American Serengeti Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

American Serengeti Blu-ray Movie Review

Will there be a humongous new National Park in America's future?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 12, 2010

They call Montana “Big Sky Country,” and if you’ve ever visited the state, you know what an apt description that is. Though the etymology of the word does mean “mountain,” and there are of course impressive peaks throughout the region, there are also thousands of acres of open prairie giving rise to the moniker The Great Plains. This huge region spans an impressive area that stretches west of the Mississippi River to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. This area houses two of the best known national parks in America, Yellowstone and the Tetons, but this new National Geographic special highlights a hoped for third designated national park, The American Prairie Reserve. This proposed area would consist of three million acres sandwiched between the Rockies and the Mississippi and would dwarf even the gargantuan Yellowstone were it to be created and approved.

They call it Big Sky Country for a reason.

American Serengeti begins in northeastern Montana as it traces a seasonal path through this immense region. As winter gives way to spring, we’re treated to some nice time lapse photography showing the elements as they change, and how those changes affect the various wildlife, including coyotes. We also follow a herd of Pronghorns as they migrate north to Canada, and get some incredibly up close and personal shots of their strangely kangaroo-like faces.

The special then gets into the history of the region, at least insofar as the “white man” is concerned, with a recreation of Lewis and Clark’s epochal journeys at the behest of President Thomas Jefferson. Some nice CGI helps to reconstruct a bison dominated field. In Lewis and Clark’s time there were a staggering 60 million bison roaming the Great Plains. Over the course of the next one hundred years, the buffalo of course were subsequently decimated by uncontrolled hunting, until, as American Serengeti depicts, it actually took a transfer of sixteen of the beasts from South Dakota by the World Wildlife Fund to help repopulate the region with one of its iconic indigenous lifeforms.

American Serengeti interviews several people with an intrinsic desire to preserve and reclaim The Great Plains for future generations. Dr. Curt Freese is an advisor with the American Prairie Foundation, the parent group hoping to set up The American Prairie Reserve, and American Serengeti follows him as he traverses the grand spaces of the region. Though the area may not be as immediately spectacular as Yellowstone or The Tetons, as several people on the special admit, The Great Plains nonetheless offer a perhaps slightly more subtle assault on the senses, something that is exploited very well throughout the 50 or so minutes of this episode. We are privy to some wonderful shots like Pronghorn leaping over strange tufts of snow or rutting Elk emitting patently weird screaming noises as they prepare to mate. American Serengeti also profiles the Black-footed Ferret, a species probably largely unknown to most viewers but which according to the special is America’s most endangered mammal. In fact the species was thought to be extinct until a family of the critters was discovered in 1981. A fun segment also depicts the strange dance of the sage grouse.

As with most of these National Geographic specials, we’re treated to a panoply of lovely imagery, all set to some nice Americana music and the soothing tones of Tom Selleck’s narration. The focus on Freese and several co-horts gives us a personal connection to the story, and the background information on what the area was like when Lewis and Clark first “discovered” it is both illuminating and, frankly, a little dispiriting when you realize how decimated the region has become in the meantime. There are also some very smart segues in this piece, as when the decaying ribs of a dead buffalo fade into the posts of a fence, one of the man-made barriers that have kept the region's wildlife from thriving.

A lot of NatGeo specials of late have highlighted conservation efforts, but rarely on a scale as immense as that being proposed for The Great Plains. Shots of the wide open spaces that go one for literally hundreds and hundreds of miles help to illuminate just what an ambitious task rehabilitating this region is going to be. The special takes a brief triumphant moment to show that the original sixteen buffalo transported to the area had grown to 87 in just a couple of years, and that the landmark population of 100 was within a mating season away from being reached. It may indeed seem pathetic when compared to 60 million, but it proves that baby steps are being taken to help the region reclaim its former glory.

American Serengeti Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For the most part, American Serengeti's VC-1 encoded 1080i image in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio is gorgeous to behold. Lovely aerial shots of the vast expanses of The Great Plains reveal awesome depth of field while simultaneously giving us incredible detail. You can literally count the hairs on a backlit buffalo's head and see the droplets of water vapor erupt from its nose as it snorts. Ferrets, Pronghorn and other fanciful creatures are also caught in their natural habitat with impressive detail. As tends to be the case with a lot of these 1080i presentations, you will notice slight shimmer on such typical shots as busy leafwork, and there is some very slight edge enhancement noticeable on footage of tree branches against a fiery orange sky at sunset. Otherwise, this is a solid offering from NatGeo, which always sets the bar rather high for nature oriented documentaries.

American Serengeti Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

NatGeo hasn't quite stepped up to the lossless plate on its Blu-ray releases, but truth be told it may not really have to, as these documentaries regularly feature omnipresent voiceover with pleasant underscore, not exactly the stuff of surround sound heaven. Both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes are clear, with easy to hear narration and onscreen interviews. The 5.1 isn't especially immersive, though when we do get some ambient noises from the wildlife, the rear surrounds at least fitfully kick into action. Fidelity here is certainly excellent, though the low end is noticeably shallower than most lossless offerings. These Dolby Digital mixes suffice quite nicely for a television outing like this, but don't expect to be blown away by any overwhelming immersion.

American Serengeti Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

One of the more appropriate bonus episodes on recent NatGeo Blu-ray releases is presented here, Thunderbeast (SD; 52:14), a compelling look at the history of the buffalo which ties in perfectly with one of the main focal points of American Serengeti.

American Serengeti Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A lot of you have probably passed through The Great Plains on your way to Yellowstone or The Tetons. This excellent National Geographic special makes it abundantly clear that there are ample reasons to start paying attention to this region as well, instead of simply thinking of it as a stopping point on the way to some other destination.