Customer Reviews

Life [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(203)

 

 

The Life series is fantastic, but it comes in two versions -- this one, narrated by Oprah Winfrey for the US market; and the original version as narrated by the naturalist David Attenborough.

While the cinematography remains unchanged, Oprah's narration lacks the depth that Attenborough's years of experience as both naturalist and narrator brings to the table. I strongly recommend waiting for the US release of the original BBC version, narrated by David Attenborough.

This is atrocious. I'm watching "Life" on Discovery channel right now, with Oprah narrating. Some of the reviewers said that the script was re-written for her, and I can believe it. I can't believe Attenborough saying lines like "hunting crab seals is toooo much work!" Oprah narrates this thing as if she were reading a bedtime story to little kids and comes off as snarky and condescending. In the opening segment, she's discussing a fox chasing an ibex kid and it's basically like "heeeere comes the fox! UH OH!!"

The most embarrassing thing is that I'm thinking that British people think that Americans demanded this. Who's going to be doing the next special, Dr. Phil? "Oh-kaaay, here comes the alee-gaytor, it's prey tries to run, but that neeeever works! HAW HAW HAW!" Don't get this. Get the real version.

Why on earth have they decided to dub the documentary into American English baffles me. Is British English appallingly obscure and incomprehensible?

First Harry Potter and now this. What a shameful way to undermine language for the sake of a couple of bucks?

I have various BBC Documentaries - I LOVE them, and despite the fact that I am not British I understand everything, and David Attenborough's voice in much more credible, isn't this what he does professionally?

Oprah would probably be more suitable for bedtime story recordings for sleepy youngsters.

I suggest getting the original David Attenborough version (Check the star rating and compare!)

I have nothing against Oprah. I was very excited to watch the Premier of the Life Series on the Discovery Channel. However, once Oprah started talking you could tell she was reading off a script. Her voice sounded so monotone that within 20 mins I actually fell asleep. The visuals were stunning but I could not stay awake through her narration, it was like a sleeping pill. I'll be picking up Attenborough's version and hopefully it'll be more exciting.

Ever since Discovery started doing these re-narrations of the popular BBC nature documentaries, I have been confused and progressively more angered. Firstly, the fact that they even chose to take David Attenborough's narration out is insulting to one of the greatest naturalists ever. The fact that they could possibly imagine eliminating the man that basically MADE this genre of documentaries is just plain stupid and offensive and undermines Mr. Attenborough's lifelong work, which is especially terrible! Secondly, it makes us Americans look like simpletons who just want big hollywood names (that have nothing to do with anything relevant to this!) possibly in an effort to make us feel special or something!? Another possibility is that perhaps the marketing experts feel Americans are too stupid to understand British English or would be as closed minded to not purchase it because it is not good old "American". This is absolutely stupid. Everyone PLEASE just heed these warnings and buy the Attenborough versions also available and make the sales figures for the "American" version so miserable that Discovery finally gets the idea that we are tired of this crap!

I'm sorry but this has been painful to watch. I love Planet Earth and Blue Planet. I watch both series numerous times a year both at home and as applicable clips in the classroom. My students are amazed and every time I am enthralled. I assigned extra credit for watching this series thinking, just like its predecessors, it would be amazing. The good is that visually, it is fantastic once more and it's educational value in terms of predator prey relationships and adaptation are incredible. Unfortunately, the bad has been suffering through Oprah. Her painfully dull narration is an absolute killer! I don't care for Oprah but it's her show not her voice that bothers me. I had no reason to believe she would do a poor job. Instead I find myself bored, even annoyed by her narration. It's not like I was dying to have Mr. Attenborough narrate another program either. I show four separate series with him as narrator (The Private Life of Plants and Life in the Undergrowth are the other two) and my student's have grown accustomed to, almost tired of him. I thought I might grab the alternate version of this just for that reason. After suffering through this on TV, now I can't wait for Mr. Attenborough's version! I can't wait to hear some life brought back into this fantastic presentation.

What the heck is Discovery thinking about when they decided to use freakin' Oprah to narrate this series?? She is so overrated and so annoying. I refuse to watch this series on Discovery Channel just for that fact alone and I will be purchasing the David Attenborough narrated version on Blu Ray when it is released. He is the BEST at doing these documentaries and Oprah is just blah...blah...blah...boring!

I think people should continue with the one star reviews so that everyone is very clear on which version they are looking at. Unless of course you actually prefer the Oprah version (which would be baffling).

David Attenborough is an excellent narrator. I'm not sure what the deal is with releasing other versions (with different narrators).

Now they are even going a step further and airing the Oprah version on launch, at least with Planet Earth they aired the David Attenborough version first.

A lot of people that liked Planet Earth mistakenly ordered the DVDs with Sigourney...so this is just a warning to make sure you check which version you are ordering and be sure you are getting the one you want.

Let them know you want quality narration and vote with your $$$.

Update: Tried to watch the first two eps on TV and it was horrid. At least Sigourney wasn't terrible (she just wasn't as good as David Attenborough). Oprah = FAIL or to put it another way "a big bag of hurt".

Why in the world would you replace the greatest most exciting narrator with Oprah that knows nothing of this subject. Get a CLUE Discovery BBC knows what they are doing stop polluting it. It was perfect leave it alone!!

I have to agree with almost everyone here. THE voice for nature documentaries belongs to David Attenborough. I saw Oprah's show where she said that after seeing the series, she "asked" Discovery if she could narrate their version. I guess nobody had the spine (or good judgment) at Discovery to say NO to queen Oprah. She should stick to her forte - daytime TV.
Thank you Amazon for making both versions available... I'll be going with the BBC.