Océans

Another great achievement from Walt Disney Studios. I had loved Earth, their outstanding documentary from last year and thus eagerly anticipated this film. If you are going to see one movie this year make it Oceans. This is why we go to the movies. An absolutely fascinating, breath taking, thrilling experience for the whole family. Seven tenths of our earth is ocean and even in this age of advanced technology there is still so much we don't know about the silent world beneath the waves. This movie bravely tackles that mystery. It makes us realize how in many ways us humans are so small and insignificant in the scheme of things, we only share three tenths of the earth. I love the part where they show the sea lions and animals feasting on each other (a dog eat dog world ha ha). The two parts of the movie that stood out for me are the ones involving our foolishness in polluting the ocean and killing its creatures (they even show it from space) and the shot at the end of the diver and the great white shark swimming together. Narrator Pierce Brosnan makes an eloquent speech about the importance of man and animals co existing together. I consider Oceans to be the best film I have seen this year and hopefully they will remember it at Oscar time!

Disney introduces a new chapter in its nature films called "Oceans". I wanted to see the film because I wanted to be fascinated and learn more. The movie looked spectacular, I mean they looked way better than some special effects, I've seen from like Transformers, Clash of the Titans. I mean some scenes were utterly breathtaking. Its a shame some people are too busy with work to appreciate Nature's beauty. Although it looked beautiful, it was not perfect. I found that the movie didn't have too much details or informations about the Earth's Oceans and that kind of disappointed me.

Overall I found the movie beautiful and entertaining. 8.0/10

Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud direct this documentary about marine life with beautiful images of underwater life. You may see something like this on the National Geographic channel, which downgrades the originality of the picture but Brosnan provides excellent narration and these kind of images never die in our minds and it is always lovely to see them again. The nature curious will certainly find something to love and others should to. It's a relaxing meditation and is perfect for kids or adults. The best part is that the film remains a humble length and resists growing ploys for self-indulgence. Only the unnecessary prologue narrative is a bit annoying. Other than that, a bulls eye.

I was looking forward to seeing this, since I've always been a fan of quality nature films, however, I found myself very disappointed with this film. If you have ever seen the truly beautiful, artistic, and utterly poetic nature film "Deep Blue", which came out from the English a few years ago, you are going to see far too many ironic similarities in this Disney production. Yes, they are both ocean films, and there are bound to be similarities, of course, but you will notice that Disney seemed to follow far too closely in their footsteps, even down to whom they chose to narrate (Pierce Brosnan)!! There are several actors one can choose to do a compelling narration - you do not have to choose the very same one. I'm not sure I understand why a company like Disney, who once were the masters of imagination, uniqueness, & fantasy, fail so miserably over these past 2 decades. Also, this film had approximately 1/4 of what "Deep Blue" had. If you want to watch a truly remarkable ocean film, see "Deep Blue", and pass over this one.

Making its world premiere at last year's Tokyo International Film Festival, Oceans is the latest enviro-documentary to hit the big screens, highlighting that while outer space is touted as the final frontier to be conquered by man, the waters around our land mass hold just as much fascination with the countless of species available in the depths of the ocean. Oceans, by directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud, provide us that glimpse 20,000 leagues under the sea.

For those, like me, who are absolutely clueless about the sea creatures other than what can be put on the dining table, you'll be left quite flabbergasted as you observe the various species being featured on screen, without any prompt or subtitle to label just exactly what creature they are. Of course for those who are schooled by Finding Nemo, you're likely to be able to name some of what's featured, just as the noisy young boy sitting beside me was able to, being somewhat of a help.

Aside from the usual gorgeous cinematography featuring schools of dolphins in motion, and plenty of synchronized swimming, with creatures big and small ranging from the giant whales to the newly hatched turtles struggling to make it to the waters before being picked up mercilessly by their predators, this is one documentary that allows you to go up close to these creatures since cameras were planted into the depths of all the oceans of the world.

It doesn't come across as preachy, because it doesn't wear its ecological badge in such an obvious manner at all in its sparse narrative. Instead, it does so very subtly, reminding us that there are others with whom we share this Earth with, and if we continue to plunder and pollute the land and treat the sea as sewage (so is that gaping hole capped by BP already?), then these are the creatures that we will lose in the near future, causing a major upset in the balance of Nature, and who can predict how Nature's wrath will be incurred back on us.

Nature documentaries are no longer made for the small screen, but have some mighty budget to be able to bring quality to the making of such films, serving to entertain and to capture beauty so rarely seen.