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Film Title: Earth

 Best for ages: 5 and up.

Movie Website:  Click Here

Year Released: 2009

Rated: G (US)

The Review

     As a member of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, I’ll never give up on an opportunity to review a documentary about wildlife and the habitats of our planet. With more and more nature shows and documentaries being produced thanks to such cable outlets as the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and the National Geographic Channel; people have really taken to the subjects of nature and the world's wildlife. 

     Disney has started its own production company, Disney Nature, specifically aimed towards wildlife documentaries. EARTH is the first film to be released under this new banner, although the film was made in accord with The Discovery Channel, Greenlight Media and the BBC. 

     The film simply takes us around the world to different countries and different animals' habitats. It starts in the North Pole where Polar Bears hunt for food on which their lives depend, into the frozen tundra where Caribou roam, the rain forests, the African plains, the Sahara desert, right into the forests in our own back yard. We also follow a group of Humpback Whales across the world down to Antarctica and watch Great White Sharks hunt seals. If some of this sounds familiar, it’s because some of the scenes were also part of the popular television event on the Discovery Channel, Planet Earth.

     To say that Disney just rehashed scenes from Planet Earth to bring it to the big screen and DVD and Blu-ray would not be entirely true. There are some scenes that were not part of the series on the Discovery Channel, and the film is narrated by James Earl Jones instead of Sigourney Weaver. What Disney has done is simply to tone down the violence a bit. We see the hunt, but we do not see any animals harmed or killed. Disney put this film together to cater to children who have a taste for wildlife.

     The Blu-ray disc is like no other. While it only has a few special features such as Exclusive Filmmakers Annotations and a documentary called Earth Diaries: The Making of EARTH the movie, the experience in High Definition alone is worth it’s price. This has got to be one of the best looking Blu-ray titles I have seen on my HDTV yet. The quality of the picture is so crystal clear you feel like your right there with the animals. It truly is like no other experience on the small screen.  The Blu-ray disc also comes with a bonus copy of the film on DVD as well.

     Overall, EARTH may be full of scenes that we have all experienced on the television series PLANET EARTH, but in Blu-ray High Definition it’s a whole other experience. It’s probably best for kids over the age five to sit down and enjoy. My two-year-old sat down to watch some scenes, but with the slow pace of the film, it was hard to keep an active toddler’s attention. It’s a great film to experience for its quality picture, sound as well as educational value.

BUY THIS MOVIE.