Favourite David Attenborough documentary

Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
For some reason I'm not really into the newer style BBC Attenborough documentaries and much prefer older ones like "The trials of life" and "Life on earth" and oldish ones "The life of mammals" and the "The life of birds".
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I appreciate some of the older ones, I especially like the very first blue planet documentary, but I appreciate the newer ones too. I guess maybe because its more relaxed in the earlier documentary's and the whole world of global warming and animal endangerment isn't mentioned.
 
CheeseChameleon2007 said:
I appreciate some of the older ones, I especially like the very first blue planet documentary, but I appreciate the newer ones too. I guess maybe because its more relaxed in the earlier documentary's and the whole world of global warming and animal endangerment isn't mentioned.
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I can't really put my finger on it but I feel that the older ones were somehow better and that the newer ones have lost some of the old charm but I don't think this is due to issues being raised such as biodiversity loss or global warming.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I can't really put my finger on it but I feel that the older ones were somehow better and that the newer ones have lost some of the old charm but I don't think this is due to issues being raised such as biodiversity loss or global warming.
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I guess so, But I personally think the music and the atmosphere set the tone for the earlier documentaries. I remember distinctly the music for one of my favorite planet earth episodes as a kid, grasslands. I think the music tracks are just a lot more mellow than some of the newer more exciting pieces. But maybe that's just me.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I can't really put my finger on it but I feel that the older ones were somehow better and that the newer ones have lost some of the old charm but I don't think this is due to issues being raised such as biodiversity loss or global warming.
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For me, it was the excessive use of slow-motion in the modern series that put me off; think it was Life where pretty much everything was in slow-motion, sometimes super slow-motion, I managed the first episode but no more. I agree with you, there is something preferable about the earlier series. It might be the target audience (his new series are all BBC1, the main, popular audience-driven channel), or just a change in audience preferences, more focus on image and 'wow factor' than informative substance. The same difference can be seen between the BBC channel outputs - a recent documentary by Helen Macdonald (of H is for Hawk fame) about the natural history of the M25 on BBC4, was quiet, reserved, informative and deeply meaningful, it would never have been shown on BBC1
 
Crowthorne said:
For me, it was the excessive use of slow-motion in the modern series that put me off; think it was Life where pretty much everything was in slow-motion, sometimes super slow-motion, I managed the first episode but no more. I agree with you, there is something preferable about the earlier series. It might be the target audience (his new series are all BBC1, the main, popular audience-driven channel), or just a change in audience preferences, more focus on image and 'wow factor' than informative substance. The same difference can be seen between the BBC channel outputs - a recent documentary by Helen Macdonald (of H is for Hawk fame) about the natural history of the M25 on BBC4, was quiet, reserved, informative and deeply meaningful, it would never have been shown on BBC1
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Yeah the slow motion is a little bit annoying. I think just a little slow motion for a specific episode in the right moment would work, but the continuous slow motion throughout kinda puts off your attention span. But you can really tell how much they have progressed in camerawork and getting close to the animals in the more recent BBC earth documentaries, than it ever was in some earlier documentaries. But yes, I do agree with you the older ones are just a little more pleasant and toned down than some of the newer adaptations.
 
Crowthorne said:
For me, it was the excessive use of slow-motion in the modern series that put me off; think it was Life where pretty much everything was in slow-motion, sometimes super slow-motion, I managed the first episode but no more. I agree with you, there is something preferable about the earlier series. It might be the target audience (his new series are all BBC1, the main, popular audience-driven channel), or just a change in audience preferences, more focus on image and 'wow factor' than informative substance. The same difference can be seen between the BBC channel outputs - a recent documentary by Helen Macdonald (of H is for Hawk fame) about the natural history of the M25 on BBC4, was quiet, reserved, informative and deeply meaningful, it would never have been shown on BBC1
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Yes, I kind of feel that with me it may be the same focus on slow motion that sort of puts me off the newer shows. Don't get me wrong, I still think they are brilliant natural history film making but I do definitely prefer the older ones.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, I kind of feel that with me it may be the same focus on slow motion that sort of puts me off the newer shows. Don't get me wrong, I still think they are brilliant natural history film making but I do definitely prefer the older ones.
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I personally think the older ones are quite cozy! Especially in wintertime!
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I like a lot of the old BBC natural world documentaries from the 70's, 80's and 90's as I think they covered many of the more obscure species more.
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I agree with you mostly, but some of the newer documentaries do show some pretty obscure species, the new ones have spider-tailed vipers, and Sumatran rhinos.
 
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