Customer Reviews

Planets [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this video for Christmas for my 8 year old nephew. Five of us watched it, from ages 8 to 46 and all found it interesting. Now, I must admit we all have an interest in astronomy and it may tax a child's attention span if he does not have such an interest, but it lasts almost an hour and my nephew's attention did not falter. Patrick Stewart, of course, has an excellent voice to narrate such a video. This, in combination with the graphics of the various planets and their moons, as well as the music, greatly assisted in assimilating the concepts the video was presenting. My personal favorite part was the description and explanation of the rings of Saturn.

This video is one of those rare occasions where art and science meet and become more than the sum of the whole. It's obvious to this viewer that Director Don Barrett has taken NASA footage and animation, from various eras, and constructed a tour of the Solar System as one would never experience it themselves. A newer version on DVD also includes Pluto and Dolby 5.1 sound, reconstructed from the original Tomita Master Tapes. I believe this video will work for individuals of all ages who have an interest in the planets and long to visit them.

I was skeptical at first. I had heard about this title; that it was very artsy. Everything was edited to the music like a music video. Now I don't know what all the fuss was about. Director Don Barrett has managed to use a work of music, merge it with computer created space art and realtime photography by space probe, fuse it together with a superior, intelligent script, read by arguably one of the finest voices in the world.

This is an ideal combination of art and science.

Patrick Stewart gives an Oscar level performance as narrator of this marvelous documentary set to music. This will keep the attention of people from 7-70. Also available in dvd and Dolby 5.1 sound digitally remastered.

This is a video showing footage of the different satellite landings on the various planets in our system. However, you won't find that. The footage is a mixture of artist renditions and poor computer graphics. Additionally, the poor writing, *really* bad music (Yoko Ono meets Gustav Holst), and Patrick Stewart sounding angry having to read such a bad script made this a poor rendition of "In Search Of."

We thought we'd found some great footage to share with our children, but what we found was Barbarella's vision of the planets and middle-school level cinematography (spliced together artist renditions and inferior computer animations).

The build up of the movie on the cover falsely portrays what you will really find, so please don't waste your time. Please don't waste your honest wages on this movie. Please, please, please don't go there.

Never mind 99% of the documentary you've seen. They're little more than show and tell. This work of art and science provides more information by osmosis than anything I've ever seen. Listen to Patrick Stewart's voice. Feel how it blends with the orchestra. This experience rates up there with Fantasia. You must own it.

Patrick Stewart is fantastic as narrator of this computer generated trip through the Solar System. Lots of NASA footage. A classic.

My initial reaction to this video was one of disappointment. It claims to be narrated by the great and talented Patrick Stewart. However, as I watched the first umpteen minutes or so of the video, I realized that I had yet to hear that familiar voice of "Captain Picard." In fact, all I heard and saw was a stream of "slide show" type graphics with sub-titles and a continuous and rather monotonous computer generated score. If Mr. Stewart did indeed narrate the film, then it couldn't have been much more than a few words, and must have been at the very beginning or very end of the video. There was no dialog that I could discern during most of the show. The video did end up being useful, however, when I used it as a "slide show" type presentation at a National Astronomy Day event I coordinated at a local mall. As entertainment or an educational source, I cannot recommend this video. However, if you are looking for something to present or display at a science fair type event, then this video has value.

Patrick Stewart brings emotional context to a long form music-video voyage through the solar system. His performance is at least as good as any episode of Star Trek, but combined with the exquisite Dolby Pro Logic Surround score, he literally becomes an instrument of the orchestra.