Science & Nature Documentaries - Recommendations?
 

I'm in the market for a new science or nature documentary... any suggestions? I have the following already and am looking for something in the same sort of format...

Walking with Dinosaurs
Walking with Dinosaurs Special: Allosaurus
Walking with Prehistoric Beasts
The Living Planet
Life of Birds
Life of Mammals
Blue Planet
What Killed the Mega-Beasts?
Future Is Wild


I used to have "The Planets - Box Set", but it's an older release, so the graphics are kind of hokey and it just bored me. There are a few sets I'm hoping to pick up and wondered if anyone could give me any thoughts on them (good or bad).

Evolution Boxed Set (PBS)
The Human Face
National Geographic - Africa
500 Nations (hosted by Kevin Costner out Sep 21)
Walking with Cavemen
Chased By Dinosaurs


Any other recommendations you may have, please share!

I don't have any comments on the ones you're thinking of getting (other than that I did enjoy Walking with Cavemen), but I think you should ABSOLUTELY get Cosmos. Even after many years, it's still fantastic.

Moving to DVD Talk Forum.

- David Stein

Thanks for the Cosmos suggestion, I hadn't thought of that one, but will definitely check it out. Should at least be better than The Planets set I had.

Anyone else have any suggestions to share?

Man I loved the Planets so maybe my suggestions won't be that great. Anyway, I really enjoyed John Cleese's The Face documentary and recommend it to people all the time. Even after the people ask me to stop.

"Connections" & "The Ascent of Man", but only if you have deep pockets.

Winged Migration

I have a lot of those same DVDs. The Blue Planet and Walking With... series are my favorites.

I remember enjoying 500 Nations back when it aired on PBS. The
coolest thing was the CG reconstructions of Native American cities. Microsoft put out a multimedia CD-ROM around that time using the same information and visuals, also called 500 Nations that I still have. The CG footage is a little dated by today's standards, but it's still a very interesting program.

Not exactly like the others you mentioned, but For All Mankind by Criterion is a very awesome look at the old astronaut programs in the 60's and 70's. It has a lot of the footage the astronauts themselves filmed in space. It has a wonderful commentary track also.

I just picked this up at BBV today. It's supposed to be incredible. Blockbuster has a 3-$25 deal right now. I also picked up Touching the Void & Cold Mountain. They are also giving MINIMUM $5 on all trade-ins (scratched or not).

I just ordered 'Life of Birds' and 'Winged Migration'. Amazing films imo.

I saw a pretty good documentary about insects called 'Microcosms' that I thought was quite good. Not alot of narration from what I remember though.

I've seen Winged Migration, but it wasn't enough of a documentary for me to really enjoy it. Life of Birds was far better in my opinion, if only for the fact that it's scope and information was so much more comprehensive.

Winged Migration is less of a documentary and more of an art piece. It even has some narrative elements in it, though they are few and far between. The neatest thing about it is when you realize that all of the birds are moving the same way across the screen in the first half of the movie, and then moving the opposite way across the screen in the second half.