BBC Life

[j_garcia]

I want to pick this one up, but it needs to come down in price a little. I picked up Planet Earth pretty cheap, so this one will need to be a pretty good price as well. I just noticed that Frys has the BBC version on sale, but checked and appears to be sold out in the area.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yeah like maybe the Aussie from Transformers....

I would listen to her.

I might even buy the LIFE BD at full price if she were narrating.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Because then you wouldn't pay attention to the movie.

.....And.....your.......point.....is.............???

 

[j_garcia]

I would listen to her.

I might even buy the LIFE BD at full price if she were narrating.

Only if she was narrating in person

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I just watched the 1st disc of LIFE w/Oprah Winfrey.

I thought Oprah Winfrey did an awesome job!

I don't know why some people are so critical. I mean Oprah is reading redirectly from a script. It's not like she is making up the narration herself.

I thought the PQ & SQ are both better than Planet Earth BD.

And again, I thought Oprah did a superb job narrating.

 

[j_garcia]

My BBC version will be arriving today. It was on sale at Frys but they were out and aren't getting any until the 22nd, so I ordered it off Amazon for $2 more. I didn't like the Sigourney Weaver version of Planet Earth either, after seeing the whole thing with Attenbourogh, it just wasn't the same with Sigourney when it was on Discovery.

 

[darien87]

My BBC version will be arriving today. It was on sale at Frys but they were out and aren't getting any until the 22nd, so I ordered it off Amazon for $2 more. I didn't like the Sigourney Weaver version of Planet Earth either, after seeing the whole thing with Attenbourogh, it just wasn't the same with Sigourney when it was on Discovery.

I think it depends how you see it first. The wife and I watched Planet Earth on Discovery, so when I bought the BD set, I was surprised to hear David Attenbourogh. So the wife prefers the Sigourney Weaver version.

 

[j_garcia]

The other thing I didn't like about the Discovery version is because they were edited slightly different. I happened to watch an episode that I had just watched on BD and there was a whole scene missing from the Discovery version. I read about that before, but didn't realize it would be big chunks like that.

 

[krzywica]

I think it depends how you see it first. The wife and I watched Planet Earth on Discovery, so when I bought the BD set, I was surprised to hear David Attenbourogh. So the wife prefers the Sigourney Weaver version.

Yeah thats a good point I heard both PE and Life with David first and didn't care for the other narrators after I watched them.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I tend to prefer a woman's voice over a man's voice.

It's the same with all my GPS Navigation systems. I set all of them to the female voice.

And when I listen to music - I mean just pure listening - I also prefer female vocals.

I have the David Attenborough Planet Earth BD. I don't know. I might have to check out the Sigourney Weaver version.

 

[armaraas]

Ah, I might be a bit late with this but deepdiscount has 25% off until the 20th of June, so the blu rays there are about ~$36 if anyone else is looking for them right now...

 

[jeffsg4mac]

I just watched the 1st disc of LIFE w/Oprah Winfrey.

I thought Oprah Winfrey did an awesome job!

I don't know why some people are so critical. I mean Oprah is reading redirectly from a script. It's not like she is making up the narration herself.

I thought the PQ & SQ are both better than Planet Earth BD.

And again, I thought Oprah did a superb job narrating.

Your crazy Oprah was horrendous. Your are correct in that it sounded like she was reading directly from a script; that is exactly how it sounded. She did not interject any kind of emotion or feeling into the narration. My wife even said it before I did and she never comments on stuff like that. Weaver was only marginally better, but neither did as good as job as Attenborough. His voice was made for nature documentaries and he does not sound like he is reading from a script. My wife and I both liked it better with her voice off some music playing and the subtitles on she was that bad.

Generally speaking I prefer the sound of a females voice too, but Oprah sounds like man pretending to be woman.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Read the part about narration; It could not be stated any better than this.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/3228/life_bbc_da.html

 

[Rickster71]

I find it interesting that you found it necessary to specifically mention the race of the woman that you didn't like, but not the race of the guy you did.

That said, I watched the whole series when it was on Discovery and didn't find Oprah distracting like others have claimed. But I haven't heard the BBC version to compare. I like David Attenbourough, but my wife prefers the Sigourney Weaver version of Planet Earth to the BD version. David Attenbourough reminds me of my grade school days. It seemed like he did the voice over for all of the movies we watched in science class.

Don't want to derail this ...too much. I didn't see the DVD yet.

But about the Oprah thing; I don't understand why she panders to different groups and totally changes her voice.
If it's a certain audience she'll say....

"You go girl! Is dat baby daddy? He got's to go."
Then later she'll have a doctor on, and will be all up in his bidnit like..."Yes doctor, Subdural hematomas are divided into acute, subacute, and chronic, depending on their speed of onset."
I'll be wondering why is she changing her voice......and why am I watching this ?

 

[darien87]

Don't want to derail this ...too much. I didn't see the DVD yet.

But about the Oprah thing; I don't understand why she panders to different groups and totally changes her voice.
If it's a certain audience she'll say....

"You go girl! Is dat baby daddy? He got's to go."
Then later she'll have a doctor on, and will be all up in his bidnit like..."Yes doctor, Subdural hematomas are divided into acute, subacute, and chronic, depending on their speed of onset."
I'll be wondering why is she changing her voice......and why am I watching this ?

It's funny, but I find myself doing the same thing. When I'm at work or with "non-black" friends, I talk very professional or like they do. When I'm with my black relatives, I speak with more slang. Hell, I've even caught myself speaking with a bit of a Mexican accent with I'm speaking Spanish or talking to my Mexican friends. I don't do it consciously, it just happens.

 

[darien87]

Your crazy Oprah was horrendous. Your are correct in that it sounded like she was reading directly from a script; that is exactly how it sounded. She did not interject any kind of emotion or feeling into the narration.

I think you're nuts. Oprah was fine. Geez, it's just film narration. You talk about how bad she was and even give an example of a bad review, but yet said review notes how the narrator's voice shouldn't overshadow what is being shown onscreen, so how much emotion or feeling is Oprah supposed to inject into her "performance"?

I like David Attenborough, but his voice is so soothing that it makes me want to go to sleep. Maybe it's because his voice reminds me of grade school Science class, where a movie meant nap time.

 

[j_garcia]

It's funny, but I find myself doing the same thing. When I'm at work or with "non-black" friends, I talk very professional or like they do. When I'm with my black relatives, I speak with more slang. Hell, I've even caught myself speaking with a bit of a Mexican accent with I'm speaking Spanish or talking to my Mexican friends. I don't do it consciously, it just happens.

We all do that

I watched the first two episodes last night and I have to say that compared to Planet Earth, this one has noticeably better video overall. There are still scenes that are a little less clear, but compared to PE, there are fewer scenes like that. Cameras, film, and filming conditions are all factors, but this one looks better to me so far.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

I think you're nuts. Oprah was fine. Geez, it's just film narration. You talk about how bad she was and even give an example of a bad review, but yet said review notes how the narrator's voice shouldn't overshadow what is being shown onscreen, so how much emotion or feeling is Oprah supposed to inject into her "performance"?

I like David Attenborough, but his voice is so soothing that it makes me want to go to sleep. Maybe it's because his voice reminds me of grade school Science class, where a movie meant nap time.

Well we will have to agree to disagree. She sucked

 

[j_garcia]

I actually did fall asleep while watching the first episode, but I was up late the night before playing Red Dead Redemtion