Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126266 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-03-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: AC-3, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: Dutch, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 40 minutes

Amazon.com
This 40-minute documentary was one of the first commercially released DVDs. It should serve as a welcome introduction for those who are interested in but know little about the tropical rainforest and the process of deforestation. The script, however, provides little in the way of concrete information regarding the images on screen at any given time. The intended effect appears to be poetic (à la Henry David Thoreau), but the narration tends to veer toward the New Age. This could prove frustrating for those who would like to know exactly what species of plant or animal is being featured and what makes it unique to the rainforest. Further, indigenous peoples and their relationship to the world's rainforests is not explored.

The documentary is narrated by actor Geoffrey Holder (Ray the Sun from Bear in the Big Blue House), who has a deep voice with a pleasant tone, somewhat akin to that of James Earl Jones. His thick Trinidad accent, however, can be somewhat hard to understand despite the clear diction. A couple of scientists provide supplementary narration, but it is not sufficiently clear who they are or what their relationship is to the rainforest. The film ends with a fitting musical number, "Mbube (Wimoweh) (The Lion Sleeps Tonight)" by the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. --Kathleen Fennessy

From the Back Cover
Tropical Rainforest takes you on a 400 million year journey to illustrate the diversity and beauty of life in the forests. This film has been seen by millions of people at IMAX and OMNIMAX theaters worldwide and features incredible sound and film images. Featuring the birds and primates of the forest canopy and insects of the forest floor, Tropical Rainforest also shows the adventure of researchers challenged to understand the forests even as they disappear. From extreme close-ups to tree-top panoramas, the film lets you experience the forest on its own terms, to better understand and appreciate the treasures of this environment.

Customer Reviews

Regret for Buying it..
The narration is very bad and it doesn't even look like a common Discovery Channel program. It looks like it has been taken by a Home Video camcoder. Only the audio is good. I wouldn't even recommend for renting.

Very poor MPEG transfer...
It would be better advised if you rent this film from Netflix first before you make your purchase here. As the other reviewers have noted, the transfer from film to DVD can vary, and in this particular case, it was clearly poorly done. It's a terrible shame that this beautiful IMAX film was given such a second-rate transfer.

Normally I would end it here, but as some perceptive readers might have noticed, a vocal creationist has entered our midst, voicing his objections to the theory of evolution being used so matter-of-factly. Now I certainly don't want to belittle Dan, he can certainly believe or disbelieve whatever he wishes. However he went beyond just stating his discomfort with the theory and went out of his way to draw out a couple objections to Evolution, in effect distorted the evidence and philosophical foundations of the theory. Thus, here entails my problem.

Dan complains that the IMAX film, while giving references to evolution, never attempted to provide evidence that evolution had taken place. Is this really surprising? Perhaps Dan should ask himself if just conceivably that the theory might be so well established in modern biology, so well documented in scientific literature, that no rational person questions it today (i.e. such as cell theory, or population genetics), therefore any exposition on "proving" evolution would simply become superfluous. Just an idea Dan.

If Dan is so dissatisfied with the rather simplistic explanations given in the film, perhaps he should actually read some of the evolutionary literature that is readily available (here at Amazon no less). A great text would be Douglas J. Futuyma's _Evolutionary Biology_, or Ridley's _Evolution_, and a few excellent popular works would include Steve Jones' _Darwin's Ghost_, Kenneth Miller's _Finding Darwin's God_, Donald Johanson's _From Lucy to Language_, and anything by Steve Gould or Richard Dawkins.

Waste of money!
Completely useless piece of film making, why did IMAX bother? Picture quality bears no resemblance to other IMAX productions such as "Africa The Serengeti" and the transfer to DVD has been done very poorly. The background sounds of the rainforest are completely marred by a terribly delivered commentary which sounds as if it were intended for 5 year olds. Any adult of average intelligence will learn nothing from the commentary that they didn't already know. Don't waste your money.