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Dom Robinson reviews
Visual Family Learning
- Cat.no: VSLD 10257
- Cert: E
- Running time: 65 minutes
- Year: 1996
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 30 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £14.99
- Extras : Scene index, “How Did They Do That?” Special Effects, Polar Quiz,What’s on the Web?, 15 Unique ‘Hot Spots’
Director:
- Alexandra Beazley
Producer:
- Richard Thompson
Writer:
- Lynette Singer
Music:
- Guy Dagul
Arctic and Antarcticis one of six BBC Worldwide titles released in the Eyewitness series from DorlingKindersley, following on from their revolutionary book series which has soldin excess of 30 million copies and dominates the children’s factual publishingmarket.
They look similar to us, but the ‘ice worlds’, the Arctic and Antarctic regionsin the North and South Pole look cruel and heartless but are home to the Albatrosschicks and the Emperor Penguin Dads who do all the babysitting.
The film also takes in the glory of the icebergs, shaped by the wind and weather,drifting along the currents, these ‘ice sculptures’ are like floating reservoirsand a medium-sized iceberg contains enough fresh water to supply a family of five fora hundred thousand years.
Yes, I said above 29 minutes, but the extra running time on the disc can befound with ‘hot spots’ that pop up on occasion in the top-right of the screenwhich lead to more information on your chosen subject, lasting anything from25 seconds to two minutes.
Presented in fullscreen, there are no artifacts to be found onscreen and thequality is mostly excellent, only occasionally let down by the source materialand it’s particularly at its best with the stunning panaromic view on theworld and the CGI effects that make it look as if the film starts within afuturistic museum. The average bitrate is a very good and steady 6.98Mb/s.
The sound is presented in Dolby Stereo and is very effective. It’s right upthere with most BBC documentaries you’d care to mention.
Extras : Chapters :There are 32 chapters throughout the 29-minute film, plus a separate chapterper ‘hot spot’. The scene index menu tells you there are only 16 chapters butit groups some of the 32 together. Languages & Subtitles :English dialogue only with no subtitles. And there’s more… :How Did They Do That? takes a look behind the special FX such asexplaining that the “snow” used in the studio is actually shredded polytheneand how they created the ice cavern.Lasting three minutes is as close to a behind-the-scenes featurette as you’regoing to get.
Polar Quiz asks you ten multiple-choice questions to see if you’vebeen paying attention, although for some reason if you get an answer right andit shows you a clip from the film, it then asks you the same question again?!It can’t tally your scores either.
What’s on the Web? supplies you with a list of a few Internet websitesto visit for further information.
Menu :The menus are animated, containing clips from the film in the main menu andscene selection screens. The main menu also contains some hypnotic aquaticmusic.
Overall, this disc makes fascinating viewing. Could you face living in a regionwhich has six months daylight then six months darkness?
The educational value within this package cannot be questioned and for thisprice it’s well worth a look for any member of the family who wants to read upon the subject, especially when it’s so well presented.
Note that the DVD states “PC Friendly. DVD ROM drive” at the bottom of theback cover, but it doesn’t contain the requisite software.
Also, I was hoping to do a review of Eyewitness: Natural Disasters,but oh, what a disaster. The disc doesn’t work!
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.