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A list of Morrissey's top 6 favorite books to read to from Radical Reads! https://radicalreads.com/david-attenborough-favorite-books/
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Book
An early English Protestant, John Foxe fled from England to Strasbourg, France, when Mary Tudor...
The Malay Archipelago
Book
Alfred Russel Wallace's The Malay Archipelago is a work of astounding breadth and originality that...
Wild Animals I Have Known
Book
This great wolf is just one of the animals whose true stories come to life in this engrossing...
The Origin of Species
7.8
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Book
The publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859 marked a dramatic turning point in...
Memoirs of a Buccaneer
Book
Mapmaker and navigator Dampier guided important voyages of exploration, and his journals as a...
Entertainment Editor (1988 KP) created a video about Blue Planet II in TV
Oct 14, 2017
Entertainment Editor (1988 KP) created a video about Our Planet in TV
Feb 8, 2019
Cinematography (4 more)
David Attenborough
Storyline
Educational
Conservation-Minded
Amazing from the Start
From the very first episode starring a chimpanzee named David, this show has been another BBC and Attenborough gem. The entire story is shot beautifully by an experienced camera crew who spends years with the animals. Each episode focuses on a different family group in a different part of the world, giving viewers a glimpse into the group's inner-workings. No hardship or heartbreak is omitted, creating an emotional journey each episode. Each episode ends with a look into the real issues surrounding the conservation of the star species.
Rebecca Billcliff (2409 KP) rated Planet Earth II in TV
Nov 28, 2019 (Updated Jan 26, 2020)
Outstanding Programing
Sir David Attenborough once again narrates a series full of astonishing creatures, and some if the most stunning shots I have ever seen. Like the original series, it is broken down into sections, each showing a habitat such as jungles, the deep sea ect. And how the animals within deal with the challenges of that habitat. It is another beautiful showcase of the founders of the natural world and is a MUST see for all nature documentary fans.
Sarah (7799 KP) rated David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020) in Movies
Oct 14, 2020
Bleak and interesting
David Attenborough is possibly the most recognised face (and voice) when it comes to nature and our planet, and it’d be safe to say he’s also one of the most respected advisors on the environment. Now 94 years old, A Life on Our Planet is his “witness statement” for the environment and details his 60+ year career and how steeply the planet has declined during this time.
In the opening scene of this documentary Attenborough is in Chernobyl, the site of one of the worst man-made disasters in history. His comparison of the impact of the Chernobyl disaster to the impact humanity is having gradually on the environment is not one that many would have even considered, but it’s provides a stark warning. And it continues in this same vein throughout.
Whilst this still features beautifully captured videos of nature and historical footage of Attenborough throughout his career, this documentary has very dark and bleak overtones. Even the statistics on world population, carbon content and decrease in wilderness provided for certain years in Attenborough’s career prove to be crystal clear and unmistakably illustrating just how badly we’ve treated our planet in the space of a mere 90 years. For reference, wilderness in the 1930s was at 66% - in 2020 it has nearly halved to 35%. When you see it there in black and white, it’s terrifying.
Even more terrifying is Attenborough’s glimpse into the future. Showing what will happen to us and our planet in the 2030s to 2100s and beyond, it’s scarier than any horror film you will ever see. And what’s worrying is that the chances of this happening is a lot more likely than anything you see in a scary movie.
Fortunately this does move away from the rather effective warnings and dark tones and goes on to discuss how we can change to prevent this bleak future from coming true. These resolutions – stopping deforestation and overfishing, stabilising the population, more plant based diets – are nothing that we haven’t heard of before. However Attenborough does at least go on to suggest how we as a planet can move towards achieving the above and promote some rather positive success stories where this has already been achieved in a number of places across the globe.
My problem with this documentary is two fold. For one, Attenborough steers clear of the politics and blame game and doesn’t point the finger at any areas of society that may be more at fault than others (i.e. the super wealthy and their excesses). He just seems like he’s being too nice when really he needs to call out the people and areas that hold more responsibility.
