On the one hand while screens get smaller and we are watching content on the go on hand-held devices, on the other, we get to see BBC’s magnificent documentary series on oceans, Blue Planet II on the big screen. The first two episodes of the seven-part series, One Ocean and The Deep directed by Jonathan Smith and Orla Doherty are running in a theatre near you.
The highly-lauded Blue Planet premiered in September 2001 and each of the eight episodes dealt with one aspect of the world’s oceans. The second season, (for want of a better term) sees Sir David Attenborough return as narrator. Hans Zimmer reprises his role as composer. British rock band Radiohead recorded a new version of their song ‘Bloom’ for the show. Incidentally, ‘Bloom’ was inspired by Blue Planet .
If you were to compare the hijinks of Avengers Infinity War or DeadPool 2 , the blockbusters running in other screens, and the drop-dead gorgeous visuals of Blue Planet II , you realise that Mother Nature can knock the socks off any CGI Hollywood can come up with.
Thanks to technology, we get to see never-before-seen creatures and visuals in the deep. The voracious squid, the barreleye fish with a transparent head with eyes that can see through its head, the toxic brine lake on the ocean floor, the dainty octopus, the Mariana Trench that Mount Everest can sink into without a trace, the volatile, volcanic Mid Ocean Ridge, the longest mountain range in the world at 40,389 km (Andes is the second largest at 7,000 km) are some of the marvels of the show.
There is fun stuff as well like the tusk fish in the Great Barrier Reef using tools (corals) to break open clams, false killer whales catching up with dolphins in New Zealand and forming a 1,000 strong hunting party, the super ugly Asian Sheepshead Wrasse that is capable of changing sex and orcas stunning herring with their tails.
Blue Planet reveals man’s destructive effect on the environment resulting in coral reefs that have been around for thousands of years being decimated and global warming resulting in ice melting at a catastrophic rate.
The mother walrus searching desperately for a safe spot for her calf in the rapidly melting ice shelf, even as a polar bear mother watches hoping to catch a calf for her hungry cubs tugs at the heart strings as much as sounds a warning.
The love story of the shrimps that floated into a sponge as larvae is sweet—who would have thought shrimps would warm the cockles of one’s heart? There is also the parable of the massive, 30-ton carcass of a whale providing food for the denizens of the deep from the massive sixgill shark to smaller scavengers.
The episodes are stuffed with amazing facts and remarkable visuals. Do yourself a favour and watch this on the big screen. The Avengers have competition and it is mightier than Thanos!
