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Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series | 
 enlarge | Actor: David Attenborough
Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $79.98
Buy Used: $22.40
You Save: $57.58 (72%)
New (67) Used (35) from $22.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  1848 reviews
Sales Rank: 11
Format: Anamorphic, Box Set, Closed-captioned, Subtitled
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 5
Running Time: 44
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.6 x 1.3
MPN: WARDE2938D
UPC: 794051293824
EAN: 0794051293824
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: April 24, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 04/24/2007 Rating: Nr
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), and each episode ends with 10-minute "Planet Earth Diaries" (exclusive to this DVD set) that cover a specific aspect of production, like "Diving with Pirahnas" or "Into the Abyss" (the latter showing the rigors of filming the planet's most spectacular caves, including the last filming ever officially permitted in the "Chandelier Ballroom," a crystal-encrusted cavern found over a mile deep in New Mexico's treacherous Lechuguilla, the deepest cave in the continental United States.) With so many of Earth's natural wonders on display, it's only fitting that the final DVD in this five-disc set is devoted to Planet Earth: The Future, a separate three-part series in which a global array of experts is assembled to discuss issues of conservation, protection of delicate ecosystems, and the socio-economic benefits of understanding nature as a commodity that returns trillions of dollars in value at no cost to Earth's human population. 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 HD DVD | 
More BBC DVDs | Stills from Planet Earth (click for larger image)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1843 more reviews...
 A new appreciation for the wonder that surrounds us! Show it to your children... April 21, 2007
421 out of 430 found this review helpful
Never have I been so moved by a series to exclaim in wonder and actually shed tears of joy at the beauty that surrounds us on this wonderful planet.
I have been watching it on Discovery HD Theater when it premiered in March. The first episode "Pole to Pole" set the tone by showing the range of life and species that exist on this planet. The subsequent episodes delve into the habitats one by one. Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Deserts, Ice Worlds, Great Plains, Jungles, Shallow Seas, Seasonal Forests and Deep Ocean are the subsequent episodes. This is one series that has to be seen to be believed of what the intrepid cameramen of BBC/Discovery Channel have been able to capture through their sheer perseverance in remote locations. The HD technology has captured some scenes and images never seen before and some seen before but never with this clarity and beauty. 5 years, 62 countries and 204 locations is what it took to make this series, and the result is a lifetime TV series.
This is one series that fascinated my kid as much as it amazed me. She wanted to watch her cartoons but the moment the episode began she was captivated. Both of us shared together the wonder that is our Planet and it was she who brought up the subject of what we might be doing to it by our actions. We cried when we saw how polar bears have begun to drown as ice melts faster every year. The image of one lone bear trying to walk on ice but falling into the slushy waters, and having to swim longer distances to capture food and finally dying with exhaustion was heart breaking. The series makes no references to the present conditions, just in passing as with the polar bear. I think the directors and producers of the series just wanted to show us the beauty of the natural world, the fight for survival of several animals even when there is no climactic change. And as we keep watching and are filled with awe and wonderment that we're lucky enough to live on this planet, we begin to appreciate quietly in our hearts how we need to change today to ensure that we save our planet.
That is what my daughter felt on her own, she asked me why we were not doing more to save our natural world and I did not have any good answers. The last 3 episodes, Planet Earth: The Future delve deeper into these issues, which I haven't had a chance to see yet.
I watched a clip of David Attenborough's version video on the web before I started watching the series with Sigourney Weaver's narration, and I was disappointed by her blandness and lack of depth. I bought this set like many others to listen to Sir David's narration. I was torn between the regular DVD set and the HD DVD though. This series is good enough to make me buy an HD DVD player just to be able to watch it in its true form! However, the regular set has the Future series and the Planet Earth diaries which the HD set does not have. I loved the Planet Earth Diaries (or behind the scenes) with cameramen, it made a fascinating documentary on it's own, and wished some were longer. If they had the extra material in the HD DVD set, it would have been my first choice.
I had saved the Discovery HD Theatre epidodes on my HD Cable box and I was able to compare their image quality with this Standard DVD version playing on an upconverting DVD player. The Discovery Theater images were crystal clear, and you could literally see each grain of sand on the sea bed or each crevice on a rock face. The Standard DVD looked pretty good when upconverted to 720p and if I had not seen the HD version I would have been quite amazed with the image quality. Right now I've been spoilt by the Discovery Theater version. If you're considering the HD version it's a great choice if you have an HD DVD/BluRay player. You'll probably not see a better HD disc. This series was shot completely in HD format. From my experience in the media industry I can tell you that this is a very, very expensive format to shoot in especially given the 5 years that it took to make this series. Most television is shot in a regular digital format and then upconverted to the HD format later. That gives great images but they cannot compare to something shot totally in HD. That is the reason the image quality of this series is spectacular. In HD they were able to capture the action which when replayed in slow-motion also stays crystal clear. Therefore you have breathtaking images of a shark capturing its prey (and many others) in slo-mo.
