National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise Blu-ray Movie Review

Back 2 school.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 23, 2012

A fountain of renewal, a refuge, a place to rekindle our most basic instincts as part of the world and the sphere of biology.

The mouthful that is National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise is almost completely structurally identical to National Parks Exploration Series: The Black Hills and The Badlands - Gateway to the West, another mouthful of a nature documentary recently released by Mill Creek. And "identical" spells "bad news." Both titles are bland entry points that examine their core subjects dryly and from a metaphorical distance. Never is the audience really all that engaged because the film fails to draw its viewers in and capture the imagination with its narrative story behind the admittedly amazing visuals on display. Sadly, even those "amazing visuals" are victim to shoddy production values and low-grade video that further reduces the title's appeal. As with the Black Hills and the Badlands video, this one is strictly for nature enthusiasts and classroom use only; there are certainly far better natural world programs out there, and many on Blu-ray that look and sound vastly superior to this.

Better video quality would be good right about now.

The lower third of the Florida peninsula is oft described as a "river of grass" that's home to a "subtropical paradise" filled with diverse life. National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise looks at the importance of "life-giving rain" to the area and the collected waters that move but 100 feet per day on its way to the ocean. It also showcases some of the area's most interesting inhabitants -- alligators, manatee, and the wood stork -- that call the Everglades home. Also explored is the role of naturally-burning fires in maintaining the ecosystem, the growth of native trees and vegetation -- including mangroves -- and the Everglades' claim to fame as the United States' only year-round tropical warm climate.

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise is divided into several sections. The feature begins by examining the natural beauty of the Everglades region, following with a detailed examination of the area's natural history, its wildlife, ecosystems, parks, and man's history within the area, from the earliest explorers on through to the modern tourism areas scattered throughout. Sadly, the film employ rather low production values. It's evident from the get-go that National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise is meant to serve as a bare-bones educational video, not something larger in scope and certainly not assembled in a way meant to dazzle its audience. No, this is a meat-and-potatoes feature if ever there was one -- which is fine, not everything can be Planet Earth -- but there's no denying that this is destined to be a sleepy time schoolhouse video rather than something families may gather around for some time with the natural world.

This film's weakest link comes from its imbalance. It begins with, more or less, lengthy stretches of video that go without identification or commentary. Viewers will be lost, wondering what they're seeing or why they are seeing it. Then, the picture follows a knowledgeable and somewhat engaging park ranger named Leon Howell as he shares his insights into the natural world of the Everglades with a pack of tourists. The film's narrator sometimes speaks sparsely, sometimes regularly, but always with a fairly dry monotone, save for one scene where he attempts to speak with some wonder at the history of a particular location. Minus the Howell stretches -- or segments with other naturalists or rangers -- one may argue that the film as-is may have been far more effective as an ambient movie that showed only wildlife and landscapes with light music and sound effects. On the flip side, following Howell for his entire tour rather than bits and pieces may have made the movie into something a little more engaging. It's certainly not quite ready for primetime as a final word sort of educational video, rather best utilized as classroom filler for a day of easy instruction.

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise features a borderline dismal 1080i, 1.78:1-framed transfer that is saved from disaster only with its inclusion of infrequent highly-detailed close-ups and adequate colors. The video image is glossy, flat, lifeless. Fine detail rages from acceptable to disastrous. Close-ups of insects, alligators, and leaves do reveal appreciable, tactile textures, but soft, mushy, and undefined is the order of the day. Colors are stable, but hardly vibrant or vivid. Blocky, washed out skies are frequent guests. Interlacing is a problem, too, as are jagged edges, but the bulk of the transfer's shortcomings come from its sloppy, undefined images that play a large part in the film's failures. It's just hard to love a nature video in this day and age that doesn't look great, especially when its narrative content is also sorely lacking.

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise features a bland but baseline effective Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Narration is piercing and boomy. Ranger dialogue is a bit more steady, clear, and balanced. Natural ambience -- chirping birds, falling rain, distant thunder -- sound fine, but at the same time canned, like they're not a natural part of whatever environment at which the camera is pointed. However, they do spread out nicely enough across the front. Gusty winds come across as only muffled heaps of sound. As with the Black Hills and the Badlands soundtrack, this one will serve well enough through TV speakers, but it's certainly not something to use for breaking in new speakers or showing off to friends.

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise contains no supplemental content.

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

National Parks Exploration Series: The Everglades - A Sub-Tropical Paradise is a bland nature video that will serve classroom duty admirably enough. It's not nearly engaging enough to serve any other purpose, really, though anyone who's just a diehard naturalist at heart may find in it some bottom-line value. Even then, chances are this video won't accomplish much more than reinforcing the basics. Worse, the video and audio quality are subpar, and no extras are included. As with National Parks Exploration Series: The Black Hills and The Badlands - Gateway to the West, this release comes recommended to educators in search of an inexpensive video to show their geography, science, or history students, assuming a Blu-ray player is on hand in the classroom.