Customer Reviews

The Living Planet - A Portrait of the Earth

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Great quality series as the majority of BBC's but they did not do any effort to make a new rank cintell trasfer of the material from the negatives. The quality of the picture reminds me an ugly 16mm footage transferred to U-Matic, the noise is umbeareable. Non talking about the poor quality of the sound and the music made with synthetizers from the early seventies.

Same price as prime new series like The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, Seas of Life, not worth the price.

If made with today's technology this series would rank as the best nature series ever produced. Despite its age-related flaws (Video Quality, Soundtrack, Chopping Block), this DVD series still rates the full 5 stars. It features a younger, spryer David Attenborough exploring a planet teeming with life. Attenborough is the ultimate ecology teacher - he guides the viewer through the various biomes of the earth, picking out a variety of amazing phenomena to show us, and he lets us soak in the beauty of each realm. Rather than focusing on birds or mammals, we learn about the whole spectrum of the natural world, from fish to fungi, insects to people. The information is always interesting, and presented in modest amounts - it never becomes a bore.

Buy this if you enjoyed these DVDs:
Life of Mammals
Blue Planet
Africa: The Serengeti
Alaska: Spirit of the Wild

I originally saw the original U.S. run of The Living Planet on PBS back in the spring of 1985. I was absolutely mesmerized by this series. I was into all things natural history and filmmaking and this series did it for me! It still is my all-time favorite natural history series.

I recently purchased the R1 DVD set and am reliving those fantastic times I had when I watched it over 20 years ago. The information is still relevant although we can think back over 20 years to see how things have progressed from the time David Attenborough made this show.

I would have given the show 5 stars (absolutely nothing wrong with the content mind you) BUT someone decided to put the individual episodes on the discs in the wrong order!!!! Why in the world did they do this? The original show was presented in an order which made sense, for example, Attenborough begins with the Building of the Earth and then moves on to the high frozen mountains, then goes to the Northern Forests and subsequently into the jungles and then the grasslands, etc. In the R1 version of the DVD, they totally are out of order!!! Makes me sick to think that they actually came up with this idea. The original shows usually had a short teaser line by Sir David at the end of each episode indicating where we were going in the next episode, as a reviewer already stated before, these were edited out and the endings of the episodes come fast and just end. Just no excuse to do that.

But, what I am doing is watching them in the correct order to enjoy the episodes as they were meant to be seen.

One other thing, if you really want to enjoy this series, then find the book called The Making of the Living Planet by Andrew Langley. This book was published in 1985 and details all that went into the making of the series mostly from the cameraman's viewpoint. It has totally opened my eyes as to how they shoot these things and what specifically went into making the Living Planet. I will never watch it again in the same way now that I know the behind the scenes of it!

ok, so the digital transfer isn't the best, time-warner has rearranged the presentation order and 25 years of scientific advancements have come to pass, the series is still as great as ever and the program's intent remains relevant ... now, to correct the one problem that can be corrected, here is the original broadcast sequence for those who would like to watch "the living planet" in it's original order ... enjoy:

1. "The Building of the Earth" - broadcast 19 January 1984

2. "The Frozen World" - broadcast 26 January 1984

3. "The Northern Forests"- broadcast 2 February 1984

4. "Jungle"- broadcast 16 February 1984

5. "Seas of Grass" - broadcast 23 February 1984

6. "The Baking Deserts" - broadcast 1 March 1984

7. "The Sky Above" - broadcast 8 March 1984

8. "Sweet Fresh Water" - broadcast 15 March 1984

9. "The Margins of the Land" - broadcast 22 March 1984

10. "Worlds Apart" - broadcast 29 March 1984

11. "The Open Ocean" - broadcast 5 April 1984

12. "New Worlds" - broadcast 12 April 1984

The content of this DVD is GREAT. This is the complete review of all living places on earth. Unfortunatelly, the quality of picture is like VHS, not so clean as DVD should like. That's why I give 4 stars.

Before there was "Life of Mammals", Sir David Attenborough made "The Living Planet". This DVD covers every type of habitate on earth and intigrates humans as part of the enviroment in this four DVD set.

Although I personally like "Life on Earth" better, I place "The Living Planet" as second in a complete wildlife production. Other works to look for are; Life of Plants, Life of Mammals and Life of Birds.

I hesitated for a long time to purchase this exquisite colletion due to the low ratings from other customers. I am so very glad I decided to risk it and purchase this wonderful DVD, after all !! OK, maybe the Audio and Video quality are not a 100%, so what?? The collection is still enjoyable and highly satisfying, whatsoever. This collection is a must have for all nature lovers. Really, really beautiful!! I am very satisfied. The only downside is that it is not closed captioned, contrary to what is advertised on the box. This DVD has been a valuable addition to my own collection.