Every so often there comes a movie or TV show that must be seen in HD in order to fully appreciated the scope and magnitude of the medium. One of those presentations is Frozen Planet.

Frozen Planet was created by the same individuals who made Planet Earth and The Blue Planet. These documentaries focus on the magnitude and beauty of the Earth and its animal inhabitants. Frozen Planet emphasis our Arctic and Antarctic regions. Those areas which are quickly changing and melting into something different.

This series acts as a historical record of the animals and ecology of the coldest places on the planet. These areas are home to many animals who live in an area that is so inhospitable to human life, we can only go there for short times, and certain times of the year. The waters of the Arctic are so cold that even in insulated wet suits, humans can only go in for an hour at a time, to prevent permanent damage from occurring to them.

The series itself is intense. Even on a non – HD screen it is something to behold. The sweeping landscapes with mountains of ice and stone towering over a polar bear looking for a mate. The most minute of creatures living around volcanic fissures in the deepest of oceans, where an entire ecosystem thrives off of a small crack in the Earth’s crust.

This series is epic and scope and also in the attention to detail brought to it. I enjoy the behind the scenes footage included with each episode. It is easy to forget how difficult it must be to get these stunning shots. Be it of killer whales popping up to get a look at the surface or the view from underneath a constantly shifting glacier.

The series if broken up into seven parts. One is the introduction episode, then come the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. These are followed by The Last Frontier which focuses on human activity in the regions. [Read more…]