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| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Binding | Blu-ray |
| Brand | Image Entertainment |
| EAN | 0014381487756 |
| Label | Image Entertainment |
| List Price | $24.98 |
| Manufacturer | Image Entertainment |
| MPN | IMEBR4877 |
| Product Group | DVD |
| Product Type Name | ABIS_DVD |
| Publisher | Image Entertainment |
| Studio | Image Entertainment |
| Title | The Living Sea [Blu-ray] |
| UPC | 014381487756 |
| Number Of Items | 1 |
| Format | Widescreen |
| Release Date | 2008-11-11 |
| Languages | English |
| Creator | Steve Judson |
| Actor | Meryl Streep |
| Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 |
| Audience Rating | NR (Not Rated) |
| Original Release Date | 1995-01-01 |
| Running Time | 39 |
| Theatrical Release Date | 1995 |
| Director | Greg MacGillivray |
| Additional Features | |
| Number Of Discs | |
| Region Code |
Many products have multiple models (e.g. black edition, white edition, etc.). If you know of any other models of this product with a different MPN/UPC, please add them below.
| Model Name/Type | MPN | EAN/UPC |
|---|
User Reviews: The Living Sea [Blu-ray]
Featured Review
July 2, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Reviewed by Toddwrtr
Pros: Decent audio/video
Cons: Documentary is often "dumbed down"
Cons: Documentary is often "dumbed down"
Movie: 
out of
The Living Sea takes a 40 minute look at the world ocean, under the belief that all of the seas and oceans are interconnected. The main focus of this documentary is not necessarily the sea life, but how the ecosystem of the sea can affect the entire planet. The first quarter of the film deals with how the seas work, how the moon dictates high and low tides (in stunning time-lapse photography of the Bay of Fundy in Canada), how the winds affect the waves (with footage of a Coast Guard training exercise at Cape Disappointment, as well as some good surfing sequences). The next quarter is spent finally going underwater with the assistance of an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle, but not as fancy as the ROV’s seen in James Cameron’s “The Abyss”) and finding a 50-yard long siphonophore more than 1500 feet below the surface. The last half of the film is spent on the island chain of Palau, a mostly untouched preserve of marine life. The highlights from this section include watching a scuttle fish swim and change colors, the multi-colored coral reefs, and a self-contained salt water lake teeming with jellyfish and other wildlife.
Meryl Streep’s narration is not as engaging as one would expect, often sounding like a mother telling her elementary school child the story, and is only featured in less than half of the movie’s running time. The bulk of the narration is by the biologists, natives, and other individuals featured in the film. Like Dolphins, The Living Sea features a music score by Steve Wood with songs by Sting. Unfortunately, this score is rather repetitive, using arrangements of “Fragile” and “Why Should I Cry For You” as the major themes. I found The Living Sea to be too general, and not as entertaining as the other films in this set.
Video:
out of
The Living Sea has been cropped top and bottom from its original 70mm IMAX aspect ratio of 1.44:1 to accommodate the high definition 1.78:1 frame in this 1080p AVC encode. Colors are vibrant, but there is an overall softness to the image. The print used for this transfer also exhibits a fair amount of dirt and blemishes, but are rarely distracting. There is also some occasional mosquito noise, but again not too distracting.
Audio: out of
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is also vibrant, but not as active as most IMAX films. Dialogue is for the most part contained to the center channel, but the interviews were not always recorded under the best conditions, and range in quality. Some of the surfer interviews are particularly troublesome, especially at the 12:40 mark, where the surfer sounds like he was recorded in a large bathroom, as there is a very distracting echo effect in the dialogue. Music and effects are spread across the remaining channels, giving a pleasant, enveloping auditory experience, and discrete effects are used sparingly.
Special Features: out of
With the exception of a documentary and trivia quiz, The Living Sea shares many of the same special features as Dolphins and Coral Reef Adventure.
The Making of The Living Sea is a 37 minute featurette, with the film makers reminiscing on making this short film. Although the cover indicates this featurette was “shot using high-definition cameras,” it is presented in standard definition. Encoded on this Blu-ray disc at a relatively high bit rate, the original master must have been encoded at a very low bit rate, as the video is full of compression artifacts.
Film Trivia Quiz is a collection of ten multiple choice questions from the film. This quiz is not very difficult, aimed at schoolchildren. I did notice that the author misspelled the word “oops” as “opps” when you select a wrong answer.
The History of MacGillivray Freeman Films is an eight minute documentary on this small, independent studio located in Laguna Beach, California. The company started out making surfing films, but found its calling in large-format nature documentaries.
About Greg MacGillivray is a text-based biography and filmography of the director and co-founder of MacGillivray Freeman Films.
