Blue Planet re-release question
 

Just wondering if anyone picked up this new set. Does it have Attenborough narrating it or Brosnan? I hope it's still Attenborough.

I think Brosnan was only involved with "Deep Blue," the edited-down movie that was cut from the series. This set includes the full original series, so my guess is that it's Attenborough.

Now...to answer a question with a question, does anyone know what's on the new fifth disc they've added to the set? Additional bonus material, I know, but does anyone know specifically what it is??

Edit: Just checked the BBC America site and found this:

"Discover the astonishing creatures living deep inside one of Earth’s most spectacular environments in Amazon Abyss. Venture to the underwater haven of Cocos Island and explore the terrifying residents in Dive to Shark Volcano. Explore a frozen estuary and its many natural tidal spectacles in Between the Tides. Witness what many experts hail as the definitive portrayal of a cold, desolate continent in Antarctica."

So it sounds like four documentaries have been added; none of those were on the original release.

Am I actually going to double-dip this title? I dunno...Blue Planet is one of my favorite DVDs of all time. I might do it...I'm such a sucker.

mmm, I think you're mixing up your docs?

- Blue Planet is a IMAX release
- Planet Earth is the recent BBC/Discovery Channel miniseries doc with David Attenborough
- Deep Blue, as superdaddy pointed out IS narrated by Pierce Brosnan.

There is a Blue Planet Imax, but the bigger series is an Attenborough, and is in the new mega box set with Planet Earth.

Here is the older release: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=3940

Yes, the Attenborough-narated doc is Blue Planet: Seas of Life -- and I've been waiting for this new set to be released: better packaging and an extra disc!

:lol: you're right I'm mixing up the documentarys

The big question I have here is if this set has been digitally remastered. I'm guessing 'no' considering the originals looked pretty good too.

Well, I went ahead and ordered the expanded set. I can either sell my old one or possibly use it at my school. (I'm a college biology teacher and shows like this make great educational tools for students).

As starman9000 pointed out, there is also a new combo pack that includes both this expanded version of Blue Planet as well as Planet Earth in one big 10-disc behemoth. So if you don't own either series you might want to investigate that.

Yeah, I preodered that one about 2 months ago from WB store, so if I get it sometime within the next couple of years I will post some pics.

The Blue Planet/Planet Earth combo set is simply the two individual sets housed in a cardboard box -- there's no other special packaging/material involved.

I was just wondering if the new re-release is edited in anyway...perhaps missing "extras" on previous releases?

I ask because of the running times I'm seeing on the various releases:

5 disc S.E.: 392 mins.
4 disc S.E.: 642 mins.

NOTE: this particular 4 discer is the region 2 version. I got the running time off of DVDSpot.com, so it's quite possible it's just human error on the entry. I could find no running time on Amazon's UK site....

I had an initial fright of this being edited by seeing the individual releases of Blue Planet that make up 4 disc set and it said that Part 1 was over 95 minutes long. I'm thinking to myself....95 minutes?!?! My part one is MAYBE 50 minutes long!!! I then realized that it was two episodes to the disc, and being roughly 48 minutes a piece, then it would logically come to the appropriate running time of 95 or so minutes.

Much obliged for any opinions offered....

...all KNEEL and WORSHIP at the altar of David Attenborough!!!

I was going to get the 10 disc set but apparently it never showed up at any store in our area. I Just got the 5 disc Blue Planet set for now since I am more interested in that. I will just get Planet Earth later on or have someone get it for me as a gift. Cant wait to get into the discs.

Others out that I want to pick up:

Life of Birds
Life of Mammals
Life in the Undergrowth

I wonder if some of the older shows will turn up on DVD....Life on Earth, Living Planet, etc., or if they're a bit outdated in their views (Life on Earth being over 35 years old), with Planet Earth and all that are out now being updated versions of sorts...

I wish that they would release The Private Life of Plants on DVD - that was a great David Attenborough documentary that put plants in a fascinatingly predatory light.

BTW, Living Planet is on DVD - I own it - but the picture quality is rather poor; it badly needs remastering. It's also interesting to compare to Planet Earth because a lot of stuff from Living Planet was repeated for that more recent documentary.

And Life on Earth, which is from 1979 so not quite 35 yet, is a landmark documentary that badly needs to be released on DVD.

Interesting...I wonder if it is a mistake. What else could have been on the region 2 that would make it run over ten hours??

