Starring: Life in the Undergrowth Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: BBC Warner Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: May 02, 2006 Running Time: 250 minutes
Product Description: 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.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 794051251428 Manufacturer No: E2514
Amazon.com: By getting up close and personal with Life in the Undergrowth, this extraordinary BBC series sets a new standard of excellence in wildlife cinematography. Hosted by veteran nature expert David Attenborough and utilizing the latest advances in macrophotography, the five-part series is dedicated to bugs of all shapes and sizes, from microscopic gnats to cave-dwelling millipedes so large they can capture bats in mid-flight and feast for hours thereafter! The patience involved in filming such previously unseen marvels must have been grueling (as confirmed by producer Mike Salisbury in a splendid bonus interview), but the results are nothing less than astonishing, with a parade of sequences so impressive that even insect-haters will pause in amazement. With an emphasis on reproduction and mating behaviors, each program focuses on a different, generalized group of creatures, many of them never filmed before, so that lay-persons and entomologists will be equally enlightened by discoveries made in the process of filming.
As always, Attenborough serves as an expert witness, cordial, fearless, and quintessentially British as he explains what we're seeing, from the nocturnal fluorescence of scorpions (glowing at night in ultraviolet light, they perform a mating dance playfully described as "a nuptial pas de deux") to the mysterious, 17-year life cycle of the cicada. Throughout, we see everything, both frightening and beautiful, from an intimate, bug's-eye view, in detail so vividly colorful that you'll never view the insect world in quite the same way again. (Likewise for the diverse variety of critters on view in episode 3: "The Silk Spinners," which according to Salisbury is capable of curing arachnophobes from their irrational fear of spiders.) Just when you think Life in the Undergrowth couldn't get any more fascinating, it does: episode 4, "Intimate Relations," shows how many insects symbiotically depend on other species for food, shelter, or completion of their reproductive cycles, and episode 5, "Supersocieties," focuses on the social complexities of insect colonists like ants and termites. Enough to give you the creeps for days, you say? Think again, for after seeing Life in the Undergrowth (a perfect companion piece to the Nova episode "The Unknown World"), you may find yourself in the garden, on your knees, eager for a better look at the countless millions of tiny creatures that surround us every day. --Jeff Shannon
Our mouths dropped open... True to the style of all of his other "Life" series, Attenborough opens a world that is completely unseen by the higher mammals. He does it beautifully. Even though my husband & I are nature fanatics, some of these creatures had escaped our radar until highlighted by Attenborough; many filmed sequences had us watching with mouths agape in amazement, and were partnered with an exceptional score worth listening to by itself (and is included on the DVD in the special features section). I personally feel that the presence of Attenborough in the film served to impress the sense of scale against these creatures, or in the case of the giant earthworm, to give you the feeling of "being there." If more of this programming wormed its way into our school systems, there would be a more "planet aware" generation. This series humbled this human.
Nature dvd This is a great dvd for those kids interested in knowing how the insect world works.....just wonderfull..great filming..
Informative and Entertaining If you've yet to experience the world through Sir David Attenborough's singular perspective I suggest you purchase this collection. Truly informative and innovative. Don't waste your money on meaningless and crudely made productions (i.e. I cannot name any because it would not be nice...) for I assure you that this one delivers.
Astonishing even if you know a lot about biology Apart from being exquisitely filmed and packed with fascinating content, this series amazed me with its ability to bring to light bizarre and unusual species and their behaviors. For instance, the third episode is on silk spinners, but it doesn't even mention the silk moths because it has so much to say about cave-dwelling silk spinning fluorescent predatory invertebrates and unusual spiders that hunt in highly specialized ways or even poach prey from other spiders. Seeing nature's complexity and beauty revealed in such detail filled me with such awe it was literally a spiritual experience.
Beautiful The filming of this miniature world is perfectly done Narrated my David Attenborough is as always hypnotising And incredible look in Large empires of the insect world No expense was spared on the making I have bought it to add too my collection which includes Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Living Planet, Life in the Freezer A must DVD to own for nature lovers Thanks Buddha
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