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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Greatest Wildlife Show on Earth/Great Natural Wonders of the World (1999)

Greatest Wildlife Show on Earth/Great Natural Wonders of the World (1999)

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Released 7-Jul-2005
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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	117:16 (Case: 120)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	David Attenborough
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip	Starring	David Attenborough
RPI	$19.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Varies	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Here is another release in the long line of quality documentaries from David Attenborough and the BBC Natural History Unit. They are notable for their great photography and very consistent quality. This disc actually contains two such documentaries, The Greatest Wildlife Show on Earth from 1999 and Great Natural Wonders of the World from 2002. Both run for just under 60 minutes and both are fascinating and include some incredible footage.

The Greatest Wildlife Show on Earth is a month by month travelogue of the greatest sights of massed wildlife from all over the world. Each month focuses on just one such incredible show of wildlife. Specifically, the months are as follows:

January - Massed Monarch Butterflies in Mexico
February - Massive migration of Caribou in Newfoundland
March - Dancing of the Red-Crested Cranes in Japan
April - Red Garter Snakes in Canada returning to the surface after hibernating in the snow and having mass orgies. This footage may scare the youngsters.
May - 70000 gannets gathering together on one small rocky outcrop in Scotland
June - Grizzly Bears fishing for Salmon in Alaskan rivers
July - Flamingos feeding on a soda lake in Kenya
August - Emperor Penguins looking after their chicks during the dark winter in Antarctica
September - The incredible acrobatics of the Dusky Dolphins off New Zealand
October - Wildebeest Migration in East Africa. Once again this footage could scare younger viewers due to the presence of Crocodiles.
November - The incredible Red Crab migration on Christmas Island.
December - Coral spawning at Summer Solstice on the Great Barrier Reef.

A wonderful show. The only slight annoyance was that it was only split into 4 tracks which meant you could not select a specific month. Since my son wanted to see the crabs again and again, this became annoying.

Great Natural Wonders of the World focuses on natural landscapes rather than wildlife. This show spends an hour highlighting some of the greatest visions of the world I have ever seen. The photography is even better than the first show. It is arranged by continent and specifically covers the following:

North America - Deserts, canyonlands, Death Valley, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mesas, the Grand Canyon and Limestone Caves
South America - Amazon River, Angel Falls, the Andes and glaciers
Pacific Ocean - Hawaiian volcanos & Coral Atolls
Asia - Mt Fuji, Guilin & the Himalayas
Europe - Alps, Rivers, Ice Caves, the Northern Lights
Africa - Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorogoro, Rift Valley & the Negev Desert
Australasia - Olgas, Uluru, Deserts, 12 Apostles (before one fell over recently), Kimberleys, Great Barrier Reef, New Zealand's mountains and fjords
Antarctica

Another wonderful and fascinating show. This one moves quite quickly and really leaves you wanting more. Luckily, there is lots more available such as Attenborough's Living Planet set, which I reviewed recently.

This disc is highly recommended.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

The video quality is excellent.

The feature is presented in a 1.75:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is probably the original aspect ratio for the second show but may not be for the first. Either way, I don't think it makes a big difference in this instance.

The picture was very clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Some footage included some very light grain. This was probably older footage. The bitrate was high throughout.

The colour was wonderful, rich and solid throughout.

There were no noticeable artefacts.

There are no subtitles.

The layer change occurs between shows.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The audio quality is very good.

This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

The music used is by Sarah Class & Brian Bennett and is excellent.

The surround speakers added some mild atmosphere when played with Dolby ProLogic II.

The subwoofer was not used.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

None.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

This disc does not seem to have been released outside of Region 4.

Summary

A wonderful collection of 2 nature documentaries both of high quality and presented by the inimitable David Attenborough.