Product Details

• Directors: Alastair Fothergill
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: BBC Worldwide
• VHS Release Date: February 5, 2002
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005U2KT
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #350,548 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ridiculously beautiful, May 17, 2002

By 

Ernest Kim "An Average Joe" (Hillsboro, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Blue Planet - Seas of Life (Part 1) (DVD)

If you or anyone you know has even a remote interest in the ocean and marine life this DVD is a must. Even if you've seen parts of the "Seas of Life" series on the Discovery channel this DVD is still worth it as the difference in quality is astounding.

Since my childhood I've always been a fan of wildlife documentaries, but nothing can compare with this. It is absolutely, jaw droppingly beautiful. "Ocean World" provides something of an overview of all of the other segments so it's a good intro to the series. "Frozen Seas" probably spends as much time on the surface of the frozen seas as it does within them, but it's still compelling.

I can recommend this DVD without any reservations (something that any of my friends and relatives could attest to ;-)!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets, February 25, 2006

By 

Steven Hellerstedt "SH" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Blue Planet - Seas of Life (Part 1) (DVD)

If movies are the director's medium and television series the writer's, nature programs belong to the photographers. Good moving pictures, deftly edited, can make a good nature show great. The first two episodes of the BBC program THE BLUE PLANET, `Ocean World' and `Frozen Seas,' have some of the best nature photography I believe I've ever seen.

I'm not usually a great fan of nature shows. Most seem heavily loaded with warnings about global warming, human encroachment, lose of the rain forest, etc. All important issues, but usually more depressing than enlightening. Not too keen on the ones where the host adopts a grizzly cub or peels a poisonous snake off a mambo tree, either. Thankfully THE BLUE PLANET doesn't have an agenda to push or a host's ego to stroke. If you want to see a program that simply celebrates nature, this is the one for you.

Richard Attenborough hosts these programs, adding his considerable credibility to the proceedings. Highlights in the first program include the dolphins herding of the migrating sardines and the arrival of the creatures of the night from the ocean depths. There's some footage of blue whales, but because they swim alone - we don't see a human being in either episode - it's hard to get a sense of their size from the footage. Second episode highlights include a polar bear with cub on the hunt and herds of penguin huddling against the biting wind and bitter cold. Simply amazing footage in both episodes. Also included are a couple of short (9 minutes or so) featurettes profiling the film crews for the two episodes. Highest recommendation for this dvd.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful images and narrative, June 28, 2003

By 

Christian Molstrom (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Blue Planet - Seas of Life (Part 1) (DVD)

I have all 4 DVDs (8 films) of the series; all are outstanding productions, and clearly the best of the marine documentaries I have seen (which is a lot).

Two aspects of the films stand out the most: the unbelievable image quality and visual narratives. The films capture aspects of animal behavior which have never before been seen on film (polar bears hunting beluga whales; orcas playing soccer with a baby seal, baitball feeding with marlin, dolphins and a sei whale; orca pods attacking a baby gray whale, and so on). And they capture this behavior with extremely moving beauty.

Unlike many nature documentaries, there are no talking heads, only background narration. You get a non-stop flow of images creatively matched to orginal music. But for those who do enjoy the talking heads, each film has great bonus tracks with interviews of the camerafolk, producers, scientists, etc.