"Planet Earth" (2006) TV series

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

27 February 2006 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot Keywords:

Nature Earth

Awards:

Won 4 Primetime Emmys. Another 9 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

David Attenborough	...	Narrator / ... (11 episodes, 2006)
Sigourney Weaver	...	Narrator - US Version (11 episodes, 2006)

Series Directed by
Alastair Fothergill		(11 episodes, 2006)

Series Writing credits
David Attenborough		(5 episodes, 2006)

Series Produced by
Maureen Lemire	....	executive producer (11 episodes, 2006)
Shannon C. Malone	....	producer (11 episodes, 2006)
Kera Rennert	....	producer: promo (11 episodes, 2006)
Vanessa Berlowitz	....	producer (2 episodes, 2006)
Alastair Fothergill	....	producer (unknown episodes)

Series Original Music by
George Fenton		(11 episodes, 2006)
Sam Watts		(9 episodes, 2006)

Series Cinematography by
Michael Kelem		(5 episodes, 2006)
Andrew Shillabeer		(3 episodes, 2006)
Peter Kragh		(2 episodes, 2006)
Mike Madden		(unknown episodes)

Series Film Editing by
Thom Sulek		(11 episodes, 2006)

Series Sound Department
Frank Scheuring	....	sound post-production (11 episodes, 2006)
Kate Hopkins	....	sound editor (6 episodes, 2006)
Andrew Wilson	....	dubbing mixer (6 episodes, 2006)
Tim Owens	....	sound editor (5 episodes, 2006)
Graham Wild	....	dubbing mixer (5 episodes, 2006)

Series Camera and Electrical Department
Richard Brooks Burton	....	aerial cinematographer (8 episodes, 2006)
Paul Atkins	....	additional cinematographer (2 episodes, 2006)

Series Music Department
Robert Houston	....	assistant scoring engineer (3 episodes, 2006)

Series Other crew
Jason Roberts	....	location manager (2 episodes, 2006)

Series Thanks
Matthew Swarbrick	....	special thanks (1 episode, 2006)

Production Companies

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Distributors

• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2006) (UK) (TV) (original airing)
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD) (2006) (Germany) (all media)
• Audio Visual Enterprises (2007) (Greece) (DVD)
• BBC Warner (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Discovery Channel (2007) (USA) (TV)
• FS Film Oy (2007) (Finland) (DVD)
• Hellenic Radio & Television (ERT) (2007) (Greece) (TV)
• M1 (2007) (Hungary) (TV)
• NHK (2006-2007) (Japan) (TV)
• Polyband (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2007) (Finland) (TV)

Other Companies

• HeliNM  helicopter aerial sequence
• NPI Production Services  crew payroll

Runtime:

Germany:44 min | 60 min (11 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Australia:PG (some episodes) | Finland:K-3 (DVD) (2007) | Australia:G (some episodes)

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

For the air shots, a special airborne camera was used with a 400mm lens that was able to zoom into single animals from a kilometer away without disturbing them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Knowing (2009)

In A Word: Amazing

Thankfully, I caught a couple of these episodes on American television, which led me to this 11-part series on Blu-Ray DVDs and over five hours of outstanding entertaining and education. Looking back, I still shake my head in amazement at the things I saw on these discs.

Obviously, the incredible photography and sharpness/color (please see this on high-def, if you can) is the first thing that captures the viewer's eye, but as the series went on I appreciated the objectivity in here ("aw, cute" shots mixed in with the brutality of existence) and the lack of environmental propaganda, which one usually gets in boatloads in these "nature" films. Here, the writers and narrator David Attenborough just present the world as it is. Only at the very end do you get a short environmental message. It isn't needed: the beauty of this earth says it all, and the writers were smart enough to figure that out during this series.

After viewing 11 discs, you come to the obvious conclusions that in the Earth's world of animals, birds and fish come only a few objectives: where to find food, water, a mate, and escape being devoured by a predator. That's it, except for pets or zoo animals. On land or in water, it's simply a matter of survival, as this BBC series shows us.

What makes this so special is that, thanks to incredible work by cameramen, we are privy to many extraordinary sights we would never see, if left on our own, and never imagined existed on this planet. Much of this series is simply mind-boggling to view, especially all the overhead shots, which were stunning.

There are too many positive adjectives I could use to even begin, in recommending you watch this. Just give it a try - any of the 11 segments - and see if you don't want to then watch all of them.