Planet Earth (TV Mini Series) Fresh Water (2006) User Reviews

Where To Find The Prescious Fresh Water

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 25 December 2008]

'Water, water everywhere........" Well, actually only a small percentage ( 3%) of he water in the world is "fresh water," according to this episode, but it means every everything to all living creatures on planet Earth.

In this third installment of the fabulously-filmed "Planet Earth" series, some of the sights we see are (1) the highest waterfall where water is just a mist by the time it's three-quarters of the way down; )2_ the largest lake, located in Eastern Siberia, and (3) the world's largest river: the Amazon, which holds more water than rivers numbers 2-9 put together! We also see a fair number of innocent animals, birds and fish eaten by giant, very nasty-looking salamanders, crocodiles and other predators.

Always searching for fresh water, we witness migrations such as the great wildebeest migration on the Serengeti Plain (and the humongous Nile crocodiles waiting for them).

Other highlights includes beautiful waterfalls, lush vegetation and some very strange-looking creatures (mostly fish).

I almost cried!

[dakuchonekobing · 8/10 · 3 September 2020]

Well, I don't know if this Documentary episode is one of the best thing could be created in history, but it satisfied me a lot. The visual and the music have a great fusion. I love the falls scenes and the big view, how wonderful and magnificent they are! The music make me feel so comfortable and relaxing when the camera slice upon the water. Amazing Nature!

Fresh indeed

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 11 November 2017]

Absolutely adore 'Planet Earth', one of the best documentaries ever made and actually is more than that. Have remarked a few times that it and its recent follow up (every bit as good) did for nature and out planet as 'Walking with Dinosaurs' did with the dinosaurs. David Attenborough is wisely considered a national treasure for very good reason, no matter how much he himself dislikes the term.

"Fresh Water" is every bit as wonderful as the previous two episodes of a series that didn't have a dud in it. Throughout it's an awe-inspiring, utterly transfixing experience where one forgets they're watching a documentary and instead feeling like they're watching art. This may sound like extreme hyperbole, but to me and many others 'Planet Earth' is completely deserving of its praise and even deserving of more. To me as well, it is easily one of the best the BBC has done in years.

Where to start with the praises for "Fresh Water?" For starters it looks amazing. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the animals), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic. The scenery and habitats are some of the most breath-taking personally seen anywhere, whether in visual media and real life and the rich colours positively leap out. The music is epic but has just as many quieter moments that speak just as much. The main theme is unforgettable.

Regarding the narrative aspects, "Fresh Water" can't be faulted there either. The narration has a great well-balanced mix of facts that will be familiar to the viewer and others that will induce the right amount of surprise. In short, it's just fascinating, informative and thoughtful, watery environments have rarely been this fascinatingly explored or in a way that makes one care for water as its own character. Everything is intriguing and illuminating, with as much for children to be inspired by as well as adults, and there is just enough freshness to avoid it from becoming stale. Attenborough delivers it beautifully, there's a soft-spoken enthusiasm and precision about his delivery and he never preaches.

It's not just seeing the waterfalls, rivers and lakes that one sees. There are glimpses of the animal inhabitants, prey and predator, they look great and glow in personality. As always, the emotions that are felt are wide-ranging and complex.

Nothing episodic or repetitive here in "Fresh Water" either. Despite covering a lot of animals and habitats, there is a real sense of the episode having its own individual story with real, complex emotions and conflicts and the subject is dealt with in a very human way.

Concluding, another 'Planet Earth' gem. 10/10 Bethany Cox

"Here, only the narrowest line separates life from death."

[classicsoncall · 9/10 · 22 August 2012]

Fascinating statistics abound in this third entry in the Planet Earth series, foremost of which is that all the fresh water in the world comprises only three per cent of the total water there is. One never stops to think about it, but if seventy five percent of the Earth is ocean, then putting it into that perspective kind of makes sense. Then there's the Amazon River - larger in volume than the next ten largest rivers combined! It's truly a wondrous world when you come right down to it.

By it's nature, the format of these chapters lends itself to a much too rapid coverage of a myriad of subjects. This 'Fresh Water' segment made it's way quickly from Venezuela's Angel Falls to Japan, the Grand Canyon, India, East Africa and Siberia. Every area explored is an adventure unto itself, and maybe it's a response to today's attention deficit lifestyle, but a more focused approach might have been in order for some of these topics. Then again, it's a big planet, so I don't know if my idea would have been better suited for such a broad topic.

