In 2012, Animal Planet attempted to sheds its soft and furry side of paternalistic, preachy, and observation-based programs, to something more active, entertaining and edgy like airing a documentary like 'Mermaids: The Body Found' to the public. This documentary claims that there is indeed scientific evidence for the existence of humanoid fish like beings living in the ocean. Not only that, but the government is hiding it from the public. Without spoiling too much, of the documentary, for the most part, the intense interviews mixed with CGI reenactments make this, a very entertaining watch. However, instead of focusing the special on entirely on how the mermaids came to be; 'Body Found' spends way too much time on the dangers of sonar and the conspiracy theories about it. It was so preachy. While, yes, sonar has been singled out by some environmentalists as a focus for activism and while, yes, it's true that the Navy does secret sonar testing. One thing that isn't true, is that it's being tested on marine life. For the most part, the US Navy follows strict protocols to avoid them, such as not operating the Sonar in specific areas of the ocean that are considered sensitive or not operating when a marine mammal is known to be within a certain range. Unfortunately for many whales, dolphins and other marine life, even with that, sometimes, the use of underwater sonar does cause mass cetacean stranding throughout the world's oceans, but most are incidents, not on purpose. It's hard to prevent the use of sonars on navy ships; since it is a very information key to them. I wish the documentary didn't portray them, so badly. Another problem with the interviewers, is that, for scientists, they barely talk about the mermaids at all. Despite, speaking in a very well-spoken matter, none of the things, they were saying, were scientific accuracy. It's there, where I realize, I was watching a fake. I really felt betrayed by this hoax. While, this special did well, boost their ratings, I was somewhat disappointed that Animal Planet went the same route as History Channel, focusing too much on entertainment rather than providing actual research based programming. I would never have thought, that they would go that route. It's also very shameful that after the initial airing and subsequent negative feedback, they decide to rebroadcast this documentary and make a sequel for it, in 2013, 'Mermaids: The New Evidence', knowing full well that they were misleading people. I guess, money is truly the end all-gain. Who cares about education, when you can make green! Like the History Channel before it; stunts like this, proves without a doubt, how much Animal Planet has step so low, and became a joke. The documentary created enough of a stir that the U.S. government issued an official statement on the matter. When the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had to rebut your claims, you know, you lose your way, Animal Planet. You use to be respected. What really sucks about it, is how much the filmmakers did to make it seem like it was, all real. Publicity for the program included a website falsely claiming government seizure of the site's domain & very few disclaimers to indicate the speculative nature of the programming during the original broadcast. It really gave the impression of being an actual documentary, when in truth, much of the material was made up, and the scientists shown were actors. It was a hoax that fool America. It didn't help that the production values are extremely cheap-looking with stupid jump scares. The cell phone video near the end features the seemingly-dead mermaid sitting up and screeching at one of the kids checking its "corpse" was really badly made. Also another video where a camera focuses in on a porthole on a holding tank and a webbed hand suddenly appears, startling the person filming was just silly. In my opinion, all the CGI renderings presenting various scenes of Mermaids at work (having a baby, hunting fish, migrating with whales, and facing off against a giant shark) need some more work. After all, their version of the mermaid seem to have the look and behavior of a Pinniped (Seal) mixed with cetacean (Dolphin). If we are to believe this extreme and unrealistic evolution. Wouldn't it, make more sense that these creatures to have stream-like faces, body hair or thick blubbery skin, so they wouldn't freeze to death, due to the cold temperatures and get crush by the heavy pressures of the ocean? After all, this documentary says the mermaids can live in deep depths of the ocean along with whales and dolphins. Another problem with that theory, if a mermaid live with whales and dolphins, wouldn't those creatures find them, as a threat? It makes sense if the whales and dolphins, were breed domestic, but these creatures are wild. They would had killed them. To make matters somehow even worse, the documentary resorts to showing the same clips of "footage" over and over in an effort to merely fill time. It really got annoying. However, despite that, the make-up work for some of the scenes with early man were very impressed. Great work on that. Even some of the majestic music being placed over these moments does work; but some of the tunes, seem to be ripped from the 2007's Sci-Fi movie, 'Sunshine'. I also love the dark broody music from the beginning of the documentary. It adds to the mystery of the unknown. It felt scary at times. Overall: While, Mermaids are probably a lot more rooted in lonely sailors' imaginations than the physical world. I have to give the documentary, some credit. They really did try to make it seem like it was real. I just wish, they weren't misleading people in order to do that.
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