blue planet

I just watched one of the Blue Planet DVDs produced by the BBC. If your Netflix queue is wanting, then I suggest filling it up with these one or more of these four DVDs (Tidal Seas / Coasts, Open Oceans / The Deep, Ocean World / Frozen Seas, Seasonal Seas / Coral Seas). All four a documentaries on ocean life narrated by David Attenborough.

I watched the Ocean World / Frozen Seas DVD. To give you some idea how good this documentary is I'll state up front that I'm not partial to wildlife documentaries. I generally find them a little dry and fairly uneducational. I used to watch Marlin Perkins and Jacque Cousteau when I was little but to be frank I always found them a little dry.

Now zee great whaat shark eez trackeeng hees prey. He is veree don-ger-uss. Jeem weel now get in ze wata to take zee peectures.

What sets this documentary apart is the video footage. It is just simply amazing some of the shots they've captured. I found myself sitting in awe through much of the video wondering how on earth they just captured that shot (check the special features). Every 5 minutes there's some new sea animal I've either never seen before or some animal I have seen doing something I've never seen before (e.g., a polar bear attacking and eating a beluga whale. what?!).

The other nice thing (maybe not so nice for others) is that they show the reality of ocean life. For example the scene where a few killer whales take out a baby gray whale is amazing. It is impossible to look away even though it is terribly saddening to watch. Blood filled waters are not edited out. Mind blowing stuff.

If anything will make me break down and buy a hi-def DVD format player, this is the thing to do it. I hear there is another BBC documentary, Planet Earth, that is even more impressive. That's just crazy talk.

More here about Blue Planet on Wikipedia.