Product Details

• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000815FL0
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #66,713 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The four pack includes: 1. Oringins and Life on the Move 2. The Conquerors and Survival Game 3. The First Hunter and Explosion of Life 4. Ultimate Animal and Bones, Brawn and Brains

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing series that will rock your world!, September 18, 2005

By	W. Chen "circusoflife" (Medellin, Colombia) - See all my reviews

This relatively obscure series (2002) is a real find. 8 near hour long episodes on 4 DVDs tell the story of primarily invertebrates of the sea (sponges, anenomes, flatworms, molluscs, arthropods, jellyfish, sea stars, etc...) over the course of time and how we relate and in some cases depend on these seemingly lowly creatures. Amazing video footage and computer graphics clearly explain everything. The scope of the video is worldwide. This is documentary film-making at its best. I couldn't help but get excited over things I've seen in real life and taken for granted as a scuba diver.

You can learn more about this series at the [...] website.

I also *HIGHLY* recommend the Journey of Man DVD (Logical sequel) and Evolution 4-DVD set, and National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth 2-DVD set. If you enjoy the ocean or just being around water, I also recommend BBC's Blue Planet. Videos like these should be mass distributed for free!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best documentary series I have EVER seen!, April 21, 2009

By	Corraleno (USA) - See all my reviews

Documentaries are pretty much all we watch on TV, and my 11 year old son (future biologist) has seen pretty much every nature documentary ever made, from PBS to BBC to Discovery, etc. This is one of the best series we have EVER seen, and we have all watched it multiple times. It's a shame it's not more widely known because it is easily as good as (better than, IMHO) PBS/BBC documentaries on the same subject. It covers the evolution of life on earth by explaining the gradual changes in anatomy (invertebrates to vertebrates, etc). Fascinating information, first-class photography and graphics, and some of the weirdest-looking creatures you have ever seen!

I disagree with the previous reviewer who said it is difficult to understand; I have no background in biology but I understood everything and so did my kids. We learned so much from this series!

5.0 out of 5 stars Top research on film, March 12, 2009

By	Tib - See all my reviews

This documentary discusses recent researches on evolution. It focuses mainly on early marine life and starts with the earliest complex animals, sponges.

From there on, it describes how evolution branched, tried new tools, inventing the ones we often consider consubstantial to animal life: sensing the world -including the latter invention of modern eyes,- moving, modern sexuality and hunting.

The show is very good, one of the best documentaries I've seen, but not an easy one -maybe only for me since English is my secondary language.

It is not something you would see to have an easy overview of evolution, or that you would show to people who don't think much of evoluionary sciences (genetics, paleontology, biological chemistry, etc)

It is build around some hugely important animal inventions, and is demanding intellectually.

After seeing this, you will probably have a renewed and more profound understanding of what the animal kingdom represents. Though it is not about plant life, you get to see how most complex forms of animal life share a set of basic designs that actually were invented at some point and had a great success.

Save for the Jerome Mordillat films (Corpus Christi, Origin of Christianity, Apocalypse) "Shape of life" are my favorite documentary movies. Both those films actually share the same emphasis on following top scholars and not fearing to discuss complex subjects, and are not made to please a viewer with only an average interest in cutting edge research.