Trailers is a collection of, well, trailers, of 11 films by MacGillivray Freeman Films. Included are Coral Reef Adventure, Journey Into Amazing Caves, The Magic of Flight, The Living Sea, Mystery of the Nile, Greece: Secrets of the Past, Hurricane on the Bayou, The Alps, Dolphins, Super Speedway, and Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag. All are in high definition video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, and can be viewed individually or via a “Play All” option.
Dynamic Connection is Image Entertainment’s BD-Live portal, which also includes access to the tuneHD.net portal. Much of the material available here is duplicated on the disc, and seven months after this disc’s initial release, much of the content is still Coming Soon. This is one of the more frustrating aspects of BD-Live.
out of The Living Sea takes a 40 minute look at the world ocean, under the belief that all of the seas and oceans are interconnected. The main focus of this documentary is not necessarily the sea life, but how the ecosystem of the sea can affect the entire planet. The first quarter of the film deals with how the seas work, how the moon dictates high and low tides (in stunning time-lapse photography of the Bay of Fundy in Canada), how the winds affect the waves (with footage of a Coast Guard training exercise at Cape Disappointment, as well as some good surfing sequences). The next quarter is spent finally going underwater with the assistance of an ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle, but not as fancy as the ROV’s seen in James Cameron’s “The Abyss”) and finding a 50-yard long siphonophore more than 1500 feet below the surface. The last half of the film is spent on the island chain of Palau, a mostly untouched preserve of marine life. The highlights from this section include watching a scuttle fish swim and change colors, the multi-colored coral reefs, and a self-contained salt water lake teeming with jellyfish and other wildlife.
Meryl Streep’s narration is not as engaging as one would expect, often sounding like a mother telling her elementary school child the story, and is only featured in less than half of the movie’s running time. The bulk of the narration is by the biologists, natives, and other individuals featured in the film. Like Dolphins, The Living Sea features a music score by Steve Wood with songs by Sting. Unfortunately, this score is rather repetitive, using arrangements of “Fragile” and “Why Should I Cry For You” as the major themes. I found The Living Sea to be too general, and not as entertaining as the other films in this set.
Video:
out of The Living Sea has been cropped top and bottom from its original 70mm IMAX aspect ratio of 1.44:1 to accommodate the high definition 1.78:1 frame in this 1080p AVC encode. Colors are vibrant, but there is an overall softness to the image. The print used for this transfer also exhibits a fair amount of dirt and blemishes, but are rarely distracting. There is also some occasional mosquito noise, but again not too distracting.
Audio:
out of The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is also vibrant, but not as active as most IMAX films. Dialogue is for the most part contained to the center channel, but the interviews were not always recorded under the best conditions, and range in quality. Some of the surfer interviews are particularly troublesome, especially at the 12:40 mark, where the surfer sounds like he was recorded in a large bathroom, as there is a very distracting echo effect in the dialogue. Music and effects are spread across the remaining channels, giving a pleasant, enveloping auditory experience, and discrete effects are used sparingly.
Special Features:
out of With the exception of a documentary and trivia quiz, The Living Sea shares many of the same special features as Dolphins and Coral Reef Adventure.
The Making of The Living Sea is a 37 minute featurette, with the film makers reminiscing on making this short film. Although the cover indicates this featurette was “shot using high-definition cameras,” it is presented in standard definition. Encoded on this Blu-ray disc at a relatively high bit rate, the original master must have been encoded at a very low bit rate, as the video is full of compression artifacts.
Film Trivia Quiz is a collection of ten multiple choice questions from the film. This quiz is not very difficult, aimed at schoolchildren. I did notice that the author misspelled the word “oops” as “opps” when you select a wrong answer.
The History of MacGillivray Freeman Films is an eight minute documentary on this small, independent studio located in Laguna Beach, California. The company started out making surfing films, but found its calling in large-format nature documentaries.
About Greg MacGillivray is a text-based biography and filmography of the director and co-founder of MacGillivray Freeman Films.
Trailers is a collection of, well, trailers, of 11 films by MacGillivray Freeman Films. Included are Coral Reef Adventure, Journey Into Amazing Caves, The Magic of Flight, The Living Sea, Mystery of the Nile, Greece: Secrets of the Past, Hurricane on the Bayou, The Alps, Dolphins, Super Speedway, and Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag. All are in high definition video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, and can be viewed individually or via a “Play All” option.
Dynamic Connection is Image Entertainment’s BD-Live portal, which also includes access to the tuneHD.net portal. Much of the material available here is duplicated on the disc, and seven months after this disc’s initial release, much of the content is still Coming Soon. This is one of the more frustrating aspects of BD-Live.
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Home Theater Forum › HT Gear & Movies › DVD & Blu-ray › DVDs › Documentary DVDs › The Living Sea [Blu-ray]
