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Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD] | ![Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BnSYgZRAL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Actor: David Attenborough
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $99.98
Buy New: $39.99
You Save: $59.99 (60%)
New (25) Used (13) Collectible (2) from $31.99
Rating:  1781 reviews
Sales Rank: 263
Format: Box Set, Color, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Published)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: HD DVD
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Number Of Discs: 4
Running Time: 44 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7 x 5.4 x 0.8
MPN: HDE2939
UPC: 794051293923
EAN: 0794051293923
ASIN: B000MRAAJW
Release Date: April 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Actors: David Attenborough Format: Color, Widescreen Language: English Region: All Regions Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Number of discs: 4 Rating Studio: BBC Warner DVD Release Date: April 24, 2007 Run Time: 550 minutes
Amazon.com
As of its release in early 2007, Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced. Following the similarly monumental achievement of The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, this astonishing 11-part BBC series is brilliantly narrated by Sir David Attenborough and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat (mountains, caves, deserts, shallow seas, seasonal forests, etc.) until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you'll ever experience from the comforts of home. The premiere episode, "From Pole to Pole," serves as a primer for things to come, placing the entire series in proper context and giving a general overview of what to expect from each individual episode. Without being overtly political, the series maintains a consistent and subtle emphasis on the urgent need for ongoing conservation, best illustrated by the plight of polar bears whose very behavior is changing (to accommodate life-threatening changes in their fast-melting habitat) in the wake of global warming--a phenomenon that this series appropriately presents as scientific fact. With this harsh reality as subtext, the series proceeds to accentuate the positive, delivering a seemingly endless variety of natural wonders, from the spectacular mating displays of New Guinea's various birds of paradise to a rare encounter with Siberia's nearly-extinct Amur Leopards, of which only 30 remain in the wild. That's just a hint of the marvels on display. Accompanied by majestic orchestral scores by George Fenton, every episode is packed with images so beautiful or so forcefully impressive (and so perfectly photographed by the BBC's tenacious high-definition camera crews) that you'll be rendered speechless by the splendor of it all. You'll see a seal struggling to out-maneuver a Great White Shark; swimming macaques in the Ganges delta; massive flocks of snow geese numbering in the hundreds of thousands; an awesome night-vision sequence of lions attacking an elephant; the Colugo (or "flying lemur"--not really a lemur!) of the Philippines; a hunting alliance of fish and snakes on Indonesia's magnificent coral reef; the bioluminescent "vampire squid" of the deep oceans... these are just a few of countless highlights, masterfully filmed from every conceivable angle, with frequent use of super-slow-motion and amazing motion-controlled time-lapse cinematography, and narrated by Attenborough with his trademark combination of observational wit and informative authority. The result is a hugely entertaining series that doesn't flinch from the predatory realities of nature (death is a constant presence, without being off-putting). At a time when the multiple threats of global warming should be obvious to all, let's give Sir David the last word, from the closing of Planet Earth's final episode: "We can now destroy or we can cherish--the choice is ours." --Jeff Shannon More Planet Earth 
Planet Earth on Blu-ray | 
Planet Earth on DVD | 
More BBC DVDs | Stills from Planet Earth (click for larger image)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1776 more reviews...
 Excellent. Great "1st Blu-Ray" Disc November 23, 2008
H. S. Jacob (Austin, TX United States)
This is an exceptional series and it's put together very well.
Yes, there are several places where the image quality is poor or has some kind of "noise" but they mention on the cover that not all of the video was shot in HD. Just that some of what appears to be HD shots have some weird noise on it and it's definitely on the disc.
But this does not detract from my opinion of the disc as it's content is excellent and the image and sound are also excellent, overall.
