Trials of Life

A must see for any nature lover, great for kids to watch... I have watched it several times and the photography amazes me every time!

I was mesmerized when i saw this British documentary series on US television c. 1993, and viewing it 14 years later i was still awed.

Quite simply, this is the best nature series i've ever seen, and i've seen hundreds of them, since i fell in love with "wild kingdom" as a kid back in the early 1970s.

Better than the classic 1960s Disney nature films? Yes.

Better than the classic Jacques Cousteau specials? Yes.

Better than the classic National Geographic specials? Yes.

Better than the other Attenborough nature series, Life on Earth and Life in the Freezer? Yes.

Better than the 2006 Planet Earth series? Yes.

Better than anything ever done by the PBS Nature series or by Discovery Channel or Animal Planet? Yes.

Trials of Life is the best 600 minutes of Nature footage ever released to the public. All 12 episodes are great, not a clunker in the bunch.

If you like nature shows and have never seen this, buy the DVD immediately. You can actually get it cheaper from Amazon-UK.

The only way this could be improved is if they released it on Blu-Ray, but for now, DVD is the best option available.

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This is the 3rd entry in the David Attenborough Life series following The Living Planet. The groundbreaking first series Life on Earth was based on evolution and started with bacteria making its way up to modern humans over the course of 13 episodes. The Living Planet was 12 episodes long and dealt mainly with adaptation over a wide range of environments that also incorporated more Earth science along with the life science in terms of geology and environments. The Trials of Life is all about animal behaviour.

While the first two in the life series are very similar The Trials of Life is a little different in that Attenborough has less screen time because animal behaviour needs to be captured discreetly. So most of it is one large narration however there are classic moments where Attenborough does appear. So be prepared for a little cutback in how often you see him engage wildlife.

This is also the harshest of the three and nature red in tooth and claw does emerge more often. For example this is the series with the classic footage of killer whales crashing onto beaches to capture seals and then taking them out to sea only to toss them into the air using their tails before eating them. We also have Chimpanzees hunting and killing monkeys with their bare hands. Sea lions take out their aggression on pups. So be prepared for it.

The 12 episodes are mainly about births, growth, finding food, hunting and evading, navigation, housing, communities, fighting, interactions, communication, courting and mating. It is a wonderful series and worth hunting down if you can find it even if it does sometimes redo some of what was in the first two series and not so much Attenborough, however The Trials of Life is worth it for the Killer Whale scenes alone.

As a note some of the animal behaviour covered in Richard Dawkins' books that where written before The Trials of Life are filmed in this series.

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Attenborough is one of the great videographers of all time, and I have never seen anything by him that I didn't like. What sets this series apart is its central focus on animal behavior. Even after all this time, the illustration of key concepts in the study of animal behavior is generally spot on. Some of the videos such as the killer whales attacking seals on an Argentine beach or the birds of paradise courting are among the first of their kind, and thus have a place in history in terms of documenting behavior that had not been filmed previously, or not been filmed well. I wish it was available in the US format; however, these DVDs can be read by certain players (I use VLC media player) on your PC without monkeying with your DVD player's region settings. And, if you have a Roku or equivalent, they can be streamed from your PC to your TV. Be aware that the resolution of video is NOT high-def.

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I had this a long time ago and loved it so it was a replacement. David Attenborough is one of our families heroes. My daughter and I always loved this and she is now going to college to be a zoologist. I am sure James Herriot, Jack Hanna, the Krat Bro.s and Steve Irwin (God rest)and her Moms obsession had something to do with this as well but David, well he is a charmer!

This series has stuff that may now be old news but when it came out it was like WOW I can't believe animals are that smart. I can't wait to build on my collection.

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