Life in the Undergrowth
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David AttenboroughBrand: Warner Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 250 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-05-02
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E2514
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- David Attenborough guides the viewer through a miniature universe teeming with life, never normally seen, yet all around us. New technology reveals surreal vistas and their extraordinary inhabitants -- swarming antler moths, desert locusts and a mountain of cockroaches -- up close and personal. The bizarre and the beautiful are represented and their habits, lifestyles and characteristics explained
Movie Reviews of Life in the Undergrowth
Movie Review: Beautifully filmed series on terrestrial invertebrates... Excellent DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a beautiful documentary series. Sir David Attenborough's latest release is a 5-part documentary on terrestrial invertebrates (as opposed to marine invertebrates which are not covered here) with a major emphasis on insects and to a lesser extent, spiders, with a passing glance at snails, slugs and worms which actually only feature in the first episode. While many of the species he showcases can be found in and around your neighbourhood gardens, he still criss-crosses the globe to highlight the diversity of forms and habitats that related species occupy across our planet. He is helped by advances in photography, especially ultra-high-speed photography, microphotography and high-resolution infra-red photography and the new high-definition video which can present it in such spectacular detail on DVD. These highly detailed images are truly gorgeous to look at and make you wish this series was at least twice as long.
The 5 episodes (50 mins each) are:
Ep 1: Invasion of the land - A very brief description of how the invertebrates moved from water to land and the adaptations they underwent during the transition.
Ep 2: Taking to the air - Focusing on insects and their conquest of flight
Ep 3: The Silk Spinners - On invertebrates that make use of silk, including insects but focusing mostly on spiders
Ep 4: Intimate Relations - On symbiotic, parasitic and commensal relationships between various invertebrate species and between invertebrates and plants.
Ep 5: Supersocieties - On insects that form colonies and supercolonies - bees, wasps, ants, termites.
Highlights include the giant centipedes that hunt for bats by catching them in mid-air, 6-foot long giant earthworms in Australia that make so much noise burrowing underground that the earth gurgles beneath your feet, parasitic wasps that inject their eggs into the bodies of caterpillars which proceed to hatch and eat their hosts alive, one species even allowing the caterpillar to pupate only to kill it in the chrysalis and emerge as a fully-formed wasp at the end as if by some act of devilish magic. There's a beautiful sequence taken in Waitomo, New Zealand where the ceiling of a dark cave twinkles with a constellation of blue fairy lights, like stars in the Milky Way. Only on closer inspection do you see that they are the larvae of fungus gnats. There's also a segment on spiders which work in concert (in thousands) to construct 60 foot high webs that form a veritable silken wall across the jungle canopy, trapping insects, birds and well-nigh anything else that fly into them.
The series was shot in 1.78:1 high definition widescreen and is presented as such on DVD (enhanced for widescreen TV). Picture quality is breathtaking. Sound is in 2.0 Stereo with surprisingly good bass extension, notably in the accompanying music. The DVD includes a half-hour long interview with producer Mike Salisbury on the making of the series but unfortunately none with Sir David. It also comes with a separate recording of the complete score by Ben Salisbury and David Poore in 2.0 Stereo, playable separately with 25 individual cueing tracks.
Breathtaking as all this is, it is also a little sad to realise that with this series, David Attenborough has apparently precluded any separate "Life of Insects" series to add to his other "Life Of..." documentaries. Alas, so much to do in so little time. Perhaps we should just count our blessings and be thankful that Sir David has shared so much of his life with us. He has brought home to millions around the world the joy and passion he holds towards all living things on our singularly beautiful living planet. I personally know of many people whose love for the life sciences were sparked by exposure to his inspiring documentaries and books. You could probably go to any corner of the world and be able to find life scientists who hold him in the highest regard and the deepest affection. To think that he is now into his eighties and still hard at work (he reached 80 earlier this month - May 8). A truly remarkable man. He has just premiered his new 2-part documentary on climate change and its effects on wildlife (BBC UK). And he is currently working on the forthcoming "Life of Reptiles". For those interested in learning more about the various creatures featured here, this series comes with Attenborough's beautifully illustrated hardcover book, published by the BBC in the UK and by Princeton in the US.
Summary of Life in the Undergrowth
David Attenborough guides the viewer through a miniature universe teeming with life, never normally seen, yet all around us. New technology reveals surreal vistas and their extraordinary inhabitants -- swarming antler moths, desert locusts and a mountain of cockroaches -- up close and personal. The bizarre and the beautiful are represented and their habits, lifestyles and characteristics explained in David Attenborough's inimitable style. Though small, these creatures are as ferocious as any seen before.Running Time: 250 min.
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