L'isola dei lupi

"Island of the Sea Wolves" is a four-episode mini-series which debuted on Netflix. It's set on Vancouver Island and follows several different animals over the course of a year...with each episode covering (approximately) one season. The show follows wolves, marmots, bears, bald eagles and NOT just wolves despite the title. In fact, the title to me just seems pretty arbitrary. It could have just as soon been called "Island of the Marmots"!

So what did I like about it? The cinematography is breathtaking. While not as grand as shows like "Earth" or films like the recent Disney nature documentaries, it has wonderful closeup shots of many wonderful creatures and the geography is lovely as well...and all well worth seeing.

And, what did I not love about the shows? The narration...which is OFTEN a problem with nature films. Too often the narration is very non-scientific and humanizes the animals...giving them names and even trying, occasionally, to be funny. I personally don't like this and wish the film was more scientific in focus. But, I guess there's a balance...too scientific and fewer might watch it. All I know is that it looks great...and a few times I winced at what was said in the shows.

I have two very sensitive children (5 & 10) who cannot watch nature docs because they just find them too traumatic. I actually watched the first episode all the way through before showing it to them and I relished watching it again the next night.

They both drank in all three episodes of this and my ten year old continually stopped to say this was the best thing she had EVER watched!

It was so wonderful to see such a beautiful and sensitive portrayal of life in such a stunning part of the world.

Congratulations to all involved. We very much hope that there is more like this to come.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Gorgeous photography and a wonderful landscape, but this series is ruined by its cloying, anthropomorphizing narration. Very quickly the viewer begins to notice how footage is being cobbled together for dramatic effect rather than accurate story telling. Very disappointing indeed. It could have been so much better without this Disney twist. And giving the animals human names like Esmeralda is downright nauseating. I wish there was a version of this series without narration, it would be so much better and less manipulative. This kind of program encourages the worst kind of romanticized views of a natural world that is already being destroyed by humans!

As a BC resident who's spent countless hours in our lavish nature wonderland, it's nice to see the area getting a bit of a spotlught. The visuals in this 3 part series are outstanding. The 4k (well, as much of 4k as you get get via WiFi Netflix) is great and very sharp. That's the series high point.

No shade to will Arnett, but the dialogue is just awful. These are animals, stop anthropomorphizing them. Stop giving them names and treating them as though they are humans. They are not. It's cringy and completely unnecessary. It would help if the dialogue was also correct. Incorrectly naming both plants and animals is bush league. Storms have not increased in frequency or in stature here in BC. Keep your climate alarmism to yourself, we don't deal in fallacies here, just facts.

All in all its good, even better if you can throw your favorite album on and turn this joke of an audio track off.

Our family very much enjoyed this documentary. Amazing cinematography and animal close-ups, engaging story lines, and moments of suspense and surprise. The naming of the animals was very helpful when following the complex family dynamics and interactions with the various generations. Don't worry about the "anthropomorphism" mentioned by another reviewer - this technique was pioneered by Jane Goodall, and is now very much accepted by the scientific community (it was shunned back in the 60s because of people wanting to believe in the superiority of humans). As primatologists and neurobiologists have said, animals and humans share behaviors, and giving animals names has helped us understand their unique communities, cultures, and emotions. Very inspiring series to help us appreciate the natural world around us.