This really is the set to buy. It's like a living documentation of the beauty of our earth, some of which was starting to disappear right as the cameras were rolling. Perhaps, that is why BBC and Discovery spared no cost to produce this series and it is a masterpiece.
Planet Earth is the "Titanic" of television nature documentaries! April 30, 2007
78 out of 84 found this review helpful
Planet Earth was filmed on Seven continents. It took Five years and included a $25 million budget. Planet Earth is such an epic, that it earns comparisons to some of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. I think High Definition Digest said it best "It's the Titanic of television nature documentaries - a work of great majesty, high ambition and huge financial risk (after all, this isn't a genre known for generating huge profits)." David Attenborough's narrates the series and does a great job at it. Planet Earth first started airing as an eleven episode series on the BBC in England late last year, and more recently on the Discovery Channel and Discovery HD here in the United States. With Planet Earth you will see beautiful landscapes of our planet, and amazing animal scenes all which will leave you either breathless, or at times put you on the edge of your seat. How some of these things were even able to be photographed by humans often makes you wonder. If you have a 1080p HD TV I highly encourage you to get the blu-ray or HD-DVD of Planet Earth. Only then will you will really appreciate the beauty of this amazing series.
I had originally purchased the blu-ray of this, but ended up also buying the DVD version of this because of all the bonus material included on it. Sadly the bonus material is not included on the blu-ray or HD-DVD versions.
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [Blu-ray]
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]
Best HD Documentary Series ever! February 23, 2007
92 out of 102 found this review helpful
Having seen this series on the BBC HD Channel Here in the UK I would recommend this series to anyone that has a Interest in Documentarys and has a HD DVD player, and can safely say you havent seen anything like this before, the amount of detail the HD Cameras add to this is out of this world and the high production values make this a must have for anyone with a slight interest in the world that surronds us. Buy this and I guarentee you wont be disappointed! Its the ideal thing to show off your new HD TV and HD DVD player!
For people in the U.K as HD is region free this will play on your HD DVD player too even though this says region 1, beaware though you can only import goods upto 18 so you might have to pay duty and a Royal Mail admin charge!
Excellent and it DOES work with the Xbox 360 HD DVD add on April 25, 2007
76 out of 84 found this review helpful
This title is worth every penny. And it does play on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add on. You have to be connected to Xbox Live and it will download an update that will allow this title to play correctly. It also works fine on the stand alone HD DVD players(HD-A1, HD-A2, and HD-XA2) I have.
Sorry Sigourney but Sir David Attenborough's narration is the best. April 4, 2007
43 out of 46 found this review helpful
having grown up with Sir David Attenborough's natural history programmes I was surprised to see that Planet Earth slipped under my radar. So I ordered the set From Amazon in the UK in January knowing that it will work on my DVD player as it's region free. The set arrived but I didn't have time to watch it so it sat on a shelf until I found out the the Discovery Channel was going to air the series. I suddenly remembered I had the set and decided to watch a bit of the set with my wife before the documentary aired later that night.
As we watched we both gasped with wonder at some of the shots of the wildlife and the filming off the various locations. We both watched the first episode on the DVD and then eagerly awaited watching the others on the Discover Channel later that night.
We settled down to watch the documentary and we both were in shock as the original narration by Sir David Attenborough had been replaced by Sigourney Weaver. In fact my wife couldn't watch the documentary as the narration was so bad - and she's American! So we went back to the DVDs.
We cannot understand why the Discovery Channel decided to replace Sir David Attenborough's narration with Sigourney Weaver but we both agree it was a very bad decision. We both like Sigourney, however she lacks any passion or warmth and appears to be speaking in a monotone voice. In particular there's a spot where in the first episode a bird clears a spot on a branch with a piece of debris from it's area so it can attract a female and Sigourney says "missed a bit" here she could show emotion she is just so lifeless. Sir David's narration is different here and you can hear the passion in his voice.
Speaking for myself, if I muted the sound so I couldn't hear the narration I could instantly tell the this was a BBC production and Sir David Attenborough would be the narrator. So I'm disappointed that the Discovery Channel felt the need to use change the narration. I'm just glad that I have Sir David Attenborough's narration on the DVD as I believe that this was the way the documentary was supposed to sound.
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