DVDs in Review

Blue World

Title: Blue World

Release date: August 31 2009

Certificate: E

Format: DVD

DVD RRP: £49.99

Rating: 4/5

Over ten years of filmmaking results in this landmark nature documentary series charting the beasts of the ocean from the surface to eeriest, black depths. Above all else, the footage is breathtaking.

Chronicling (over separate episodes totalling eight hours over three discs) sperm whales, leopard seals, orcas, dolphins, sharks, polar bears and fur seals, 'Blue World' is certainly comprehensive and strongly recommended for documentary lovers.

Stalking the deep and providing amazing vistas

The main problem (or more accurately, the main aspect to beware of) is the narrator's style throughout the series. For example, in the first documentary on sperm whales he doesn't narrate objectively but instead uses the first person to essentially make him the voice of the whale.

After a while it gets tiring hearing him joke about "my father" and what he likes to eat and so forth. Children, however, may find this approach to be enthralling but as an adult it seems a waste to garner so many fantastic elements and then speak distractingly and flippantly over the top.

Given his experience, Morgan Freeman would've been a more preferred narrator

Still, it is a minor complaint in a fascinating series that provides a unique glimpse at a side of nature a lot of us would tend not to see or even know about.

Some of the cinematography is simply stunning and, despite the grating delivery, the facts and trivia remain consistently engaging. Recommended.