Product Details

• Actors: David Attenborough
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: WEA
• DVD Release Date: May 27, 2003
• Run Time: 720 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000ADXEB
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,313 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Living Planet - A Portrait of the Earth" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

This 4 DVD Box Set contains 12 programs hosted by anthropologist David Attenborough . New Worlds: As the planet spins, shifts, erupts, melts, and freezes, it forces its inhabitants to accept this truth: A life-form either changes its ways or it passes away.; The Frozen World: They shouldn’t support life, the coldest, most desolate reaches of the earth.; The Margins of the Land: The Earth seems to have saved (reserved) some of its most remarkable displays of life for that special place where the land meets the sea.; Jungle: It spans the globe - an immense, green, equatorial belt called the jungle.; Sweet Fresh Water: As fresh water makes its mad, headlong plunge from the mountains to the salty oceans, it actually seems to "age."; The Northern Forests: Anthropologist David Attenborough's probing cameras and fresh insights make the woodlands a wonderland of fascinating extremes.; The Building of the Earth: From the icy summits of the Himalayas to the lush Tropics, anthropologist David Attenborough's view is awesome.; Worlds Apart: In a stirring piece of filmmaking, anthropologist David Attenborough takes you to out-of-the-way places that are, in every sense of the phrase, out of this world.; Seas of Grass: Where it grows, there is life.; The Open Ocean: Water covers two-thirds of the Earth, but the immense, tantalizing world beneath the sea remains one of the planet's great mysteries.; The Sky Above: If the atmosphere that surrounds the Earth can be called an envelope, then anthropologist David Attenborough delivers it in a first-class and awe-inspiring way.; The Baking Deserts: Scorching days, frigid nights. The desert should be the most relentlessly hostile place for life on the planet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

153 of 155 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat disappointing, but still great, December 14, 2004

By 

Einzige "Just a dude" (Phoenix Arizona) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Living Planet - A Portrait of the Earth (DVD)

This series was originally aired on PBS in the mid 1980s and was groundbreaking. It set a new standard for nature documentary. I was excited to see it released on DVD.

Given the apparent age and material of the source for the transfer (it looks to me like the DVD was made from a videotaped copy of the original film stock, and the video tape probably sat in a storage room somewhere for 15+ years), I think one needs to make allowances for a diminished sound and picture quality, but I really wonder who thought it was a good idea to change the order of episodes. The way Sir David originally wrote and performed the voice-overs for the ends of each episode was as a tie-in to the next, so that there would be a sort of cliff-hanger, but also a continuity to the whole series. Some idiot at Time/Life must have thought he/she knew better than Sir Attenborough how the shows should be ordered, so they cut those parts out. The result is very abrupt and startling endings to the shows--sometimes in mid-sentence! Why? This makes no sense at all.

I hope that someone comes to their senses and these classic shows get re-released without the stupid edits, and with the shows in their proper order.

144 of 149 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boo Hiss Time/Warner, November 17, 2003

By 

Deborah E. Goldeen (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Living Planet - A Portrait of the Earth (DVD)

The Living Planet Series by David Attenborough is a milestone, a benchmark in the production of nature education. What he has done is a quantum leap beyond anything else in the "nature show" category. The depth, breadth and brilliance of this series is unparralled. Unfortunately, TimeWarner got their grubby hands on it. They decided that to reorder and edit the shows so that they fit with the graphics they have chosen for the packaging. I'm not kidding! It is like they put a mustache on the Mona Lisa. Boo Hiss TimeWarner.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but get version 2 DVD, February 24, 2004

By 

Jenny (Salt Lake, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Living Planet - A Portrait of the Earth (DVD)

The program is EXCELLENT, and I've watched it many times on VHS. Unfortunately, the region 1 DVD has been edited and I was very disapointed to find that most of the sections had been shortened. From what I understand, the region 2 DVD is not edited. So if I had it to do over, I would buy the region 2 DVD from amazon.co.uk instead.