 An absolutely one-sided culpabilizing vision of climate change November 23, 2008
Jacques COULARDEAU (OLLIERGUES France)
This film is crucial if we want to understand the present debate on climate change. The climate is changing as it has always done. But it seems to be changing more dramatically and warming up slightly though it is still a long way cooler than it was at the time of the dinosaurs. The position defended here by Attenborough is moralistic more than anything else. We are supposed to feel compassion for polar bears and to be afraid of the future. Such a fascination for apocalyptic predictions is quite typical of the Jewish or Christian tradition, with some roots in older Indo-European religious mythologies. This apocalyptic literature is often, and by far, the best and most inspiring inspiration in these traditions. But does it have any real foundation? According to Attenborough it is the truth, full stop, period, dead end, let's get ready for it. He follows the model of the now famous carbon dioxide and green house gases and global warming up theory. And exclusively this one. Then he considers the main cause is the production - or liberation - of carbon dioxide by human activities, particularly the use of fossil fuels. In other words he uses his pointer a little bit too much and of course ends up pointing at the Chinese and their becoming the first polluter in the world, ahead of the US, but he forgets to say they are at least four times more numerous for a level of development that is evaluated by the CIA to be around 80% of the US. When he is not pointing at people he is pointing at the only things we can do to reduce our production of carbon dioxide. And he does not see this totally negative approach cannot really work because people do not want to be made to feel guilty all the time, and then, in this perspective, we will have to set regulations and a cop behind every human activity. He forgets the basic human principle, and even vital principle for all that is alive at least on this planet, that has been totally negated by western development, by this short-sighted development at all costs, the fact that humanity has managed to emerge by using the basic living principle that all activities must produce more energy or value than it consumes and that the consumption of energy has to be as low as possible for the profit margin to be as high as possible. To be soundly economic life has to be economical. And our free and extremely wasteful consumption of energy - and everything else, including human life - is anti-economic because it is un-economical. That is the very first principle we must refer to: we must not use one gram of energy more than what we need. The second principle is also basic to all forms of life: a living being uses his environment to live - and/or survive - but it does not pollute it. And strangely enough humans seem to have been only interested in visible pollution. All that is not visible does not seem to bother them. That's the only positive aspect of the film: it reveals one invisible pollution, carbon dioxide. It also reveals that what is not immediately catchable by human senses does not seem to exist for human beings. I personally think here that it is better to mobilize the sense of cleanliness human life has always demonstrated - even if that sense has been increasing across centuries and will go on increasing - rather than the guilt we are supposed to feel when thinking of our grandchildren. This argument about our descendents is the reversal of another human principle. In all civilizations including ours till recently, the younger generation was there to take care of the older one when needed and not the reverse. The argument used by Attenborough means that we consider the younger generation is unable to assume their responsibilities. We are making them childish and dependent. We should expect them to be more reasonable than us and not the reverse, which does not excuse our own foolishness which is foolishness in itself and not as for the consequences on our descendents. This leads me to a final remark. Has the West been developing along a line that negates all human traditions and logic? I have like the impression that yes it has. We must then reverse that mistake but not with cops and regulations or guilt complexes but with economic and economical arguments. And that should not prevent us from studying other climatic models particularly the one based on water vapor, which Attenborough does not do at all. Note, as a final kick at the sandbag of blind if not biased ideology, that Attenborough does not even take into account that if we learned new cooking method based on microwave oven we could cut by half our consumption n of energy for all forms of cooking, and frying being a bad dietary habit, the light browning we can get with microwaves has to be healthier than all that carbonizing we produce in a frying pan.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Brilliant November 23, 2008
Tiffany (Anaheim, CA)
I hope and I pray that the earth stays this way forever. An absolutely brilliant idea to bring the wonder of our plant to your home. Most people in the world don't get a chance to see these things first hand. But this series is the next best thing.
Incredible Price November 22, 2008
Rikki Davidson (Wichita Falls, TX USA)
I'm actually glad that HD DVD died out or else I still think I wouldn't own this. It's really worth every penny at it's regular price, but if you can find it for a good deal then it becomes a must buy.
so happy this is in High Definition November 20, 2008
DC (North Olmsted, OH)
I have been watching many high definition movies and this production is nothing less than spectacular. We do not have the most advanced audio system but the sounds is great. The scenes and the quality of video shooting is incomparable. On top of all that, the subject is entrancingly interesting. Must have? yep.
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