30 Years of National Geographic Specials (1995)

Nature as it should be presented, in the natural form right up to the bloody death of food

When I was in high school, watching National Geographic specials on television was a requirement in science classes. At times, we were shown the older ones on film. This tape is a brief synopsis of many of the specials, starting out with a title image and then showing a few minutes of the original.
This is nature programming at its most raw and best. In general, the specials are not for children, the one depicting lions shows them taking down, killing and consuming their prey. However, they are as educational as film can ever be because after a certain age, nature should not be sugar-coated. It must be presented in the natural form, complete with the birth, growls, snarls and the blood of a violent death.

March 8, 2008

Good but dated

This is pleasant National Geographic video. It covers a lot without going into any real detail. It is worth viewing but already seems a little old fashioned. November 4, 2007

Not viewable

This is the first time I am trying Unbox Video. It did not work. The Video Player kept crashing. I have a Pentium M Machine with 1 GB and running Windows XP Media Center Edition with SP2. Very dissapointing. December 8, 2006

Nice Appetizer

For a family living overseas without access to National Geographic broadcasts, this DVD was a nice introduction to the variety and beauty of the the specials. And it left us and our kids hungry for me. The downside, is that there the selections are very brief and we think we will find the full length DVDs and videos much more satisfying. July 28, 2005

Nothing new, but it doesn't matter

With 30 years of some of the best documentaries around to choose material from, it scarcely matters that there is no new footage. The narration seamlessly bridges the gaps between the various shorts from National Geographic specials of the past. I wasn't sure what to expect, since it is essentially teasers of other films, but this is a great film in its own right.

We got the film for our little boys, and they've loved it from day one. My older son is learning a lot about the differing relationships of the natural world, and the broad expanse of this film is perfect for him. It never gets bogged down in the mundane, but it also panders to a long attention span. This is a big difference from the National Geographic videos intended specifically for kids. They tend to be the same basic idea...cut footage from older films, but cut so that there is no footage of animals eating each other, no mating, and it is interspersed with unneccesary music videos and cutesy animation. Even with Dudley Moore's narration, it can't compete. Skip the kid stuff and give your kids the real thing. August 15, 2003

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