Frozen Planet follows in the footsteps of The Blue Planet, which examined the natural history of the world's oceans, and Planet Earth, which looked at the diversity of habitats on earth and was sold to 130 countries worldwide.
Frozen Planet Follow up to Planet Earth
Frozen Planet was filmed in HD, like its predecessor, Planet Earth and comprises of seven episodes, the first of which begins with the narrator Sir David Attenborough at the North Pole and then the South Pole where he stands on a midsummer's day with the temperature at minus 35 degrees centigrade. Skilled narrator that he is, Attenborough can let many of the scenes do the talking. A male polar bear tracking a female is exceptionally shot as is a pack of wolves stalking a herd of bison. The pay-off in each scene includes a dramatic set-piece with the ensuing brutality of nature. Who needs Kenneth Branagh hamming it up with simulated dinosaurs?
Frozen Planet Covers the Four Seasons in the Polar Regions
The central part of the series deals with the four seasons in the polar climate. When winter arrives in the poles, temperatures decline to minus 70 degrees. There are shots of newborn polar cubs, blind to the world, but animated in every cute detail against the backdrop of an almost other worldly array of aurora lights across the sky. However, these shots were not without controversy. Autumnal highlights include a waterfall that freezes before the viewer and a brilliant picture postcard of deer skating across a lake. The strength of the Frozen Planet series is to capture the moment in a million but also transmit the soul of the environment.
Perhaps some of the music of Frozen Planet betrays the obsession to over egg the dramatic twists and turns, as if nothing or nobody can sit still and watch an event these days without an aural symphony. But there are too many stand out moments to drown the sound, like the minke whale being hunted by a family of killer whales. This exhausting process is juxtaposed against the merriment of a huge colony of penguins surfing. Happy Feet it isn't.
Frozen Planet Tackles the Problem of Global Warming
Ice Age: The Meltdown might be a more appropriate description of the series finale. Rising temperatures are already beginning to affect the hunting grounds of polar bears. Stark warnings mean that the North Pole could be "open water as soon as 2020." A dramatic final image comes in the form of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, an ice sheet the size of Jamaica, which broke up into hundreds of icebergs in 2009.
The DVD and Blu-Ray collection of Frozen Planet episodes is an exceptional experience visually, underpinned by the dedication of the camera crew as well as the huge weight of knowledge that Sir David Attenborough brings to the images that unfold. This stark reality of polar life bites in all the right places.
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