Solid docu about global-warming informs rather than preaches.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2009

Earth may be the most striking collection of nature photography I've ever seen. It isn't flawless, but it is a one-of-a-kind treat.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Aug 11, 2009

I give directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield huge props for being able to so concisely whittle down their massive 11-episode magnum opus into such a delightfully entertaining and visually stimulating streamlined version.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 30, 2009

For most of the way this is an eye-popping, not blood-curdling, experience.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 24, 2009

[The directors] know how to craft a sequence (lions and elephants uneasily drinking at the same water hole), have an eye for the telling shot (baboons mincing across a flood plain), and mercifully avoid making the fauna look human.

| Apr 24, 2009

As a spectacle Disney's Earth is right out of this world.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 24, 2009

For adults, Earth misses the mark of riveting storytelling. Earth crams in the dramatic adventures of several species (including penguins) -- with the result that it comes up short on telling one really good story.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 24, 2009

Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield mostly avoid speaking directly of social issues. Instead, they let the visuals and the animals' plights underscore the importance of maintaining a healthy ecosystem.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 24, 2009

Think of Earth as being akin to a greatest-hits collection of a beloved rock band. The context is gone, but the reason for the renown remains.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 24, 2009

This first release from Disney's self-explanatory new arm, Disneynature, is at the very least peripherally concerned with the planet and its dwindling prospects, but the real renewable resource here is the groundbreaking Planet Earth miniseries.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 24, 2009

In a sea of Hollywood formula, artifice and escapism, here is an invitation to wonder, awe and gratitude.

| Original Score: A- | Apr 24, 2009

What it does well is so remarkable that by the time the credits roll you likely won't want it to end.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 23, 2009

As a virtual tour of what Earth Day is about, kids ought to be entranced. If it helps them get greener, even better.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 23, 2009

This Earth doesn't really have anything new to say, but it does present some newly entertaining ways of saying it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2009

A gorgeously photographed storybook.

| Apr 23, 2009

Earth is at its best when it goes beyond presenting awe-inspiring beauty to elicit a sense of wonder and empathy for our fellow creatures and of global responsibility toward our fragile planet.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 23, 2009

Earth succeeds well enough as spectacle.

| Original Score: B- | Apr 23, 2009

The many filmmakers spent five years on this impressive project. They've given us glorious images of an Earth that most of us have never seen. Let's hope that the means to understand it will be included on the DVD.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2009

A wide-screen wildlife documentary in which the cycles of birth and death, migrations and seasons, are captured in stunning -- absolutely stunning -- ways.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2009

The beauty of the landscape, the beauty of the animals, it's all irresistible.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 23, 2009