Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Great Migrations Blu-ray Movie Review

You're sure to be moved by these 'Great Migrations'.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 18, 2010

A pretty cogent case could be made that the Blu-ray hi-def era really took off with the release of Planet Earth. That groundbreaking documentary was playing virtually nonstop on every Blu-ray player and high definition television in audio-visual emporiums around the country for months, and it wasn’t unusual to see eager consumers “ooh”-ing and “aah”-ing at the incredible visuals and then walking right up to the clerk and buying a whole home theater package. In fact, high definition has given a whole new lease on life to the sometimes disparaged form of nature documentaries, and that is most certainly a good thing. We are so inured to the rigors of everyday, often urban, existence that we are quite often numb to the visual splendor which surrounds us on this spinning globe. National Geographic has always been at the forefront of these types of programs, but they saw their brand lose a little of its luster after the immense success of the British born Planet Earth, Blue Planet and, most recently, Life. NatGeo has not thrown in the towel, however, and Great Migrations finds the publishing and media entity back with a bang, delivering one of the finest nature documentaries ever presented on television, and one which has received a truly stunning Blu-ray transfer. This new two Blu-ray set features of all of Great Migrations’ four initial episodes, plus two bonus programs which are being broadcast as supplemental parts to the initial series. If Great Migrations never really makes the case for a cogent through line with regard to either individual episodes or the series as a whole, with dribs and drabs of information that really could be interchanged throughout the series’ sections, the individual sections themselves are often breathtaking and well worth the journey. Parents are advised that many, if not most, of the episodes feature extremely graphic sequences of various animals meeting their sometimes shocking ends, so younger children, especially those easily frightened, should not watch the series without parental pre-screening.

Born to Move. As Alec Baldwin’s dulcet tones deliver some pretty flowery musings on the perpetuum mobile which is both our planet and its many species of inhabitants, we’re introduced to three main “characters” for this initial outing, monarch butterflies, wildebeests and crabs. This fascinating and at time gloriously beautiful episode ping pongs between the three focal points, showing birth and, sometimes disturbingly, death. The most gorgeous elements of this premiere episode are without a doubt the slow motion footage of monarchs, in mind boggling numbers, flying through sylvan groves. The monarchs’ migratory patterns actually take four generations for each cycle to be completed, amazingly enough. This episode does feature some extremely graphic footage of wildebeest calves being killed by cheetahs and, perhaps most distressingly, crocodiles.

Need to Breed. This episode actually ends up being more about parenting than about procreation. Like the other three episodes, the focus is a bit willy-nilly here, touching on elements that crop up in the other segments, but Need to Breed generally hones in on migratory patterns that are the result of breeding urges. The “featured players” in this outing including the almost cute looking red fox bat (I said almost cute looking), Falkland elephant seals and the incredibly rare white-eared kob antelope, which was thought to be extinct for several years after poaching and incursions had supposedly decimated the species found in the Sudan.

Race to Survive features a lot of callbacks to the first episode, including that graphic imagery of killer crocodiles. This time the crocs aren’t just after wildebeests, they go for zebras as well. In fact this episode spends quite a bit of time with the striped horse-like creatures, including one herds seemingly insane decision to migrate yearly from lush, flooded plains to the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, a barren desert with little or no life. It turns out the zebras feast on what could be termed as one of the planet’s largest salt-licks, while also gorging on mineral rich grasslands which surround the desert in little tufts. Arctic walruses and plankton are also featured in Race to Survive, which paints an often gorgeous picture of how changing season force migrations.

Feast or Famine looks at how food supply affects the movement of various species around the globe. This episode starts out with a rare occurrence of desert elephants, in this case a large herd which makes its home in the Sahara and covers over 300 miles in migratory habits, thought to be the longest elephant migration on the planet. It’s interesting to contrast the elephants’ migrations, led by the female cow, with the zebra migrations documented in Race to Survive being led by stallions. Also on tap here are a really insane number of little birds called the Red Billed Quelea, which flock about the Saharan Elephants in such huge amounts that they actually resemble locusts. The Great White Shark is shown making a huge forage from Hawaii to Guadalupe to feast on the abundant marine life there, and in one of the most picturesque segments of the entire series, we take a submerged view of the isolated Jellyfish Lake on the island of Palau, where its eponymous creatures go to literally amazing depths to survive.

