The Freak's Rating: B+ : Who remembers Planet Earth? No, not Disney's Earth, but the BBC special Planet Earth. It wasn't that long ago that PE hit television and who would have thought it would have had such an impact on filmmaking. Since then, studios across the world have sent jacked up budgets and amazing photography equipment to great heights and, in this case, depths to try to recapture the magic of the series. The latest entry, and arguably the best to attempt this in the last couple years is Disney's Oceans.
I wasn't a fan of Disney's Earth. The film was falsely advertised and put together as if it would tell the story of four different animals and their journeys across our beautiful planet. Luckily Disney avoided this with Oceans. Instead of focusing on any creature for an extended period of time, or simply pointing out new ones the entire time (a la Discovery Channel's Life mini-series), Oceans tells many stories without any interlocking pieces that confuse the viewer.
Oceans is a beautiful documentary. I did get a little bored during the humpback whale portion of the film. This creature has been documented to death, over and over again. Yes, they are huge. Yes, they are beautiful. Yes, we're sick of seeing them. With the exception of seeing the size comparison to humans (which is amazing no matter how many times I see it), they can leave these guys out of future films.
Out of the documentary-style films that showcase our planet's creatures, this is one I'd enjoy watching again. Some footage of schools of fish, sharks and various other creatures are flat out jaw-dropping.
