Planet Bleu

We've been slow to pick up on the Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" - it was daughter Mara who drew it to our attention last weekend, leading to Sunday night viewing. Incredible camera work. Hard to imagine how many hours of film were left on the floor to produce the final product. I'm a sucker for this sort of thing - the key example being the aerial photography of flamingos in "Out of Africa," which interferes in some basic way with my ability to respire, as did some of last Sunday's PE show.

Believe me, you don't want to miss this.

The admirable Christy Hardin Smith, posting at Firedoglake, is apparently a fan of the show also:

In our copious spare time (Ha!), Mr. ReddHedd and I have been devouring the latest Discovery Channel wildlife series called "Planet Earth." It took five years of filming with high definition capability — and the production is nothing short of breathtaking in the episodes that we have watched thus far. The majesty of life on this little blue planet of ours, the chaos in some places and order in others, the loss and the fight for survival — it is all there in its infinite pain and beauty.

And we are mesmerized.

Our little blue planet holds nothing short of miracles, and the work that must have gone into filming all of this is as outstanding as it is jaw-dropping in its scope. Discovery has uploaded a few more videos to YouTube, which you can find here, and they are all worth watching. If you are not moved by the beauty and the fierceness of these shows, then you truly have no heart. How could anyone not want to protect this beautiful orb of blue of ours?

-clip-