The Future is Wild-5 Million Years from Now... (2002) |
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The Future is Wild-5 Million Years from Now... (2002) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Documentary |
Main Menu Audio Short Film-The Future Is Now Featurette-Making Of Gallery-3D Animation Gallery-Photo Gallery-Video Notes-Background Information Web Links |
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| Year Of Production | 2002 | ||
| Running Time | 100:40 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | None Given |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Magna Home Entertainment |
Starring | None Given |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $24.95 | Music |
Nick Hooper Paul Pritchard |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
In this first fascinating instalment of the series, we find ourselves 5 million years in the future. Earth is a very different place from what we know it to be now, although it is in a state that it has been many times before. An ice age has set in and the oceans have contracted to the north and south poles where they have then expanded into polar ice caps that descend to as low as Paris and up to as high as Buenos Aires. It is a cold and inhospitable place, and there is one creature that is conspicuous in his absence ...man. With the extinction of the creature that has dominated the planet with its technological achievements for thousands of years, the anvil of millennia has erased every trace of the existence of man and only a simple core of various species remain. Each of these has evolved over time to acclimatize themselves to the harsh conditions that cover the globe. Using the latest in computer generated images, this series takes the viewer into a world of speculation, of imagination, but ultimately of possibility. Taking concepts and ideas from some current experts in the field, this series speculates as to what type of creatures might populate the world in the next 5 million years and from what creatures they might have evolved from. Again, pure speculation, but with the benefit of research as to what creatures thrived in past eras and ice ages, we can get an educated guess as to just what might be running around many years from now. One thing is for certain - whatever is going to be roaming the Earth millions of years from now...it'll be pretty wild. This programme shows just how wild it could get.
Episode 1. Return of the Ice - 25:10
Much of the globe is the grip of a massive and long ice age. Once tropical areas have become frozen wastelands and fertile plains have become vast expanses of scrubland. Still, life will always continue to exist and the Shagrat has eked out an existence for itself. The rodents wander slowly through the snow fields in search of food, only to be stalked by the carnivorous Snow Stalker. We also find a range of other strange creatures here, such as the Gannetwhale, which looks like a cross between a sea lion and a seagull.
Episode 2. The Vanished Sea - 25:10
Due to the shifting of the continents, the Mediterranean sea has become landlocked and because of the dry climate it has mostly dried out. Still, with the lack of water being a problem, many creatures have adapted to the harsh conditions. Reptilian creatures such as the Cryptile have learned to use their neck frill to catch food and water in a waterless wasteland while predators such as the cat-like Gryken hunt the Scrofa, a latter-day swine.
Episode 3. The Prairies of Amazonia - 25:10
Far from being the tropical forest of former times, the Amazon is now an expansive prairie that hosts a myriad of adapted creatures. The Babookari has evolved from primates that once inhabited the jungles of the Amazon. With a great level of ingenuity, the Babookari has learned to make fish traps to snare itself food, but it has to be careful of the large Carakilla, a large flightless bird that hunts the clever primates. Also making a life for itself is the Rattleback, a small armoured creature that can use its unique armour to shield itself from not only hungry creatures, but from the elements and even bushfires. Even though the occasional bushfire can cause death and destruction, it is also a means of bringing new life to the prairies.
Episode 4. Cold Kansas Desert - 25:10
The Rattleback is something of a success and is able to exist in several climates, from the prairies of Amazonia to the cold deserts of what was once Kansas. Still, even though it is armoured, it still faces the threat of predators such as the Deathgleaner, which is the path that evolution has taken for the bat. With a huge wing span, the Deathgleaner cruises the sky in search of prey. The burrowing flightless bird the Spink is often a target. While cleaver enough to dig and tunnel underground, it's the call of the wild, the mating call, that puts the small birds in the most danger.
We have a reasonable transfer here that is able to serve the programme well. This programme is presented in its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement. This show was filmed on video and intended for broadcast. The quality of the footage is reasonable, but is not anywhere near reference quality for various reasons. For the most part, sharpness is quite good. Because much of the show is computer generated, different effects have been used to place the animated creatures into an actual filmed location. This is done to varied success with the difference in resolution in the respective images sometimes quite obvious. Still, this disc is able to provide enough detail to accurately show these occasional limitations in the production. Shadow detail is reasonable for something that has been made for television. I had no problems with low level noise. Colour's use during this programme is natural, if that's the right word for it. The filmmakers have tried their best to create a world that is an accurate estimation of a future environment. There is the occasional burst of colour on the odd creature that says 'exaggeration', but then have you ever seen a peacock? This disc has been mastered well with colour's commitment to disc done quite well. While the budget of this show wasn't nearly as large as it was for something like Walking With Dinosaurs, it still is reasonably good. There is the occasional production flaw evident from time to time, such as the chroma noise that is seen in the blue fields that act as the backdrop to the various experts commenting on the happenings on the show. There is also some fairly obvious grain seen in the stock footage used in each of the segments. Edge enhancement is extinct here and I had no issues with it whatsoever. Aliasing is noticeable from time to time but it's usually during the interview portions of the show rather than the CG portions. There are no subtitle options on this disc. This disc is formatted dual layered with the change taking place between episodes.
