The
popularity of the nature program skyrocketed with the success of “Planet Earth”
and there have been many visually stunning imitators since its release.
Advances in film technology has only made programs like this more predominant,
so it should come as no surprise that BBC has begun to dip into the world of 3D
visuals. Unfortunately, the release of the 44-minute short documentary film, Tiny Giants, also marks another trend:
the repurposing of previously used material. Although the 3D disc is a new
addition to the footage, there is no new content within the film. Just as
Disneynature re-cut the footage of “Planet Earth” to make their family-friendly
theatrical release, Earth, Tiny Giants is made up of footage from
the three-hour BBC miniseries from 2014, “Hidden Kingdoms.” Also being released
is Wings, a re-release of the Best
Buy exclusive film, Winged Planet 3D.
With as much
respect and accuracy as possible, movie-magic was utilized to stage some of the
shots in order to capture the essence of what it feels like to be a creature as
small as those contained in “Hidden Kingdoms.” This may be somewhat
controversial in the world of nature photography, but it provides particular
viewing spectacle for the 3D formatting. I can only imagine what this film
would look like on an Imax screen, truly giving the audience an idea of what it
must feel like to be small as a mouse. There are other benefits to the
truncated version of the magnificent BBC series, many of which were exposed by
Disneynature’s practices.
The most obvious
benefit is that Tiny Giants plays out
like a best-of film, focusing only on two of the most engaging creatures from
the series. These include the grasshopper mouse from the first episode and the
chipmunks from episode two. None of the city-dwelling creatures from the third
episode are included, nor are the supporting stories from the first two. These
are compelling enough to leave you wanting more, but the running-time also
ensures younger audiences will be more likely to retain interest to the very
end.
Even though
there has been some editing to the material, thankfully some of the elements
have been left untouched. The score from composer Ben Foster (The Theory of Everything) remains, as
does the narration from Stephen Fry. This ensures that despite being edited
down for length, the film has not been dumbed down for audiences. With that
being said, even the original “Hidden
Kingdom
The 3D is not
perfect, especially depending on the quality and size of your home theater
set-up, but the strong visual style of the show lends itself to the format. The
colors are bright and crisp, with plenty of camera tricks to highlight the
movement in a way that’s effective. There were sets built to force perspective,
small lenses utilized, and even the use of green screen in order to show the
massive size of the larger creatures nearby. Some of the use of green screen
reads as false, and the illusions never manage to match the impressiveness of a
simple slow-motion shot, but the good far outweighs the negative in this
inventive take on the nature program. I would still recommend the “HiddenKingdoms” Blu-ray over this in 3D, but children are more likely to find this
truncated version more engaging.
The single disc
release includes a 3D Blu-ray disc, which is also capable of playing in 2D if
the proper equipment is missing. The special features also include a 9-minute
making-of featurette, which is also an edited down version of a feature
included for each of the episodes of “Hidden Kingdom
Entertainment Value:
8.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8/10
Historical
Significance: 3/10
Special Features: 5/10
2 comments:
I worked on both the Hidden Kingdoms and Tiny giants 3D and actually you're incorrect on several assumptions. I'm glad you enjoyed the series, and to an extent the 3d tiny giants, but I think it's harsh to brush this off as just a rehash like you have pointed out.
With Tiny Giants 3d Almost everything(90%) was shot natively in 3D @ 4k(2 red epic cameras in a mirror rig+ a special rig for super macro work) Everything else was impossible to do natively so we converted to 3d. From the outset this was also aimed for the IMAX giant screen format and is currently showing in USA and Australia!
Because of these constraints, it was actually was the Hidden Kingdoms series that benefited from the some of the 3d content, but of course in 2d.
Tiny Giants 3D also had totally separate post production and editing process because of the Native 3d content. Although granted there are some cross pollination of shots and storylines are similar, the sequences were edited differently as 3D needs a slower editing pace and the Imax requires different composition that TV.
With Tiny Giants it took a lot of hard work in the 2 year production and post to pull off, something I don't think anyone outside of film making will see, but I thought you may find interesting.
Thanks for that additional information. I do find it interesting and appreciate being given inside information, even if it proves me wrong! To be honest, there was a lengthy period of time in-between my viewing of the film and the TV show, and I was also limited in the information I was able to find while researching.
Then there is also the unfortunate but constant cycle of deadlines which make truly in-depth analysis difficult. I would spend far more time on each release, if I could, having some degree of personal experience to know what amount of effort goes into each production, as I'm sure you can also relate to.
Feel free to continue analyzing my work with the same critical mindset that I use to review movies, especially when your personal experience supersedes my humble opinion.
Thanks for reading!
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