The segment that literally had me jumping out of my seat were those nasty river crocodiles in East Africa's Mara River. There's no getting away from those bad boys once they clamp down on their intended victim. So you have to marvel at those Indian otters harassing mugger crocs in another part of the world like they didn't have a care in the world. Me, I prefer the placement a nice living room couch affords from a distance of several thousand miles. So call me crazy if I think those piranha divers were just asking for trouble in the Amazon. I like coming up with the right number of fingers and toes when I go swimming.

The Hydrologic Cycle

[aherdofbeautifulwildponies · 9/10 · 10 April 2023]

The third episode of the series is, in many respects, a thorough and beautifully-shot presentation of the water cycle - insofar as that applies to fresh water. We start at the very top, at Angel Falls in Venezuela. That waterfall is the highest in the world and can be found on the Auyan-Tepui ('Devils Mountain') plateau, the same mountain formation that inspired Conan Doyle to write The Lost World (1912), although the location might now be more familiar as Paradise Falls from Up (2009).

The cinematography is especially astonishing towards the start, when we follow the waters of Angel Falls along the drop of nearly a kilometre; and also towards the finale, when the camera floats above the Iguassu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil. That location, too, is breathtakingly fantastical.

As fresh water travels from the mountains to, eventually, the lakes and oceans, there is no shortage of curious and unfamiliar creatures: the giant salamander and the crab-eating macaque are among the many species introduced in the episode. There are, also, animals who are more familiar to the wider public and whom we associate with rivers across the planet: salmon, otters, crocodiles, seals, piranha, and bottle-nosed dolphins. Each species is portrayed with careful attention and in its interaction with others sharing the same ecosystem.

The music composed by George Fenton is brilliant at guiding the viewer through the narrative; the localisation of some of the melodies is an unexpected but not unwelcome choice. Beautifully, thoughtfully narrated by David Attenborough, 'Fresh Water' is another outstanding work by the BBC Natural History Unit and a pleasure for all senses.

Planet Earth: Fresh Water

[Sedamir27 · 10/10 · 22 December 2014]

Have you ever thought about what kind of water you are drinking or where it comes from? What is the main ingredient of your favorite coffee, tea or juice? Yes, of course you are right! It is all Freshwater! Though only 3% of all the water sources of our planet are fresh waters, life deeply depends on them. Knowing more about them will not be useless both for our planet and its inhabitants. Fortunately, there is an episode from Plant Earth TV series, which is about Freshwater! These TV series were produced by BBC Natural History Unit in cooperation with Discovery Chanel. The narrator was David Attenborough, the executive producer was Maureen Lemire and the composer was George Fenton. Besides producers, there was a huge supporting team, which consisted of more than hundreds of scientists, pilots, guides, drivers and other members who worked really hard on creating these series. Planet Earth's budget was 16 million pound sterling. Due to this among all the documentaries BBC has ever made these are the most expensive ones. And the episode about freshwater is one of those eleven series, which were first broadcast on BBC in 2006. This one had more than 8.83 million viewers on its first broadcast day. Its plot develops upon description of freshwater sources. The first source of freshwater is the rain. It starts to fall down from high mountains by forming streams. Streams can form rivers by falling down from tall cliffs. Simultaneously they create waterfalls. Some freshwater rivers contain a huge variety of animal species. Which ones live where? There is a scrupulous explanation why everyone from them live mostly in the same habitat. Most important relationships between both inhabitants and the environment of a particular habitat are some pieces of evidence, which make the description comprehensive for the audience. Then we are witness of other rivers falling into seas and oceans. But not all the rivers continue to stream. Some of them form lakes. Freshwater lakes contain 20 times more water than all the rivers combined. The biggest lake of our planet is Baikal, which contains 1/5 of World's all freshwater sources. And finally, not only freshwater lakes, but also rivers that fall into oceans involve the enormous diversity of many usual and unusual creations. The screening of the nature is accompanied with a detailed interpretation. Many episodes have taken from the high and unavailable places for operators. This was due to small video cameras that cannot be sighted by animals or broken down by poor environmental conditions. These outlooks make spectators to feel like a participant of the whole journey. The documentary is accompanied with glamorous classical music. Wonderful sounds of different musical instruments are completely accordant with the views of the nature. They catch the audience's attention and make the watching process entirely entertaining. In conclusion, because of absolutely excellent clarification, impressive music and picturesque views of rivers, waterfalls and lakes the documentary becomes more educational and gripping. On the whole, it is an outstanding one for watching.