Here’s the thing, I’m not a fan of Nature. Sure I can appreciate the beauty and splendor of it, but after a few minutes I get bored and quickly annoyed when bugs eat me, I fell asleep during a 3-hour tour of the Grand Canyon. DisneyNature’s Blu-ray release of their movie Earth in 1080p high-definition, 1.78:1 transfer is stunningly beautiful, it’s the perfect material to showcase the Blu-ray difference. The movie tells the “year in the life” of the planet Earth by following a family of Polar Bears, Whales and Elephants. These three families take us on a harrowing journey through nature. You don’t get much cuter than a family of Polar Bears – I want one.
You have to admire Disney’s dedication to this documentary they really spent money on this, it took them over 5 years to make and they visited over 62 countries. Unfortunately this is a very dry documentary with narration by James Earl Jones whose professorial tone made me feel like I was in school. Due to the surprising lack of features, the menu navigation is simple and straightforward, the Audio mix is ok, there’s no wow factor to it, but it is in DTS-HD with translations in French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. The film’s score is about as generic as you could get. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French and Spanish.
Features
- DVD Version of the movie
- Earth Diaries: The Making of Earth the Movie (42 Min) (HD)
- Filmmaker Annotations – Is a pretty cool feature that includes Picture in Picture and Notes during the film about different topics.
Conclusion
Once you get over the gorgeousness of the production values I was stuck watching a boring nature movie that lacked a feeling of urgency. I’m not sure how you judge the features, there’s only two but they are rich in scope and detail, the making of feature is 42 minutes, when the movie itself is only 90. The Filmmaker Annotations gives you everything else you need to know about the movie. This movie is a rental at best, not a must buy.
Grades
- Movie – C
- Picture Quality – A+
- Audio – B
- Features – A
- Menu Navigation – B
Final Overall Grade C
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 09.12.09