Product Details

• Actors: Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Basil Pao, Chris Collins
• Writers: Jules Verne
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: BBC Public Media Video
• VHS Release Date: March 20, 1991
• Run Time: 172 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302994519
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,419 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Michael Palin started another career in the late 1980s: explorer. The former Python brings humor, humanity, and class to the genre of filmed travelogues with Around the World in 80 Days, his first and best journey. The genesis of this BBC series is a sly side-bet: can someone travel via 19th-century means around the world in 80 days like Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg did in 1872? As Palin travels around London asking experts about world travel, it seems to be a 50/50 chance at best. The reliance on air travel makes shipping schedules very tentative, and in some ways just slowing down may be a hardship for a 20th-century traveler. As Palin notes, air travel is about viewing airports; no one really "travels" anymore.

Armed with his inflatable globe, Palin starts off by train across Europe before problems arise: missed connections, labor strikes, language difficulties, and the like. But Palin is adorable company to have for the seven-part, six-hour series. He manages the impossible, always making us believe we are in the moment, even though some scenes had to be shot to accommodate the camera (he enters a taxi alone, the next scene we are with him in the cab). Palin is light on his feet, with quick humorous jabs, which comes in handy as his schedule is always on the brink of disaster. He offers round remarks on the countries he visits and often has amusing side trips: garbage man in Venice, bit actor in India, and cook aboard a freighter.

The highlight is the third episode, set almost entirely on a dhow slowly moving from Arabia to India. Here Palin is introduced to a life slowed down to its basics with a crew of mostly non-English speakers. The segment is so distinct the producers asked--and were granted--permission to add an additional episode instead of cutting most of the dhow footage.

Although Palin continued his adventures (Pole to Pole, Full Circle), nothing is as nimble or kinetic--there is a ticking clock element--as this first voyage. His entourage or Passepartout--Fogg's righthand man--grew with each voyage. There were usually two to four production folks with him on 80 Days, but they are rarely seen. The end result is the best travel "slide show" anchored by one of world's most amusing men. For couch potato and traveler alike, this is compelling viewing. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate, February 13, 2007

By 

R. Epstein "asanisimasa" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days (DVD)

One would think that trying to best a fictional record from the 1870s would be an easy task these days, even if one has to abide by the same modes of travel such as trains and boats, but we discover along with Palin that it isn't as easy at it would seem. We also discover the joys of simple travel, simple pleasures, everyday people from faraway lands, and such important lessons as how to remove a snake's gall bladder and - my favorite bit - the manly way to iron laundry. Yes, on top of being provided with a fascinating window to other cultures, we are awarded the constant presence of the wittiest, most charming and most informative travel guide ever to grace a TV screen. I love all of Palin's travel adventures but this - his first - is still in my book, the very best. I've heard that the DVD extras on this only include an interview with Palin, but that shouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this magnificent 7-part series.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true pleasure, May 13, 2007

By 

Bo Østergaard Jepsen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days (DVD)

I like travelling, but normally I don't like travel programs. They're boring and sensible, and although the surroundings are beautiful, they don't deliver anything you couldn't have looked up in a Lonely PLanet guide.

But not this one. Ex-Python turned globetrotter and British national treasure Michael Palin delivers a thoroughly entertaining, funny, untraditional and quite exciting travel program with, what would become his first of many great travel programs, "Around the World in 80 Days", in which he tries to recreate Phileas Fogg's journey around the world in Jules Vernes classic novel. No planes allowed, only boats and land transportation.

Not only is (was) it a new and more exciting way to create a travel program, but Palin, with his great sense of humour and his happy go lucky sort of approach to the task before him, is one of the best television presenters ever. He really grabs your attention and makes you interested in the places he goes to. He has indeed made the entire UK sit and watch his travels to places they had never heard of before week after week.

I have never spoken to anybody who, after seeing Palin's travels, did not feel invigorated and full of lust for adventure. It did certainly rekindle my love of trains and boats watching "Around the World in 80 Days". Now I travel by train instead of plane whenever I can.

I have watched the series some 4 or 5 times over the years now, and it never gets boring. They are the benchmark of travel programming. Highest possble recommendation.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Treat For the Eye and Mind, February 22, 2007

By 

Randall G. Kelly "BookmanRK" (Phoenix,AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days (DVD)

Finally available on DVD this series was such a joy to watch. Palin's has an excellent homey style to his narration and always expresses in his looks and words much of what the audience is thinking about the situations he finds himeself in. The pacing is excellent and one quickly finds oneself truely involved and wondering will he make it on time. This is a fun travelcade which sweeps you around the world in great scenes which makes you want to revisit many of them. This was the first in a series of adventures which hopefully will all be released soon such as "From Pole to Pole." At this time you can view "Sahara" his adventures in Africa to get a feel for the style that this soon to be released series manifests. Overall this an excellent series and the price is reasonable, you should get many hours of enjoyment watching again and again.