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 DISNEYNATURE: OCEANS (BLU-RAY/DVD COMBO) |
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| Featuring: Pierce Brosnan, Jacques Perrin, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Rie Miyazawa, Matthias Brandt |
| Directors: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud |
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Distributor: Walt Disney Video |
| DVD release: 19 October 2010 |
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Runtime: 84 min.
(2 discs) |
| Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen, Blu-ray |
| DVD features: 1080p HD, Aspect ratio 2.35:1, Audio tracks (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 - English; Dolby Digital 5.1 - French, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1), Subtitles (English SDH, French, Spanish), "Make A Wave" music video (featuring Joe Jonas & Demi Lovato), Disney & Nature: Preserving the World We Share, Deeper in the Ocean, Living Menus, Filmmaker annotations
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 DisneyNature, who brought us the visually stunning Earth , follows up with Oceans. This film, chock full of hi-res footage of oceans of the world, amazes with its content: wonderful footage of many ocean creatures you're familiar with and even some you've never imagined. Oceans doesn't follow a cohesive narrative, but with cinematography like this, that hardly matters.
Oceans suggests the fascinating wonder that the ocean holds - whales, seagulls, jellyfish, sardines and a multitude more. Oceans opens the doors on a world of wonder of which, though it covers 75% of the world's surface, we know too little. The beasties down there that don't get popular attention are revealed: mollusks that look like silk scarves I've never dreamed of, huge tornadoes of fish schooling under the surface of the waves (it really makes you appreciate how much attention to detail went into Finding Nemo .
Much of Pierce Brosnan's narration is unnecessary, especially as there isn't really a narrative thread running throughout. The makers could have trimmed this back and produced just as rich a cinematic experience; the action and music help it along very well. While some narration is needed, most seems superfluous.
Oceans is a beautiful nature film about the amazing life present in the world's oceans. The rich Blu-ray footage is not to be missed if you're at all curious about life in the ocean (perhaps more importantly if you're not). It suffers, as do many other nature films, from what I'll call the "Circle of Life" syndrome. You see the births of animals, but you also get to see the cruel ends that they come to at the flippers, jaws and claws of other ocean creatures. I know that's life, but sometimes, I don't want to see it or expose my children to it in graphic detail. While Oceans keeps the violence to a minimum compared with some other nature films, there is some there, so parents beware.
Extra features include creators' commentary in a picture-in-picture window to provide further information about the scenes at hand. Pop-up windows hold interesting facts about the ocean; extra featurettes delve into the making of the film; and a living menu lets you discover more about specific locations on the globe where Oceans was filmed.
On the whole, Oceans is a pretty good film. As far as nature documentaries, you could certainly do worse. You may need to beware of some of the Circle of Life bits I mentioned for family viewing, but they are not too grisly and, as far as I can tell, entirely bloodless.
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