My other issue is that he doesn’t relate the solutions to how we can help as individuals. Other than moving to a more plant based diet, the solutions proposed are not things that Joe public can help with and for me personally I found this very frustrating. I want to know what I personally can do to help and sadly I have no control over poaching, deforestation or over-fishing. I barely have any input into my local council’s initiative to build thousands of houses on the greenbelt behind my house, so the issues and solutions discussed here seem rather overwhelming and feel almost impossible to achieve.
However despite this, Attenborough has created a rather bleak and stark documentary that proves to be both depressing and incredibly moving and informative to watch. It will undoubtedly spur many into action and prove to be the warning we as a people need, especially with the final scenes showing how the wilderness has returned to Chernobyl and Attenborough’s reminder that we’re not saving the planet, we’re saving ourselves. I just hope those higher up that have the true power to put the solutions in place have watched this and taken note.
In the opening scene of this documentary Attenborough is in Chernobyl, the site of one of the worst man-made disasters in history. His comparison of the impact of the Chernobyl disaster to the impact humanity is having gradually on the environment is not one that many would have even considered, but it’s provides a stark warning. And it continues in this same vein throughout.
Whilst this still features beautifully captured videos of nature and historical footage of Attenborough throughout his career, this documentary has very dark and bleak overtones. Even the statistics on world population, carbon content and decrease in wilderness provided for certain years in Attenborough’s career prove to be crystal clear and unmistakably illustrating just how badly we’ve treated our planet in the space of a mere 90 years. For reference, wilderness in the 1930s was at 66% - in 2020 it has nearly halved to 35%. When you see it there in black and white, it’s terrifying.
Even more terrifying is Attenborough’s glimpse into the future. Showing what will happen to us and our planet in the 2030s to 2100s and beyond, it’s scarier than any horror film you will ever see. And what’s worrying is that the chances of this happening is a lot more likely than anything you see in a scary movie.
Fortunately this does move away from the rather effective warnings and dark tones and goes on to discuss how we can change to prevent this bleak future from coming true. These resolutions – stopping deforestation and overfishing, stabilising the population, more plant based diets – are nothing that we haven’t heard of before. However Attenborough does at least go on to suggest how we as a planet can move towards achieving the above and promote some rather positive success stories where this has already been achieved in a number of places across the globe.
My problem with this documentary is two fold. For one, Attenborough steers clear of the politics and blame game and doesn’t point the finger at any areas of society that may be more at fault than others (i.e. the super wealthy and their excesses). He just seems like he’s being too nice when really he needs to call out the people and areas that hold more responsibility.
My other issue is that he doesn’t relate the solutions to how we can help as individuals. Other than moving to a more plant based diet, the solutions proposed are not things that Joe public can help with and for me personally I found this very frustrating. I want to know what I personally can do to help and sadly I have no control over poaching, deforestation or over-fishing. I barely have any input into my local council’s initiative to build thousands of houses on the greenbelt behind my house, so the issues and solutions discussed here seem rather overwhelming and feel almost impossible to achieve.
However despite this, Attenborough has created a rather bleak and stark documentary that proves to be both depressing and incredibly moving and informative to watch. It will undoubtedly spur many into action and prove to be the warning we as a people need, especially with the final scenes showing how the wilderness has returned to Chernobyl and Attenborough’s reminder that we’re not saving the planet, we’re saving ourselves. I just hope those higher up that have the true power to put the solutions in place have watched this and taken note.
Dean (6927 KP) rated The Lion King (2019) in Movies
Jul 19, 2019 (Updated Jul 19, 2019)
Same story with different visuals
Yet another re-imaging update of a Disney classic. People will always have quite varied reactions to these films depending in how high regard they hold the original. So far they have been a bit hit and miss, with Dumbo the worst for me. This is more in line with the Jungle book, with the same director. The story is pretty much exactly the same as the original. The difference is the amazing life like animation of the animals. So good it will feel like a nature documentary at times, waiting for David Attenborough to narrate over.
The voice cast is OK with only James Earl Jones voice standing out as he has such a commanding tone. The songs were just ok for me and I think this is where most people might be disappointed with this version. Overall it's a good story still given a technically excellent make-over. Just maybe lacking a little charm here and there.
