Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature Blu-ray Movie Review

I braced myself for a children's' film, but found something else entirely...

After scoffing at the whimsical subtitle for writer/director/producer John Weiley's 1991 IMAX documentary -- An Adventure of a Different Nature -- I shrugged my shoulders, popped in the disc, and prepared myself for a cute-n-cuddly jaunt across snow dunes and ice shelves with lovable polar bears and clumsy penguins. What I didn't expect to encounter was a bleak and somber exploration of a barren continent few understand; a measured cautionary tale about mankind's ignorance and neglect above all else. Despite all of my misgivings and assumptions, Antarctica really did turn out to be an adventure of a different nature.

Antarctica boasts alien landscapes that look as if they've been generated for a fantasy film...

Dark at times, downright ominous at others, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature opens on a seemingly endless stretch of unforgiving terrain, follows an icebreaker carving its way through the waters, and plows deep into the heart of the near-lifeless landmass with methodical precision. Actor Alex Scott (whose lumbering narration sucked most of the life out of Australia: Land Before Time) is perfectly suited for Weiley's deliberate pacing and foreboding script; he offers little comfort in his delivery, tossing out world-ending hypotheticals without flinching and handling dense jargon as effortlessly as more accessible information. The science and subject matter is dated (ozone depletion is sooo 1990), but the message is not. Weiley and Scott dissect the challenges presented by Antarctica, the many looming questions its ice sheets can answer, and the warning it holds for anyone willing to listen. While the director relegates a few minutes to the continent's indigenous wildlife (briefly and jarringly altering both the music and tone of the documentary), the majority of the film stays focused on the relationship between Antarctica and the planet as a whole.

The weighty nature of the production drags a handful of sequences to a halt, but Weiley counters these slower scenes with more thrilling material. A dive beneath the icy ocean gives two men the opportunity to explore the caverns of a moving glacier, a baby seal makes its way underwater in an effort to swim for the first time, and penguins travel great distances and endure hardship to retain their family units. As a result, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature is at its best when juggling the gloomy reality of the skies and waters with the perseverance of its inhabitants. Whether investigating the behavior of its animals, the decades-old struggles of the continent's early explorers, or the work of modern scientists determined to comprehend its mysteries, the film injects hope into what could have been a hopeless account of man's disregard for his planet.

Is Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature for everybody? Definitely not. Kids will be bored to tears, casual documentary fans will long for lighter fare, and Planet Earth purists will miss the sense of wonder that often inhabits every frame of their beloved benchmark series. Even so, Weiley's film is worth watching, if for no other reason than to take a realistic tour of a place few people will ever see with their own eyes. It's not the greatest antarctic documentary I've seen, but it's certainly more compelling than you might expect from its title.

Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like all of the Razor Digital Entertainment documentary releases I've reviewed, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature features an unreliable 1080p/MPEG-2 transfer that falls prey to contrast wavering, telecine wobble, moderate to severe artifacting, and distracting edge enhancement. More distressingly, while many shots are absolutely gorgeous (most of the underwater photography looked fantastic), others are poorly defined, inconsistent, or flat. Don't get me wrong, color vibrancy, black levels, and delineation are all fairly impressive -- compared to the standard DVD, the high definition image offers a substantial upgrade. However, the picture quality waxes and wanes, giving viewers a bipolar presentation that doesn't measure up to more efficiently encoded or remastered Blu-ray documentaries on the market. For ten bucks, Antarctica's shortcomings are easier to overlook but, taken on its own merits, the transfer is a relative disappointment.

Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A quiet continent earns a quiet mix. Razor's Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track doesn't make much of the film's already limited soundfield, but its narration is sturdy and clean, its music is packed with deep bass thooms and stable strings, and its rear speakers are tasked with a few notable standout sequences. Likewise, voices and animal calls are somewhat dull and murky, but it seems to be the result of the original recording and not some nefarious technical mishap. Unfortunately, directionality is underdeveloped, the soundscape itself is poorly prioritized on occasion, and the resultant dynamics are average at best. Taken as a whole, Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature isn't burdened with any debilitating issues... I just wish I had the opportunity to listen to a complete lossless overhaul of its original audio. I have a feeling that track would be more memorable.

Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray edition of Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature doesn't include any special features.

Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Antarctica: An Adventure of a Different Nature took me by surprise -- I expected a light and fluffy family flick, but found something more meaningful. The Blu-ray edition doesn't have much to offer aside from a so-so video transfer, an underwhelming audio track, and an upgrade for those who own the standard DVD release, but its affordable bargain-bin price tag makes it worth some consideration.