Most Blu-ray enthusiasts are familiar with the acclaimed BBC series Planet Earth, a massive documentary on the wealth of wildlife making a go of it on our planet, shot in HD and narrated by the legendary Sir David Attenborough. Planet Earth has acted as something of a benchmark for documentary visuals on the Blu-ray format, so it's no surprise that Nature’s Most Amazing Events is similarly stellar in the visual department. Similarly narrated by Attenborough, this series is a microcosmic look at the macrocosms of planet Earth. It still manages to provide a wide canvas but gets in closer and deals with six unique and astounding natural phenomena in the animal kingdom. Tiresome (but gorgeous) at worst and absolutely hypnotic at best, Nature’s Most Amazing Events acts almost like an expansion pack for Planet Earth, fleshing out the smaller detail while maintaining the latter’s epic scope.
Split up between two Blu-ray discs, Nature’s Most Amazing Events is made up of six episodes of approximately one hour each. The first episode, "The Great Melt", deals with the plight of polar bears in conjunction with the melting of icebergs in the Arctic. "The Great Salmon Run" takes a closer look at the return of the salmon to the west coast mountain ranges of North America, where they must brave a variety of dangers, not least of all grizzly bears (who in turn have their own problems, like hungry wolves). "The Great Migration" takes us to the arid Serengeti plains, where multitudes of wildebeests make a trip to more fertile lands, leaving a pride of lions without a food source. The attention to detail and the gorgeous desert and plains visuals make this one my favorite of the six. "The Great Tide" substitutes North America for Africa and salmon for sardines. "The Great Flood" gives us an inside look at the dangers of the Kalahari Desert, which can be by turns arid or plentiful. The final episode, "The Great Feast", documents a feeding frenzy on the coast of Alaska.
Each episode is efficiently edited and narrated, but you couldn’t expect any less of BBC Earth, who have made a reputation for themselves on their nature documentaries. What is potentially surprising is how gripping all this is. For example, in "The Great Migration" the filmmakers develop an episodic approach to covering the struggles of a pride of lions and manage to identify them by distinctive visual characteristics. The plight of one lioness cub might have you glued to the screen. The remaining episodes continue the trend but none struck me as intimate as the survival efforts of the Serengeti pride. The music is also top-notch; orchestra pieces highlight both moments of action and the quieter moments of complete beauty, such as a volcano spewing out ash 50,000 feet into the air, black plumes rising out the top of it in gorgeous puffs.
Being that this is a Blu-ray collection, Nature’s Most Amazing Events is everything you might hope for visually, perhaps not perfect but close enough. The sight of flies nesting in a lion’s matted fur or the astounding underwater filming gives testimony to just how impressive this format can be. It helps that the filmmakers shot the series in HD, a trend that returns crisp and clear images, not necessarily filmic in quality but certainly just as invigorating. Audio, on the other hand, is excellent but pales in comparison to the quality of video. If you are expecting a spectacular mix, you may be disappointed to find a good one, but not necessarily the blockbusting work that takes advantage of channels when you would want it to. But then again, with much of each episode a quiet reflection as we secretly glimpse the rituals of the animal kingdom this is a minor complaint. Nature’s Most Amazing Events is satisfying and more than watchable, whether you're a nature documentary fan or not.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
With no extras to speak of outside of a welcome series of short "making of" diaries at the end of each episode, the series doesn't necessarily suffer from its lack of supplemental materials. The diaries are informative and manage to encapsulate the filmmaker’s journey in their relatively short running time. The one downside of the series is that it comes packaged in a cardboard sleeve, which is from time to time flimsy, so make you secure the disks and keep it pointed up so as not to risk them coming dislodged.
"Nature's Most Amazing Events" is on sale June 16, 2009 and is rated NR. Documentary. Directed by Various. Starring David Attenborough, Hasani Issa.
