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The BBC Natural History Collection is a seventeen-disc
set that combines the earlier, multi-disc sets of their
documentary series Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Life of Mammals,
and Life of Birds. ***
Discs 1-5 comprise the Planet Earth series. Probably
the most famous series featured in the set, it quickly gained
fame on the Discovery Channel, where it originally aired.
Planet Earth sounds like a broad subject, but the set does
an excellent job covering it. Multiple countries spanning
the entire world are explored, as is just about every different
type of environment that the planet contains. Discs 1-4
contain all of the episodes of the series: From Pole To
Pole, Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Deserts, Worlds Of
Ice, Great Plains, Jungles, Shallow Seas, Seasonal Forests,
and Oceans Deep. Disc 5 is devoted to bonus material (which
I will discuss more in depth later in the review.) ***
Discs 6-10 comprise the Blue Planet: Seas of Life series.
The precursor to Planet Earth, this series focuses on marine
life. Throughout the course of this series, you'll explore
all forms of marine life, from all around the world's oceans
- and learn an array of facts you likely didn't know before.
Discs 6-9 contain the episodes of the series: Ocean Words,
Frozen Seas, Open Ocean, The Deep, Seasonal Seas, Coral
Seas, Tidal Seas, and Coasts Disc 10 of the set contains
the bonus features for Blue Planet (again, more on this
later.) ***
Discs 11-14 comprise the Life of Mammals series. Focusing
exclusively on the mammals of the Earth, these episodes
explore the various species that inhabit our planet. It
works its way from explaining the basics of what makes a
mammal a mammal, and it isn't long before it goes in depth,
exploring the lives of these creatures, all around the planet.
These discs contain all of the episodes of the series, which
are as follows: A Winning Design, Insect Hunters, Plant
Hunters, Chisellers, Meat Eaters, Opportunists, Return to
the Water, Life In The Trees, Social Climbers, and Food
for Thought. ***
Discs 15-17 comprise the Life of Birds series. Finishing
off the set is this series, which essentially delivers what
it promises. Following prehistoric birds right down to their
modern-day evolutions, this set covers nearly every bird
species on Earth imaginable, past or present. All of the
episodes are featured here, which are as follows: To Fly
Or Not To Fly, Mastery of Flight, Insatiable Appetite, Meat
Eaters, Fishing For A Living, Signals And Songs, Finding
Partners, Demands of the Egg, The Problems Of Parenthood,
and The Limits of Endurance. ***
All four of these series are masterpieces - you will
not find a finer series that takes a look at our planet
and its life. The filming techniques employed here are incredible,
the narration from David Attenborough always solid, and
the themes and subjects explored in every episode always
interesting. It's no surprise that the series has gained
such a critical reputation in the recent years. ***
One thing that needs to be brought to attention is
the high list price - and how it's a better deal than meets
the eye. When you consider that some of these sets retail
for around $100 each sold separately, $200 for the complete,
17-disc set of all of them is a far better deal than you
might think at first glance. If you plan to buy this set
(and it's a must-own if you're into nature documentaries),
GET THIS SET. It's the best value by far. ---
Image And Sound:
The image and sound quality differ from series to series.
***
Video is the category where the presentations tens
to have the most differentiation. Planet Earth has absolutely
incredible image quality, which is crystal-clear throughout.
The same can be said of Blue Planet, which has an image
that is almost always clear with no major issues. Life of
Mammals doesn't quite look as good as the previous two titles,
but still makes fantastic usage of the formats, and the
image issues here are also few and far between. Sadly, Life
of Birds doesn't measure up to the previous three features.
While the picture quality isn't bad by any means, aside
from some occasional grain, it just doesn't compare to the
three aforementioned presentations, which feature incredible,
enhanced images. But overall, as a whole in this set, good
image quality outweighs the bad. ***
Where none of these documentaries fail to please, however,
is in the audio quality. From the sounds of the animals
in their natural habitats, to the narrator's voice, to the
orchestral backing scores, everything sounds impressive,
and takes advantage of the format. The audio issues in this
set are few and far between, and most of them you won't
even notice anyway. ---
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| Special
Features: |
Spanning 17 discs with a few discs devoted exclusively
to bonus stuff, there are a lot of featurettes to be experienced
here. ***
Planet Earth: The bonus disc for Planet Earth features
three additional bonus episodes, which tend to focus their
efforts on planetary conversation. These episodes are entitled
Saving Species, Into The Wilderness, and Living Together.
In them, numerous strategies are discussed, which can help
to make a positive difference for the planet. Additional
features appear on the episode discs themselves. Every episode
has a supplemental “Planet Earth Diaries” featurette, which
focuses on the making of the episode in question. You'd
think these would be pretty minor featurettes, considering
there's one for each episode, but they go greatly in-depth,
providing a brilliant look at the techniques and such used
to create each episode. ***
Blue Planet: Blue Planet's bonus disc features four
additional documentaries. The first two, Amazon Abyss and
Dive To Shark Volcano, are additional modern documentaries
that, while excellent, lack Attenborough's presence and
knowledge. The latter two documentaries, Being There: Antarctica
and Being There: Between The Tides are old documentaries
that tend to focus on similar subjects. While these presentations
tend to show their age, they still make for some nice supplemental
material. Like Planet Earth, this set also features bonus
material on the episode discs. And like the Planet Earth
set, each one of these episodes features an in-depth “making
of” featurette, that delves deep into the making of each
segment of the series. Interviews are included with the
main members of the cast, with each of them providing their
input to the overall picture. Photo galleries and statistics
for species/environments/etc. have also been provided. There's
even an additional documentary that deals with the fishing
industry, and the negative impact it has on marine life.
The last extra worth mentioning is a promo-style music video
of sorts. ***
Life of Mammals: Life of Mammals does not feature a
bonus disc, however all of the episode discs have their
share of supplemental material. Basically, it stays true
to what is presented on the previous two series' episode-devoted
discs. You get statistics, images, and making-of featurettes
for the episodes. While not as in-depth as the ones in the
other two sets, they're still certainly worth checking out,
and you will no doubt find them informative. Also included
are playable excerpts from the musical score, and a promo-style
video not unlike the one in the Blue Planet set. ***
Life of Birds: Unlike the other series featured in the
set, there are no bonus features provided for Life of Birds.
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