Product Description

MICROCOSMOS captures the fun and adventure of a spectacular hidden universe revealed in a breathtaking, close-up view unlike anything you've ever seen! Your family will marvel at a pair of stag beetles dueling like titans. The kids will stare bug-eyed as a magnificent army of worker ants race to stock their larder ... while tyring to avoid becoming a feisty pheasant's dinner. And you'll have a front-row seat to witness an amazing transformation from caterpillar to butterfly, the remarkable birth of a mosquito, and several other minute miracles of life. With its tiny cast of thousands, MICROCOSMOS leaves no doubt that "Mother Nature remains the greatest special effects wizard of all" (New York Times).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12548 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-05-03
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 75 minutes

Amazon.com
Using revolutionary cameras, the directors of this French film (with minimal English-language narration) have made an amazing chronicle of the insect world. There are at least a dozen fascinating, memorable images, and the carnage is held to a minimum. Some favorites include a caterpillar traffic jam, a frog's bout with a rain storm, and a bird that turns into Godzilla for a bunch of ants. Then there's the snail mating scene that must be seen to be believed. Great for families. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

a must see
soo beautiful and amazing, a must see for kids or adults,as good or better then any baby einstein or any background video, with or without sound...splendid colors,and clairaty.. a must for any collection

Poor movie structure and content, but with shiny, pretty images
If you are looking for a Nature documentary and would like to learn more about invertebrate biology, then look elsewhere. This movie is a bit like a silent-era movie, but played by small, incognito alien creatures. In Microcosmos, no effort is made to explain or describe, the scenes that are presented. Though or perhaps because the images are gorgeous, the movie feels even more vacuous and futile.

Now, if instead you are moderately- to well-versed in biology and want some stock footage, say, to illustrate a lecture on invertebrate behavior, then this movie is perfect. The bland and sometimes almost vacant soundtrack is not intrusive for a voice-over during lecture. However, you will need to know your invertebrates, for Microcosmos does not mention anything about the rich life it depicts.

Buggy for this bug movie!
I bought this DVD to replace a VHS tape I had of the same movie. I use it in my kindergarten class during our unit on insects. Every year, my students are completely mesmerized by it. They beg to watch it over and over - and every time, they are completely grossed out by the snails, sad for the grasshopper caught by the spider, they root for the dung beetle and his ball of "yuck"... This is an incredible movie. I don't know how they did this, but it certainly enriches the students' learning. I hear commments about the three body parts, antennas, compound eyes, six legs, etc. as the kids get an up close view of living, breathing bugs. I can't recommend it enough.