The voice cast is OK with only James Earl Jones voice standing out as he has such a commanding tone. The songs were just ok for me and I think this is where most people might be disappointed with this version. Overall it's a good story still given a technically excellent make-over. Just maybe lacking a little charm here and there.
A beautiful documentary series
Let's face it, you really can't go wrong with a David Attenborough documentary series. He's never made anything less than brilliant, and this Dynasties series is no exception.
Focusing each episode on a different species, the crew have really gone all out on the cinematography to make a truly stunning series. They've spent years filming each set of animals to give you an insight into their lives, which is fairly heartbreaking at times as they don't leave anything out, not even the sadder realities of animal life. My favourites out of the series were definitely the tigers and penguins, shining an informative look into how they bring up their young.
I loved as well how they include a brief behind the scenes segment at the end of each episode, getting to see a little more truth behind the documentary. And it's nice to see how dedicated the crew are to their work and that sometimes human intervention isn't actually a bad thing.
The series also highlights important points about the environment and conservation, and I really hope more people would watch this and get an understanding of the effects we're having on wildlife.
Focusing each episode on a different species, the crew have really gone all out on the cinematography to make a truly stunning series. They've spent years filming each set of animals to give you an insight into their lives, which is fairly heartbreaking at times as they don't leave anything out, not even the sadder realities of animal life. My favourites out of the series were definitely the tigers and penguins, shining an informative look into how they bring up their young.
I loved as well how they include a brief behind the scenes segment at the end of each episode, getting to see a little more truth behind the documentary. And it's nice to see how dedicated the crew are to their work and that sometimes human intervention isn't actually a bad thing.
The series also highlights important points about the environment and conservation, and I really hope more people would watch this and get an understanding of the effects we're having on wildlife.
Sarah (7799 KP) rated Our Planet in TV
Apr 14, 2019
Well done but isn't harsh enough
You've got to hand it to them, Netflix really know what they're doing. Everyone knows you can't go wrong with a David Attenborough documentary, so it's very smart of Netflix to get him to narrate their nature documentary.
Visually, this documentary is stunning and absolutely flawless. To the point where the picture quality in some scenes looks that sharp and defined that it almost looks fake. Having the episodes focus on specific areas of the planet is a good move although because of this it only touches briefly on certain species and circumstances without going into too much depth. And it wouldn't be a nature documentary without some truly heart wrenching scenes (the flamingos and walruses especially) and also some wonderfully adorable scenes too (the otters)..
This documentary series main aim is to highlight what we're doing to ruin our planet and how it's affecting the wildlife. It definitely does this, but I dont think it does it very well. It touches on these issues but even with David Attenborough's sombre narrative, it never comes across as harsh enough. Despite the message, the score and scenes used in the episodes come across as far too positive and upbeat and it comes across as a little confused. Yes there are some positives with some parts of the planet and wildlife recovering, but this is only the minority. This should have been a hard hitting bleak no holds barred documentary about the damage we're doing to our planet, and it just isn't. When it comes to the damage that's being done to nature, it shouldn't be sugar coated.
Visually, this documentary is stunning and absolutely flawless. To the point where the picture quality in some scenes looks that sharp and defined that it almost looks fake. Having the episodes focus on specific areas of the planet is a good move although because of this it only touches briefly on certain species and circumstances without going into too much depth. And it wouldn't be a nature documentary without some truly heart wrenching scenes (the flamingos and walruses especially) and also some wonderfully adorable scenes too (the otters)..
This documentary series main aim is to highlight what we're doing to ruin our planet and how it's affecting the wildlife. It definitely does this, but I dont think it does it very well. It touches on these issues but even with David Attenborough's sombre narrative, it never comes across as harsh enough. Despite the message, the score and scenes used in the episodes come across as far too positive and upbeat and it comes across as a little confused. Yes there are some positives with some parts of the planet and wildlife recovering, but this is only the minority. This should have been a hard hitting bleak no holds barred documentary about the damage we're doing to our planet, and it just isn't. When it comes to the damage that's being done to nature, it shouldn't be sugar coated.