Underwaterworld Trilogy

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic. Transcendent. Shimmering
Review: "UNDERWATERWORLD TRILOGY" is 156 minutes of fantastic, transcendent, shimmering, kaleidoscopic marine life.

Three separate programs make up this seamless three-part look at the sometimes harsh environment and competitive creatures that share this wondrous realm. "Deep Encounters" reminds that it always pays to watch your back! This segment focuses on the hunters and the hunted -- including sharks and their prey (which seems to be almost anything that moves). "Ocean Allies" explores the friendships and relationships that creatures have formed to help each other survive, from shoaling to living on another creature's back. And then there's the friendly little fish that lives in the sea slug's, ahem, anus. "Blue Voices" examines how air-breathing mammals and other unlikely animals cope with the special demands of aquatic life, including extreme high pressure and, apparently, a total lack of oxygen.

The photography, music and narration are crisp and clean and easy on the eye and ear. If you have a plasma screen and a DVD with progressive scan the images are surreal and eye-filling. You might consider playing this disc on a loop as wallpaper with your own choice of music. It melds sublimely with classical selections (like Bach's "Brandenburgh Concerto") and also with techno and even tribal beats. Bring an artificial, digital semblance of the macrocosm into your artificial microcosm. Works for me.