Life On Earth DVD > Reviews > Life on Earth - David Attenborough

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding

Advantages:	So educational and interesting .  Beautiful footage
Disadvantages:	None what so ever !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

After watching lots of David Attenborough on 'Animal Planet' I bought a set of dvds for my boyfriend of 'The Life of Mammals'. We went a bit David Attenborough crazy and decided we were going to buy all of 'The Life Collection' series. This was the second box set from David Attenborough that we bought.

This series basically tells us about the development of life on our planet over 3.5 billion years! It is an amazing piece of work.

The dvd set has four discs with a total of 13 episodes on them.

The dvds have a total running time of 11 hours and 42 minutes, so you are really getting lots of viewing time for your money! Each episode lasts for around 55 minutes.

The episodes are:

Episode 1: The infinite variety - Tells about the first evidence of life on our planet.
Episode 2: Building Bodies - Tells about creatures appearing in the oceans.
Episode 3: The First Forests - How some creatures and plants left the oceans to go to land and how the plants developed in to trees.
Episode 4: The Swarming Hordes - How some insects colonised in order to protect themselves and dominate areas.
Episode 5: The Conquest of the Waters - All about fishes!
Episode 6: The Invasion of the Land - How fish crawled on to land and evolved in to amphibians.
Episode 7: Victors of the Dry Lands - About reptiles and dinosaurs. And how reptiles survived and live in hot parts of the world.
Episode 8: Lords of the Air - All about birds! And how useful their feathers are and where they came from.
Episode 9: The Rise of the Mammals - How small animals evolved in to large mammals after the dinosaurs died.
Episode 10: Theme and Variations - How some mammals started keeping babies inside their tummys instead of laying eggs, how some took to the skies and how some went back to the waters.
Episode 11: The Hunters and the Hunted - How herbivore animals started living in herds in order to survive and protection, and how carnivores developed and grew weapons in order to kill and eat these animals.
Episode 12: Life in the Trees - How some mammals started to climb trees. Lots of information about monkeys and chimpanzees!
Episode 13: The Compulsive Communicators - About humans. How we evolved in order to make and use weapons. The development of our need for communication and how we dominated the world.

Disc one has episodes 1 - 4, disc two has episodes 5 - 7, disc three has episodes 8 - 10 and disc four has episodes 11 - 13.

Each of the discs has a different picture on the front of them which is really nice. The pictures are really amazing and really fit in well with the theme of the series.

The box set itself comes in a cardboard sleeve which has a large picture of a frog on the front. It has 'Life On Earth' written at the top in large white letters and then at the bottom 'David Attenborough' in smaller yellow letters. The box set opens out like a book so you can see all of the dvds at once to allow for easy selection! The front cover of the inner box set is identical to the cardboard sleeve.

There are not many special features on the dvd, only a 'Wild Track with Tony Soper' which is quite interesting. It has an interview with David Attenborough on it and gives information about the filming and the content of the programs. This special feature is on disc 4 of the dvd box set.
There is also the option to watch this dvd with English subtitles.

Not only is David Attenborough the presenter of the series but he is also the writer, and he has done a superb job! Not only is this so interesting and watchable, its so educational! I love learning new facts about animals and the earth. You can really see the passion that David Attenborough has for animals coming through in his presenting.

This series is just absolutely fascinating. It is a really in-depth look in to evolution and is so interesting. The filming is just amazing. It says in the front cover that it took over three years to film and that they travelled over one and a half million miles to get all the footage. Even though it is from 1979 I am learning things that I never new before. I don't find it out-of-date at all even though it is almost 30 years old. We watched all of the episodes pretty quickly since they were so interesting, but it's a dvd that we have found ourselves watching over and over again.

I really like the music that plays at the opening of each disc. It is really moving, intense orchestral music which fits in really well with the series. It is a nice addition to an already wonderful series.

This series is part of a wider series from David Attenborough called 'The Life Collection' which consists of 'The Life Of Birds', 'Trials Of Life', 'Life In The Freezer', 'The Life Of Mammals', 'The Private Life Of Plants', 'The Living Planet, 'Life On Earth' and 'Life In The Undergrowth'.

I bought this for £34.99 from Amazon, but it is on there right now for £22.98 (which is an absolute bargain!) I have also seen the 'Life' series in HMV.

The dvd is an 'E' which means that it is exempt from BBFC.
It is produced by Richard Brock and John Sparks and the executive producer was Christopher Parsons and the series was originally transmitted in 1979.

This really is a great dvd to have in your dvd collection. It is one you will want to watch again and again, it won't be sitting there collecting dust! I highly recommend it, I find no faults with this dvd what so ever. Five stars!