Product Description

See over 240 minutes of some of the most startling wildlife photography ever to have been shown on television! The Blue Planet: Seas of Life features amazing new discoveries and photographic breakthroughs in four episodes. The Blue Planet: Seas of Life #1 features: "Ocean World" and "Frozen Seas." The Blue Planet: Seas of Life #2 features: "Open Ocean" and "The Deep."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109974 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-02-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 196 minutes

Amazon.com
Extraordinary footage and eloquent narration by David Attenborough highlight the BBC's remarkable wildlife series, The Blue Planet: Seas of Life. "Ocean World" begins with astonishing views of a gigantic blue whale--the elusive Holy Grail of undersea photography--and the marvels continue to demonstrate the power, diversity, and profound ecological influence of Earth's oceans. From the surface feedings of dolphins to the pitch-black environs of deep-sea predators rarely glimpsed by humans, the oceans are seen as living entities teeming with nutrients and rejuvenating currents essential to all life on Earth. This marvelous portrait of the food chain--from plankton to sharks to killer whales--continues in "Frozen Seas," examining whales, walruses, penguins, and other creatures under the extreme conditions of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.

The next two episodes are even better. "Open Ocean" travels thousands of miles into the vast "liquid desert," where currents determine how the ocean's diverse life forms will assume their places in the food chain. From manta rays to spinner dolphins, hammerhead sharks, and a plethora of smaller creatures fending for their lives, the patient cameramen capture a movable feast with intense proximity, while narrator David Attenborough brings these forces of nature into eloquent perspective. More amazing, "The Deep" descends with a state-of-the-art submersible to the ocean's abyssal plain and beyond, filming such bizarre creatures as the fangtooth, bioluminescent jellies, transparent squid, the giant-mouthed gulper eel, and the never-before-seen hairy angler fish. One of the finest wildlife programs you're ever likely to see, The Blue Planet: Seas of Life provides the privilege of visiting a truly alien world teeming with the rarest wonders of nature. --Jeff Shannon

Additional features
How did they film these awesome images? The DVDs' behind-the-scenes featurettes offer tantalizing answers, along with informative photos and factual data. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Clarifying the BBC Situation
Unlike what the previous reviewer said, these are not butchered copies. These volumes are only the first 4 episodes, if you look on Amazon.com they have the other two(which contain the final four of the eight part series) for pre-order aswell(coming out much later, May 7th). The order of the BBC episodes were changed some, but everything else is the same(they also changed the first episodes title from "Introduction" to "Ocean World", and I like the new one better) If you don't believe me, go to the official BBC website, and compare the episode titles, you will see they are the same, albiet mixed up in the order.

The first volume of the dvd contains "Ocean World" and Frozen Seas". Ocean World is the first BBC episode, and is the first Region 1 DVD(R1DVD) episode. Frozen Seas is the next R1DVD episode, and is on the same volume as the first. However, it was originally broadcast 4th on the BBC(see official bbc page). The second volume of the R1DVD contains episode "The Deep" and "Open Ocean" the Deep was originally broadcast 2nd on the BBC, and is moved to fourth for the R1DVD. Open Ocean remains at the same spot, episode 3. While the other two volumes information hasn't been released yet, they will both contain two episodes each, bringing the total up to 8 episodes, the original number. I hope this helps.

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phenomenal natural history of sea life w/ today's knowledge!
I saw the entire series when they came out on Discovery Channel. I was shocked to see the footage of killer whales taking out a blue whale calf. I was mezmerized to see funky green/blue lights 2 miles under the sea. I was wowed to see them go back to a whale carcass 18 months later to find sea life still thriving on it. They would show all levels of the ecosystem, from plankton and bacteria to whales to sharks, back to plant life and all the way back. The only drawback I found was only seeing it in fullscreen mode on a widescreen monitor. Now, with these DVDs in anamorphic widescreen, I can enjoy this with my whole family for years to come. the summary is true to form when they say it's a current complete natural history of the oceans, but think of it more as a tribute to aquatic life on this planet, this "bright blue ball, just spinning, spinning free, dizzy with Eternity!"

Amazing series, get the book too.
I'm not going to post my review that has been said by others.

What I'm saying here is that the series has a same named book.
To avoid you diffculty in finding the book (as many same named books may show up), the book ISDN is 0789482657, you can use it to pinpoint the book directly using amazon search engine.

The book is a great supplimentary to the DVD (in fact, I'd rather think the DVDs are the great supplimentary to the book), the book covers so many info how and why the ocean is as what we see today and on the DVD, the sea formation with each evolution, yet easy to understand, coupled with amazing photos and chaptered roughly equvalent as the DVD. The information is not duplicate with the narration found in the DVD series. Personally from knowledage points of view I got much more and with broader background knowledge while watch the series.

I highly recommend it.

(Proud owner of the book and the DVD series).