Planet Earth (2006– )

Emmy Award winning, 11-episodes, 5-years in the making, the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and the first to be filmed in high definition.

Stars:

David Attenborough, Sigourney Weaver, Huw Cordey

Won 4 Primetime Emmys. Another 9 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
David Attenborough	...	Himself - Narrator (11 episodes, 2006)
Sigourney Weaver	...	Narrator - US Version (11 episodes, 2006)

Storyline

Each 50 minute episode features a global overview of a different biome or habitat on Earth (Polar, Mountain, Cave, Desert, Plains, Fresh Water, Seas, Ocean, Forest), followed by a ten-minute featurette which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the challenges of filming the episode.

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Plot Keywords:

planet earth | nature | plant | nature earth | animal

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Taglines:

Prepare to see it as never before.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

TV-G

Details

Official Sites:

BBC [uk] Official site

Country:

UK Germany Canada Japan USA

Language:

German English

Release Date:

27 February 2006 (UK)

Also Known As:

Planet Earth Extremes

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min 60 min (11 episodes)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The project took 40 camera teams shooting at over 200 different locations all over the world for more than five years.

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Connections

Referenced in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: 17 Again/State of Play/Crank High Voltage (2009)

User Reviews

In A Word: Amazing

Thankfully, I caught a couple of these episodes on American television, which led me to this 11-part series on Blu-Ray DVDs and over five hours of outstanding entertaining and education. Looking back, I still shake my head in amazement at the things I saw on these discs.

Obviously, the incredible photography and sharpness/color (please see this on high-def, if you can) is the first thing that captures the viewer's eye, but as the series went on I appreciated the objectivity in here ("aw, cute" shots mixed in with the brutality of existence) and the lack of environmental propaganda, which one usually gets in boatloads in these "nature" films. Here, the writers and narrator David Attenborough just present the world as it is. Only at the very end do you get a short environmental message. It isn't needed: the beauty of this earth says it all, and the writers were smart enough to figure that out during this series.

After viewing 11 discs, you come to the obvious conclusions that in the Earth's world of animals, birds and fish come only a few objectives: where to find food, water, a mate, and escape being devoured by a predator. That's it, except for pets or zoo animals. On land or in water, it's simply a matter of survival, as this BBC series shows us.

What makes this so special is that, thanks to incredible work by cameramen, we are privy to many extraordinary sights we would never see, if left on our own, and never imagined existed on this planet. Much of this series is simply mind-boggling to view, especially all the overhead shots, which were stunning.

There are too many positive adjectives I could use to even begin, in recommending you watch this. Just give it a try - any of the 11 segments - and see if you don't want to then watch all of them.