Big Sur: Wild California Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Big Sur: Wild California Blu-ray Movie Review

National Geographic makes a rare misstep with this jumbled special, which nonetheless offers some magnficent scenery.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 12, 2010

Take some advice from someone who’s been there, driven that: if you ever decide to traverse Highway 1 (which at times intersects with 101), down California’s magnificent coastline, pack your Dramamine. While this is a drive of almost unbearable beauty at times, it is also a rugged and challenging road, with switchback after switchback, sudden changes in elevation and some dizzying heights that may make you think you’ve inadvertently gotten on some kind of individual roller coaster. This is not a drive for the squeamish and in fact residents of some of the coastal towns down this route will tell you that residents stay put, sometimes for their whole lives, and visitors are a rare commodity, due to this very fact. On the other hand, the payoff in terms of scenery is magnificent, and it includes among other wonders the gorgeous area known as Big Sur, the coastal area reviewed in this oddly disjointed but fitfully informative piece from National Geographic.

Fog is a regular visitor to the Big Sur coast.

This is undoubtedly one of the most gorgeously scenic National Geographic specials in recent memory, one which basks in what the narrator calls “the greatest meeting of land and sea on earth.” Nestled between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Big Sur is around 90 miles long and 20 miles wide, but despite its relatively small area, it houses an amazingly diverse ecosystem, everything from valleys next to the peaks of the Santa Lucia mountains to the rugged cliffs of the coast to the Pacific Ocean itself. Big Sur focuses on a few species, notably the endangered California Condor, as well as a variety of sea life, including two species which are often interchangeable in people’s minds, otters and sea lions.

The most compelling story here is that of the Condor, an endangered species and one which has only through rigorous restoration efforts managed to get its population back up to around 80 in and around Big Sur. While those efforts are to be commended, it’s still somehow sad to see this magnificent birds, remnants from the Pleistocene Age, tagged with numbers and fitted with GPS devices. Man’s intrusion, albeit for worthwhile motives, has also meant the birds now depend on humans to provide their food. Feeders regularly deposit carrion on cliffsides for the birds to find. Unlike most scavengers, Condors actually locate their food by sight, not smell. In one of the nice triumphant moments in this special, a segment documents the birds finally finding their own food, a dead sea lion which has washed up on a rocky beach. This is evidently the first ever footage captured of the birds feeding on their own self-found food. Another intimate moment, also a first, captures a nest inside a tree and a newborn condor chick inside.

Big Sur offers insight to everything from otters to cougars, though it goes about divulging that information in a weirdly disjointed way, something quite unusual for a National Geographic effort. While it’s fascinating to hear that an otter’s hair is so dense that one inch contains more hirsute material than an entire human head, or that a cougar is able to jump over a school bus—the long way, these facts are delivered in a hodgepodge, with little or no through line or continuity. In fact really only the condor story runs through this episode, and even that is given in dribs and drabs. What would have benefited this visually spectacular episode better is discrete segments on individual items. Instead, we get a few seconds of the condor, a snippet of a cougar, off to some otters, back to the condor for a moment, and so on and so on. It certainly points out the diversity that Big Sur offers, but it makes for a disconcerting viewing experience.

There are visual delights to be had here, though, and what delights they are. Aside from the awe inspiring views of the coast, we also get up close and personal in the water, with some fun time lapse photography in some of the many tide pools which fill and empty several times daily. Going beneath the water we’re introduced to giant kelp forests where individual stalks of kelp can actually grow up to a foot a day.

Typically these National Geographic specials have a clear, often ecological, purpose which helps to unite even the most disparate sources of information. Perhaps the filmmakers of Big Sur were simply overwhelmed by the beauty of the place. While that’s understandable, it ultimately doesn’t help to elucidate the grandeur of the locale, something most NatGeo offerings do with ease.

Big Sur: Wild California Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Big Sur benefits from the luscious scenery available at its location, delivered here via an AVC encode, in 1080i and 1.78:1. This is a remarkably sharp and well detailed Blu-ray which suffers only minimally from being interlaced. Colors are often amazingly robust and well saturated, strangely most amazingly in the underwater sequences. Detail on the many animals is amazingly good, so much so that you can see the odd furry tufts that coat the condor chick's head. Depth of field on the scenic vistas is also exceptional. There are a few uses of stock footage in this episode, and sharpness is noticeably off in these sequences. One of the otter sequences almost looks like it was blown up from 16mm, but it's very short and not too distracting. There's very occasional and extremely minor shimmer on a couple of shots, but that's about it as far as artifacting goes. Overall this is a splendid looking release.

Big Sur: Wild California Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

NatGeo does its usual good job in the audio department, though it gives us a lossless surround mix (Dolby Digital 5.1) and a lossless stereo one (LPCM 2.0). It's a bit of a tradeoff, frankly. This episode delivers a wealth of ambient surround sound, so I chose the 5.1 mix, despite its lack of lossless "oomph" on the low end. Water sounds are especially immersive, crashing around and seemingly over the listener and creating a very evocative soundscape. Animal sounds are also incredible here; in fact I had to wonder sometimes how the engineers managed to record these beasts, notably the condors, which emit almost pig-like grunts at times. Fidelity is excellent throughout the special. The LPCM 2.0 track is just great, too, providing some extra range on both the high and low ends, but the lack of surround activity is very noticeable, especially if you've sampled the DD 5.1 mix.

Big Sur: Wild California Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Two brief segments from NatGeo's Wild Chronicles are offered, Red Devils (SD; 4:03) about Humboldt squids, and perhaps more interestingly, Farallon Islands (SD; 4:58), a little known chain outside of San Francisco where the access is so limited it takes a crane lifting a skiff out of the water to get people on the islands, which are a wildlife preserve.

Big Sur: Wild California Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

From a scenic and aural standpoint, Big Sur is a winner all the way. Even the stories here--of the condor, the cougar, the otter, and others--are all compelling and very interesting. It's just assembled in such a slapdash, haphazard manner that there's no real continuity or, forgive the use of this term, arc. But for a gorgeous and relaxing travelogue, you could hardly do better. Plus, you won't need any Dramamine.