La vida en miniatura

Believe me - After viewing this exceptionally well-presented nature documentary from the BBC - You will never, ever look at insects in the same way again.

Both highly educational and beautifully photographed - "Life In The Undergrowth" travels to various locations around the planet in order to reveal to the viewer the absolutely fantastic diversity that exists in the insect world..... Like - WOW!!

From the swamp-lands, to the deserts, to the rain-forests, to the grasslands, and beyond - This incredible presentation gives you a whole new perspective on these amazing critters who are clearly a very vital part of this planet's complex ecosystem.

This is an ingenious documentary about creatures of this world we often forget exist. It features amazing camera work, incredibly realistic, life like colours, mesmerizing scenes, good selection of music and even a sort of a storyline like progression for each episode that make this mini TV series by far the best wildlife documentary I have ever seen. David Attenborough doesn't just make us clearly understand the complexities of life in general, but also relates many things that we witness to human experience. Struggle, formation of societies, communication and continuity of life are amongst the main ideas he presents, but espionage, war, theft, deceit and even anarchy, and breakdown of order are also present. He really does go far and wide to present us with an extremely rich experience of the miniature world beneath our feet. Such an incredible amount of footage from all over the world, shot with such an incredible skill left me amazed. I couldn't wait to get my hands on more of his movies, just to see what else I could learn from such an interesting man and definitely a great teacher.

10/10 for a perfect cinematographic creation.

I am not much into this kind of stuff: worms, snails,spiders etc. but "Life in the undergrowth" has really enchanted me! A superb, captivating and informative storytelling,breathtaking scenes of a world beyond our natural perceptions and the genius of Attenborough: this is what the 5 episodes are about. It is astonishing how the new technologies can reveal the everyday life of creatures that we usually think of being too primitive to deserve our attention and interest. However, the actors in this series have roles in the complex interplay called life as important as ours or maybe even more. The solutions they found regarding their survival, reproduction and adaptation are really amazing, though in many senses completely different to what we are accustomed to in the macro-world.

Each episode is equally amazing! This mini-series if packed with spectacular images of insects (and arachnids, worms and other tiny animals). The camera gets such detailed, close-up views of these creatures that it feels fascinating rather than gross or creepy. The enthusiasm of the narrator (the ever excellent Attenborough) helps grant the viewer an appreciation of this minuscule world that you might not otherwise have.

If you like animal documentaries like 'Planet Earth', I think you'd find this a great addition to the typical set of mammals and reptiles. It's unusual in focus, but brilliantly done. Lovely and educational.

David Attenborough is nothing short of a national treasure. He may apparently dislike the term, but it is hard to not say that about such a great presenter who has contributed significantly to some of the best programmes (of the documentary genre and overall) the BBC has ever aired/produced.

It is really hard picking favourites, let alone a definite favourite, among what Attenborough has done because he has done so many gems, it is the equivalent of trying to choose your favourite ice cream flavour or your favourite operatic role (for examples) and finding you can't pick. To me though, 'Life in the Undergrowth' is up there with his crowning achievements and one of the best documentaries ever viewed, and as has been said already there are a lot of great ones. Also for a documentary exploring insects/invertebrates 'Life in the Undergrowth' is very much ground-breaking. It has everything that makes so much of his work so wonderful, hence some of the reiteration of my recent reviews for some of his work (being on a nature documentary binge in my spare time), and deserves everything great that has been said about it.

First and foremost, 'Life in the Undergrowth' looks amazing. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the invertebrates), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic with some of the shots being unique for a documentary series, making one forget that it is a series. The editing is always succinct and smooth and the scenery is pure magic, similarly really admired the wide-ranging diversity of the different landscapes rather than restricting it to just one habitat. The music score fits very well, never overly grandiose while never being inappropriate.

Again, like so many Attenborough nature/wildlife documentaries, 'Life in the Undergrowth' fascinates, teaches, moves, entertains and transfixes. In terms of the facts there was a very good mix of the known ones and the unknown, some facts being familiar to us while going into detail about the different invertebrates. Insects give me the heebie jeebies on the most part, but still found myself learning a lot about them, how they behaved and adapted and why on top of having misconceptions about them explored and cleared up. Despite still not being a fan, found myself appreciating them more.

Narration by Attenborough helps significantly. He clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more. The "behind the scenes/making of" scenes too gave some humanity to the series and allowed us to get to know those behind the camera as well as in front.

The insects are wide in range and big in personality. The conflict has genuine tension and suspense, there is some fun and a lot of emotionally powerful moments done with a lot of tear-jerking pathos. Found myself really caring for what we're told. Like much of Attenborough/BBC's other work, each episode doesn't feel like an episodic stringing of scenes, but instead like the best nature documentaries each feels like their own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.

In conclusion, truly wonderful and saw me seeing a misunderstood group in a whole new light. 10/10 Bethany Cox