Great Migrations Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Great Migrations migrates onto Blu-ray with an astoundingly clear and sharp AVC encoded transfer in 1080i and 1.78:1. National Geographic has always done fine Blu-ray work, but this series sets the bar considerably higher than it has ever been, especially for an interlaced source. In fact, this special is simply breathtakingly beautiful almost all of the time. Colors are ravishingly robust and stunningly saturated, depth of field seems to go on for miles and miles, and the sharpness and clarity of fine detail is nothing short of amazing. Close-ups of crab legs reveal every splotch and bump on the crustaceans' shells. A walrus' whiskers glint like fine threads against a setting sun. Underneath the water, various weird looking marine life swim right up to the camera so that you can actually see inside some of the more translucent species. Great Migrations is a panoply of beautiful images (and, truth be told, more than a few ghastly ones, especially in the death sequences), and this Blu-ray presents it all in near picture perfect detail. In fact I would say this is easily the best looking 1080i presentation I've personally ever seen on Blu-ray.

Great Migrations Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For the first time since I've been reviewing National Geographic titles (and that's been quite a while), NatGeo finally steps fully up to the hi-def sonic plate and gives the consumer a good, if sometimes subtle, lossless surround track, in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Baldwin's narration is of course anchored pretty steadily in the front channels, but both the very inviting underscore and a wealth of ambient sounds spill into the surrounds. Everything from the completely strange bleats of zebras (which I'm not sure I've ever heard before) to the plaintive wail of a wildebeest calf being pulled under the water by a crocodile is presented with absolute clarity and excellent directionality. Even the most subtle sounds, like the flapping of monarch butterfly or bat wings, are offered with incredibly excellent fidelity. This isn't a completely bombastic soundtrack, and in fact I'm actually grateful that NatGeo stayed away from the A&E penchant toward nonstop LFE, so those looking for a knock your socks off sonic experience may be a tad disappointed here. While this may be "kinder and gentler," it's no less immersive and excellently recorded, and it, like the image quality, sets the bar at a new height for NatGeo releases in particular, and nature documentaries in general.

Great Migrations Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Science of Migrations (1080i; 50:01) is actually one of the most consistently fascinating episodes included on either disc. Narrated by Peter Coyote, this looks at several of our "featured characters" in the four main episodes, but explores the actual science of figuring out both where these animals go and, perhaps more intriguingly, why. A slew of scientists bring a battery of high and low tech devices to divine what's going on in the minds of these creatures who travel so far on a regular basis.

Behind the Scenes of 'Great Migrations' (1080i; 50:01) is another really excellent exploration of the heights, lengths and depths the NatGeo teams go to to get this extraordinary footage. This episode juggles backstage views of segments being filmed with snippets of the actual finished product. As you watch the main series, you're sure to wonder more than once "How did they get that shot?", and this fascinating extra shows just how difficult some of these shots were to get. Great Migrations took over two and a half years to film, the makers traveled more than 420,000 miles and visited 20 countries to get these often unbelievable shots, and this Behind the Scenes extra is a fitting tribute to their fortitude and professionalism.

Great Migrations Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a fan of Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Life and the like, I can almost guarantee you're going to love Great Migrations. While it may not be as all encompassing as some of its BBC progenitors, this series is so full of stunning imagery and excellent audio that I doubt very many people are going to complain about much, if anything. This is easily one of the sharpest 1080i presentations I've ever seen, and NatGeo has also done an exemplary job with its lossless surround track. This would make an ideal stocking stuffer for any nature lover on your holiday shopping list, and it comes Very Highly Recommended.