Earth vs. Planet Earth
Disneynature’s first feature, Earth, will appear at your local movie theater beginning April 22. Being the very, very influential bloggers that we are, we were able to secure free passes to see a pre-screening of the movie a couple of weeks ago.
Here’s the deal: If you saw the wonderful 11-part series, Planet Earth, on the Discovery Channel, you’ve already seen Earth. We estimate that we’d seen at least 90% of Earth before through watching Planet Earth. Of course, we loved Planet Earth – the shots were tremendous and the intimacy between viewer and animals was unparalleled. The same goes for Earth. But, it’s shorter and so doesn’t delve as deep into all the aspects that Planet Earth was able to. In our opinion, Earth also seemed to focus a little too much on the hunter and prey. We were witness to several more maulings of cute, furry things than was entirely comfortable in that short time period.
We’re not sure what relationship Disney has with Discovery (yes, we’ve heard of The Google but prefer to remain clueless when it comes to huge multi-media conglomerates) but clearly they used the same footage. The narrator is different (Earth’s is James Earl Jones; Planet Earth’s was Sigourney Weaver) but we even thought much of the narrated content was the same.
This 7-year long project is truly awesome and deserves a look. If you can’t get to your local video store to rent Planet Earth, the far superior product, we recommend you see Earth.
P.S. If you haven’t already, check out our picks for best travel movies - and add your own picks.
I’d guess you gave it a mixed review. I haven’t seen Planet Earth so maybe I will enjoy Earth more. Was there any benefit to seeing it on the big screen?
I’d be thrilled if you’d visit my page and leave your impressions for others to share! You can find it at http://www.squidoo.com/disneys-earth .
Brenda
I would have to agree that Planet Earth was far better than Earth. I just rented Earth, after having seen Planet Earth and was pretty surprised at how similar they were, with Earth however having certain shortcomings. I think my biggest concerns were the music and narration in Earth. In the Planet Earth DVDs that I have, the narrator was David Attenborough, who seemed to educate the viewer more than make them laugh. I think James Earl Jones’s dialogue, although similar to Attenborough’s, was at times too comical, which was out of place in the context of the movie. Having said that, it is a Disney movie aimed at children so I dont think I can really fault him for it. Nevertheless, I believe Attenborough’s tone and script fit better with the footage, and did more to awe the viewer, rather than merely entertain.