Customer Reviews

National Geographic - Amazing Planet

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

 

 

Other reviews of this video state that the music overpowers much of its strengths. I agree this may be true. However, being a middle school science teacher, I have found that "Amazing Planet" as an addition to my lesson plans on plate tectonics seriously engages my 6th grade students, who are mesmerized by the images and dramatic tone of the narrator. Since the film at times plays more like a suspense film than a "quiet" documentary, it is a welcome form of media, as I find myself competing for the children's attention (as we all know, many lives unfortunately revolve around loud Ipods, raucous YouTube clips, action-packed computer games, and edge-of-your-seat movies). "Amazing Planet" helps me convince the kids that geology can be just as exciting and fun to learn!

If I didn't find the subject matter so interesting I would have turned this off in five minutes. The background noise (some may call it music) in the soundtrack is so loud that you can barely hear the narrator's voice unless you turn the volume up to pain levels. I just watched 15 minutes of it and my ears are still ringing!

That said the the perspective of our planet presented in this documentary is quite captivating and the cinematography is first rate. If you can stand the noise it's well worth watching, but if you want your hearing to last long enough to hear your grandchildren's first words then you may want to avoid watching this one too often.

(Note: this review is based on the broadcast version of the show, not the DVD release.)

I bought this DVD after VERY careful research. My children had video cassettes when they were little of a program called Amazing Planet by National Geographic that had 4 aliens flying around the planet on missions. I enjoyed the shows as much as my children and when I saw that I could purchase multiple shows on one DVD, I did. This DVD clearly stated in the description "starring Pat Cashman" who was the "Captain" on the show. However, I was more than disappointed when I discovered this DVD was not the one I had wanted. If you're looking for the children's program "Amazing Planet," this isn't it. Regardless, this was a great program even though it was not what I was looking for.
Whomever is responsible for the mistake in the credits ought to correct it.

High speed video
Erratic editing
Annoying commentary
Such a pity - I good idea wasted!
BBC wildlife documentaries are far better!

This documentary is informative. The many CGIs help a lot in understanding the geological concept featured.

What make this documentary stand out from its peers is its presentation. The narration, accompanying soundtrack, CGIs and great scenery are very captivating to me. The episodes progress at a high tempo pace, in sync with the exciting geological concept featured.

The subject matter is very interesting, and most of the video clips are great in terms of resolution. With four programs, this is a good value. The dialogue is OK, nothing great here. The weak points are the short choppy clips (If 400 video clips are good, are 1000 clips in the same time period better?), and the incessant, irrelevant rock and roll percussion music in the background that seems to drive a furious pace throughout many parts of this production. You just can't relax and think about what you are seeing, as it flies by in impressionistic fervor. I don't think the human eyes and brain are really meant for this kind of sensory challenge or bombardment! I do like the parallax effect of a moving landscape view, as long as it is smooth (not jerky or spasmodic, as it often is here!). There is also some repetition. It's good that the animations and video (apart from production) are relatively high quality. I think this "new" style of educational documentary is driven by the sensibilities of the people who think that it is an accomplishment to cram a short story into a 15 second Super Bowl commercial. If you took the original, uncut video, re-wrote and upgraded the script with contributions from some knowledgable geologists, and replaced the music soundtrack with a more thoughtful audio experience that contributed to the viewing, you could have a very nice four to six hour series here. The commercial transitions should also be reworked, and each program in the DVD production should be set forth as a full 60 minutes. The theme? I don't know. Maybe it is that "the Earth is full of changing or destructive forces, and hopefully our species can escape to another planet before something terrible happens here." Wishful thinking, but certainly consistent with our current, non-sustainable lifestyle! Rethink the message if you rewrite it!

Such a shame, this BluRay is full of beautiful high-res images that are paraded before you at such a speed that by 5 minutes I had a serious case of motion sickness, and had to turn it off after 10 more minutes. Thinking I just needed to sit a bit further away, the next night I tried again but nope, same thing happened. It's so frustrating, all these amazing shots but not one is one screen for more than 2 seconds before it fast cuts to another. What happened to watching a gently unfolding natural drama? Why can't we linger a while to drink in the beauty of a scene?

This is documentary for the ADD generation. If your child has a problem concentrating on anything for more then 0.5 seconds, then this disc is ideal. Anyone else should stock up on the Dramamine and get ready with the pause button before watching this deeply flawed disc.

I love national geographic, but this DVD was very disappointing. Part of it looked like a powerpoint presentaion with the same video animations repeating itself through the episodes. Not worth the money.

It is a wonderful series of documentaries!!! Magical!!
Lovely landscapes, sounds and narration!!

I'd prefer though all National Geographic documentaries to have English Subtitles for the non native speakers!

This is a great multimedia DVD with computer graphics and sounds that puts you right under the earths mantle. I watched this with my surround sound sytem and 42" Samsung LCD. Very awesome.