Over the course of a calendar year, Earth takes the viewer on a journey from the North Pole to the South, revealing how plants and animals respond to the power of the sun and the changing seasons. The film focuses on three particular species, the polar bear, African elephant and humpback whale.
In the high Arctic, as the darkness of winter gives way to the sun, a mother polar bear is shown emerging from her den with two new cubs. She needs food and must lead her cubs to her hunting ground on the sea ice before it begins to break up. By April, the sun never sets, and by August all the sea ice has melted. The mother and cubs have retreated to dry land, but a male polar bear is trapped at sea and must seek out land by swimming. He reaches an island with a walrus colony but is too exhausted to make a successful kill. He dies from injuries sustained in a walrus attack.
African elephants are filmed from the air as they negotiate a dust storm in the Kalahari Desert. June is the dry season and they must follow ancient paths passed down through generations to reach watering holes. A mother and calf are separated from the herd in the storm but manage to reach shelter. The matriarch leads the herd to a temporary watering hole, but they must share it with hungry lions. The lions are shown attacking a solitary elephant at night, when their superior vision gives them the upper hand. The herd times its arrival at the Okavango Delta to coincide with seasonal floodwaters which transform the desert into a lush water world.
A humpback whale mother and calf are filmed from the air and underwater at their breeding grounds in the shallow seas of the tropics. There is nothing here for the mother to eat, so she must guide her calf on a 4,000-mile (6,400 km) journey south to the rich feeding grounds near Antarctica, the longest migration of any marine mammal. En route, they negotiate dangerous seas where great white sharks are filmed breaching as they hunt sealions, and sailfish and dolphins combine to bait a shoal of small fish. By October they enter polar waters, and by December the Antarctic sun has melted the sea ice to form sheltered bays. Here, the whales are shown feeding on krill by trapping them in bubble nets.
The stories of these individual creatures are woven into the film alongside a great many additional scenes. The supporting cast of animals include mandarin ducklings filmed jumping from their tree hole nest, Arctic wolves hunting caribou, cheetah hunting Thomson's gazelle, birds of paradise displaying in the New Guinea rainforest and demoiselle cranes on their autumn migration across the Himalayas.
Time-lapse photography is used to show the blossoming of spring flowers, seasonal changes to deciduous forests, clouds sweeping up Himalayan valleys and the growth of jungle spores and fungi.
Directed by: Alastair Fothergill Mark Linfield
Produced by: BBC Worldwide Greenlight Media
Narrated by: Patrick Stewart (UK) James Earl Jones (US)
Music by: George Fenton Berliner Philharmoniker
Distributed by: Disneynature
Release date(s) : April 22, 2009
Running time: 95 minutes
Country: United Kingdom Germany United States
Language: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese
Budget: USD15 million
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Bawwww just hush up and enjoy the movie.
Rip-off or not, it's adorable/sad/beautiful/wutever and definitely a joy to watch.
danielledear1 10 months ago
why do americans always rip off british stuff. they even use our great history achievements and "americanise" to make it look like they done it. and as for that bellend obama "france are our greatest allies" what a fucking tosser, next time they are in shit they can have the french and see how long it is before they come crying to us. in my opinion we should make allies with russia and putin, then no one would fuck with us.
muchiosgracias4 1 year ago
What the fuck kind of bullshit rip off of any David Attenborough program is this. Even uses the same Hopipolla.
Americans, just watch british shows, they are always better than the remade ones
DeathChipmunk 1 year ago
this is the exact same footage from bbc's planet earth. its already out, and narrated by doco god David Attenborough. this is just a shitty americanised rip
Anunnakizombie 2 years ago
Thanx.
godzillavkk 2 years ago
I agree...have a wonderful day!
MightySaturn5 2 years ago
Well we can't send creatures to extinction. P.S. I meant "Why do you even WANT to do this." I'm not the best typer
godzillavkk 2 years ago 2
"Why do you even what to do this" is a grammatically incorrect statement...I suggest eating three chickens, two giraffe's, two gazelles and 5 baby seals.
The protien from eating these animals will help with comprehension and physical endurance.
Based on the afore mentioned I am in total agreement with you "Humans cannot survive without animals"
Have a wonderful day godzilla and thank goodness for people like you that understand conservation.
MightySaturn5 2 years ago
What!? Wildlife conservation helps animals! Humans cannot survive without animals. Why do you even what to do this!?
godzillavkk 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
I agree godzilla...I'm already planning to wipe out as many endagered species as possible ...down with animals-People rule!
MightySaturn5 2 years ago