I agree that we definitely need to get more Attenborough stuff on DVD, including all those series that have not seen a region 1 DVD release. And a proper remastering of Living Planet is needed as well.

I did just receive my copy of another Attenborough title just released yesterday. It is "Attenborough in Paradise," a two-disc set that collects seven of his one-hour BBC specials. I don't know if all of these ever aired in America, but they illustrate that there is undoubtedly a ton of his work out there besides his various series.

I also own Life of Birds, Life of Mammals, and Life in the Undergrowth, and can easily recommend them all. Life of Birds has been criticized for its PQ, but in an Attenborough show the content is the thing, and the content is great as usual. It is still leagues better than Living Planet in terms of the way it looks.

I confess I am an Attenborough junkie. I will buy any DVD of his work, even if I've never seen the show in question. I have yet to be disappointed. The man is an inimitable combination of lecturer, journalist, and entertainer--truly one of a kind. If, as has been rumored, he will retire after the upcoming "Life in Cold Blood," that is all the more reason to get more of his older work onto the market in proper editions.

Help??
 

I am so confused. All of the info on Blue Planet DVDs I can find says it's all narrated by David Attenborough. I have on my DVR 4 episodes ALL narrated by Pierce Brosnan all from 2006 or 2007, The deep, frozen seas, coral reefs and open ocean. They are all 1 hour long (that's with commercials). Why cannot I not find dvds of those episodes and only the one's narrated by attenborough? The only dvd i can find narrated by Brosnan is Deep Blue which is only 83 min long. Obviously that's not what's on my DVR. I want the one's narrated by Brosnan on DVD. Please Help?!?!?

What channel did you record these off of? Sometimes these BBC docus show up on American cable networks with alternate narration given by a different narrator. Personally, I didn't know there might have been such a version of Blue Planet. The only thing I heard about Brosnan doing was the narration for the Deep Blue DVD.

To my knowledge, full-length episodes of Blue Planet narrated by Brosnan have not been released on DVD at all.

I hate actors doing the narrations, because it's clear they're reading a narration where somebody like David Attenborough actually is knowledgable about what they're talking about.

I recorded it off of the discovery channel. I have not seen the ones by attenborough, should i just get those instead?? Why are they better?

This kind of explains things. Discovery channel often shows different versions of these shows. For example, the recent Planet Earth was shown on Discovery with narration by Sigourney Weaver instead of Attenborough (who narrates the DVD).

Personally, I like Attenborough a lot, and I tend to prefer the BBC DVDs of these shows over the Discovery channel versions because they are full-length (sometimes cuts are made to the Discovery channel versions os they can insert commercials). Also, most of them are on DVD in widescreen, which is the way they were produced. (Widescreen TVs caught on in Europe a few years before they did here).

I don't know if the Brosnan versions are edited or in widescreen though, because I haven't seen them. But the existing DVDs of Blue Planet are just great though (IMO of course).

Well Attenborough is very famous for his work with narration on series such as Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Life Of Birds, Life Of Mammals, Life In The Undergrowth, Life In the Freezer. Personal opinions are what they are, and as I already said, the Attenborough versions in my opinion, are better simply for the fact that his narrations are much more entertaining than those of the like of lets say Sigourney Weaver in her narration of Planet Earth, or Pierce Brosnan in his narration of a set like Blue Planet. And it comes down to the fact that Attenborough isn't just going by what's been scripted and put together. He's very knowledgable about what he's talking about, and he seems to genuinely have a good time narrating what he knows about. In other series such as Life In The Undergrowth, he actually not just narrates but stars on screen a lot as well. Better in my opinion to hear the narrations from somebody who knows all about what they're discussing. When you have movie stars doing these narrations they come off as very 'high school documentary', meaning they're incredibly boring and dry.

While I generally agree with you, one actor who does an excellent job narrating doc's to great effect is Liev Schrieber - he's done tons of shows and his voice is perfect on everything he's done.

I've seen a lot of wildlife docs in my time - but it's hard to beat Life of Mammals. A fantastic box set.

I have the planet earth dvds, but Weaver narrates them. I ordered them from pedvd.com, which is the website they put out when they aired on discovery. I didn't even know Attenborough narrated them ever. I'll have to check that out.

Yeah, because your Discovery set is also missing stuff in it too from the episodes I believe.