Search - BBC Atlas: West Hemisphere & Antartica Africa Euro on DVD

An overview of the greatest continent for wildlife left

D. J. Nardi | Washington, DC | 08/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not sure why this Africa feature is packaged with a DVD about European wildlife. Regardless, the Africa portion of this documentary is great. Each episode covers a different ecosystem on the African continent. The episodes discuss the environmental changes that have given rise to each species. I prefer looking at individual ecosystems on one continent rather than the "flying around the world" approach of Planet Earth. With that said, this documentary is much older than Planet Earth (first produced in the late 1980s), so it simply doesn't have the HD quality viewers are used to. Regardless, there are still some amazing scenes, such as sea lions sneaking up on gannets in the water and hippos fighting each other with bloody jaws. Also, the enhanced mode is actually informative and not too intrusive, mentioning interesting facts about the animals. Definitely worth checking out."