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Audio is simple but adequate enough to serve the programme well.
There is only one audio option here, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded track running at a basic 192 K/bs. I found the dialogue quality to be good with the spoken word understandable at all times. Audio sync is also quite good with the sound matching the action on screen. Most of the dialogue here is narration with the occasional expert giving some sort of explanation from time to time. These are the only times where we see a person delivering dialogue and the sync during these sections is also quite good. Music for this programme comes from Nick Hooper and Paul Pritchard. Nick is a veteran of several BBC wildlife productions while Paul has scored many BBC drama productions such as The Bill and A Mind to Murder. Both composers have done a good job in their scoring of the show with a soundtrack that serves the show well. The music for this show is performed by the Budapest Film Orchestra. The soundtrack here is in 2.0, so it'll be up to your surround processor to get any sort of surround sound out of this disc. Mine was able to derive some subtle atmospheric sound that was complementary to the programme. There was little in the way of LFE here.
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The Future is Now - Welcome to the Future - 25:10
This is a complete episode that serves as an introduction to the show. While short, it does an overview of the entire series (5 Million Years From Now, 100 Million Years From Now and 200 Million Years From Now). It's also interesting as it provides a sneak peak at some of the strange creatures that'll be seen on the next disc. If you think that the creatures seen in this collection are strange, then just wait until you see what's coming up! Presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced with audio in Dolby Digital 2.0, just as the rest of the episodes on this disc are.
"Making Of" Featurette - 5:01
This a short news item taken from German Television about the production of the show. People involved in the show's production are interviewed and some aspects of the creation of the creatures that feature in the programme are also discussed. This feature is presented full frame with audio in Dolby Digital 2.0.
3-D Animation
These are short animations of some of the creatures featured in the programme. They are:
Photo Gallery - 19 Images
A small selection of images of different creatures as seen in the show.
Video Gallery - 1:51
This is an unusual extra feature with static images the Gannetwhale, the Shagrat, the Spink and the Rattleback. Each of the segments features a shaking and moving static image (do you follow me?) of the respective creature with a ghosted rotating image behind it. It also has the sounds the creatures make playing while the creature is on screen. Each segment (about 30 seconds each) loops until the next, preceding or Video Gallery Menu is selected.
Background Information - 21 Pages
This is information on the various creatures as seen in the show. It is simple information and just highlights what was shown in each episode.
Links
Just one link here, that being the one for:
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
As a Region 4 vs Region 2 vs Region 1 proposition, this is a hard one. The Region 1 disc features all 13 episodes, but no extras. The Region 2 is possibly some sort of edited hybrid package with some extras and a booklet, but until I can confirm the running time, I can't recommend it. The Region 4 is a package of the first 5 episodes in the series with some extras, but no booklet. For me, I'd probably pick the Region 1 disc for convenience and price. The RRP for the Region 1 disc is US$29.99, but shopping around the net will probably reveal a deal somewhere. The Region 4 option is to buy the three discs at a RRP of $24.95. That figure times three? I'd like the whole package at a lesser price, please.
This is an interesting, albeit highly speculative series that has the vision to look forward in time rather than back to the past. While there is probably no chance that the creatures we see in this program will ever come into being, this is really not the point of the show. The whole idea is to point out that life will always adapt and change to suit its environment. As to the creatures here being too fanciful, think of animals such as the giant squid or some of the strange deep sea fish that have lights inside them, or the giraffe, or the duck billed platypus, or the spider wasp. All strange creatures indeed, and all real so what we see here isn't as out there as it might seem at first. I do wish that the production budget for the series was that of something like Walking With Dinosaurs , but I for one am glad that this show was produced anyway. Very interesting.
The video is adequate with a reasonable image in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and with 16x9 enhancement. The audio is adequate. The extras are okay, and very good if you consider the introductory episode found in the extras menu an extra.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Panasonic DVD RP-82 with DVD-Audio on board, using S-Video output |
| Display | Beko TRW 325 / 32 SFT 10 76cm (32") 16x9. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Yamaha RX-V2300 Dolby Digital and dts. |
| Amplification | Yamaha RX-V2300 110w X 6 connected via optical cable and shielded RCA (gold plated) connects for DVD-Audio |
| Speakers | VAF DC-X Fronts (bi-wired), VAF DC-6 Center, VAF DC-2 Rears, VAF LFE-07 Sub (Dual Amp. 80w x 2) |