Deep Blue * * * * *

The Deep Blue (2003) is an amazing documentary about life in the ocean. It is filmed in multiple locations around the world's oceans. Polar, tropical, Atlantic, Pacific... Watching it we just couldn't stop say "Oh, Wow, WHAT is that? Whoa, that is sooo amazing!" over and over. Even if you study the oceans and have seen a lot of nature videos, you are guaranteed to see something new and amazing. Probably you will also see footage of something you have always wanted to see. As I write this I am watching night footage of a ray attacking a fish and white-tipped reef sharks tirelessly searching the reef for hidden fish in the dark. Seriously cool stuff. And it has the mostly amazing footage of fish schooling -- like a tornado under water. This ranks as about the best nature photography I have ever seen!! I've seen a lot of IMAX nature documentaries; this one blows all those out of the water (ha, ha).

So it's a MUST see for anyone into nature photography and documentaries. Note it may be a bit much for kids who have a hard time with animals getting eaten. There are some graphic scenes of baby sea lions getting nailed by by killer whales, a pack of killer whales working together to kill a grey whale calf, and other scenes of predators in action: rays, sharks, octopuses, etc. My 5-year old cried during these parts; we lied and told him the calf got away (he wanted to believe this so ignored the graphic evidence to the contrary...). Also the DVD is not exactly educational. It's mostly amazing photography with little dialogue. Kids probably should start off with some more educational DVDs and trips to the aquarium to really appreciate this.

Rented from Netflix, but it's available on Amazon.com too (they have a dorky Penguin cover; for the blog I used the cooler BBC one). Note that Deep Blue is basically photographic highlights from the 8 hr series Blue Planet (2001) also available on DVD at Amazon. Blue Planet