Product Details

• Actors: James Earl Jones, Patrick Stewart
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: September 1, 2009
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001UV4XW4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,508 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Disney Nature Earth" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A nature documentary compiled from the vast footage of the BBC's and The Discovery Channel's Planet Earth series and produced by award-winning British producer and director Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, Earth is the first nature film from the newly formed Disneynature--a Disney independent film label dedicated to bringing high impact wildlife and environmental films to theaters. James Earl Jones narrates this US version of the 96-minute documentary film (the English and German version are narrated by Patrick Stewart and Ulrich Tukur, respectively) which follows families of arctic polar bears, African elephants, and humpback whales for an entire year. The film tracks the animals' migrations across the globe and through some of the harshest terrains and climates on earth, pointing out in a factual and remarkably non-political way the negative effects of global warming and habitat destruction on these animals and the planet as a whole. Selected from the over 4,000 days of cinematography that went into the making of Planet Earth, every image is breathtakingly spectacular (especially the first-ever aerial footage of Mount Everest) and Jones' concise narration is engaging and packed with information. What makes this film different from Planet Earth, besides the obvious shorter run-time, is the sense of story that permeates this film. While children and others disinclined toward factual documentaries or nature films might find Planet Earth overly long and somewhat dry, Earth views more like an entertainingly touching story about several animal families. The first story begins with an adorable look at two 2-month-old polar bears and their first encounter with the snow and ice outside their den. Viewers of all ages will raptly follow their long trek with their mother across the ice to the water's edge to find food. Danger looms in many places and the polar bears' father's desperate attempts to find food on the ice turn perilous when he ends up stranded in the icy water and is forced to swim to shore where he's outnumbered by fiercely protective walruses. Footage of over 42 kinds of strange and beautiful New Guinea birds of paradise is rich with their breathtaking sounds and colors as well as the trees, fungi, flowers, and plants of tropical rainforest they inhabit. In stark contrast to the moisture-rich tropical rainforests that cover a mere 3% of the earth's surface, but support about 50% of the planet's animals and plants, are the dry lands of the Kalahari desert of South Africa where we meet the African elephants. The elephants' epic quest for food and water leads a mother elephant and her baby across vast prairies, savannahs, grasslands, and barren desert to inland deltas and water holes where they are forced into a tense and fragile alliance with a variety of other animals including their natural predators. Frighteningly real (though not gory) footage of lions attacking the elephants may well scare or disturb young children and the faint of heart, but it serves as a poignant reminder of the natural circle of life. The humpback whales' long migration across half the globe is similarly fraught with danger, yet full of underwater beauty, just as the Adélie penguins' life in one of the earths' most inhospitable lands also features the unexpected beauty of the striking Aurora Australis lightshow. What tracking a year in the life of all these amazing animals demonstrates is not only the exceptional beauty and strikingly harsh realities of life in the wild, but also the resilience of earth's creatures. (Ages 5 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Product Description

Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/01/2009 Run time: 96 minutes Rating: G

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rehash of material, September 5, 2009

By 

dolphink13 (Phila, Pa USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Disney Nature Earth (Blu-ray / DVD Combo) (Blu-ray)

I bought this because of the way it was advertised. It was said that they followed 3 families, polar bear, whale and elephant families. I already saw BBC Planet Earth and I have a copy. I knew that it was made from footage taken at the same time that planet earth was filmed by BBC however I thought, because of the hype, that it would have additional footage of those 3 particular animal families that maybe they didn't put in the other films because of time constraints or they didn't want to dwell too much on one thing. I was wrong The footage on Disney's DVD is exactly the same. They show a lot of footage that does not pertain to any of the 3 groups to fill the added time. The photography is good, the views breathaking and worth watching but if you have a copy of the BBC planet earth series, don't buy it; you already have a copy of all the footage on those. There is nothing new here and it does not follow the 3 families in detail as advertised. If you don't have the plant earth dvds and you want a much more shortened version you would enjoy this.

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Kids, December 1, 2009

By 

Christina A. Kroeger "Ckroeger" (Bloomington, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Disney Nature Earth (DVD)

I've read a lot of reviews complaining that this is just Planet Earth repackaged, and it is the same footage...but, can you beat the Planet Earth footage?? Nope! We have the Planet Earth series, but there is no way my kids would sit and watch it. The Disney Earth movie took the best and funniest bits and pieces of Planet Earth, added a more "kid friendly" voice, and packaged it into a 1 1/2 hour film. My 5, 3, and 2 year old ALL sat down to watch this entire movie and laughed and screamed to whole time. They loved it!!! And I loved watching it with them. Ever since, they've been pretending about waterfalls and jungles and safaris and such. Great short version of Planet Earth for the kids!!! Ignore the other complaining reviews!

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars mother nature's greatest hits, June 5, 2009

By 

Daniel B. Clendenin (www.journeywithjesus.net) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This nature documentary is a 90-minute mini-version of the much longer Planet Earth produced by the BBC. The latter production took five years to make, had a $25 million budget, and employed the latest in photographic technology. The super slow motion and time lapse techniques are especially impressive. Watching the twelve-month transformation of a forest in 30 seconds is spectacular. Earth focuses on three animal "families"--a polar bear and two cubs, a herd of elephants, and then a mother and baby humpback whale that make a 4,000 mile migration. In between these three stories the film intersperses takes from the longer documentary. My only complaint is that this production oversells the product with music that at times is both melodramatic and cutesy, and a corny narration that is clearly intended for young children ("Time for mom and dad to fix breakfast for junior!"). If there is any nature photography that does not need hype, this big screen version is it. Still, like its longer predecessor, Earth makes for fantastic family viewing.