are amazing shots of ducks, birds of paradise, monkeys, caribou, lions and many other animals, as well as glorious aerial images of striking parts of the earth, such as the Amazon’s Angel Falls, the trees near the Arctic tree line, and some of the spectacular rain forests, deserts and mountains. The sometimes harsh realities of nature are shown in the footage of lions attacking an elephant, a cheetah attacking a gazelle, and the polar bear unsuccessfully trying to munch on a baby walrus to avoid impending starvation.
The original footage is often breathtaking and the Blu-ray transfer looks perfect. The surround for scenes such as the gigantic Amazon waterfall system is most effective. The documentary on the making of the film is also well worth viewing. Earth is similar in some ways to the recent nature feature Home, which we reviewed here. However, it is more oriented to the animal life and doesn’t have the “message” of Home. It’s more just a gorgeous portrait of life on this planet. This is the sort of family movie that is truly uplifting and will bear repeated viewings.
– John Sunier
