'Frozen Planet' will make you fall in love with north, south poles

'Frozen Planet' the seven-part BBC/Discovery documentary whose first episode aired Sunday night features penguins, polar bears, and a time-lapse brinicle, which has to be seen to be believed..?

"The best stories on our planet are natural ones," says Alastair Fothergill.

Skip to next paragraph

But you'd expect him to say that. For two decades with the BBC, Fothergill has produced wildlife documentary series including "Planet Earth," ''Blue Planet" and, back in 1993, "Life in the Freezer," which explored Antarctica in all its frigid wonder.

Now he's executive producer of "Frozen Planet," a Discovery Channel/BBC co-production that takes a fresh look at Antarctica as well as its north-end counterpart, the Arctic, in seven gorgeous episodes premiering Sunday with the first two hours on Discovery. And while you may not be ready to dismiss filmdom's stars and screenplay writers as unnecessary, "Frozen Planet" makes a strong case that Nature ? captured in the wild ? can equal Hollywood for epic sweep and drama.

Comedy, too. In Sunday's second hour, male penguins by the hundreds of thousands anticipate the spring return of the females, for whose favor each male must compete by building a swankier nest than his rivals. In a delightful sequence, a painstaking penguin gathers stones one by one, only to have them filched, one after another, by a scheming neighbor whenever the hapless suitor's back is turned. These performers, with their Chaplin-esque gait and impeccable timing, would have been right at home in a 1920s two-reeler.

There's also bittersweet romance on "Frozen Planet." Nature's ultimate loner, a 1400-pound (635-kilogram) male polar bear, has lumbered across the ice all winter in search of a mate come spring. Picking up her scent from 10 miles (16 kilometers) away, he finds her, after which they share a tender interlude. Then, just two weeks later, their brief encounter ends as they are fated to part.

Plus, there are thrilling, life-or-death confrontations in the series. Three-ton elephant seals brawl over females. A pack of 25 wolves brings down a huge bison. A wide-eyed Weddell seal falls prey to hungry orcawhales?that, working as a team, can stir up giant waves to wash these frantic seals from the refuge of their ice floes.

And talk about "special effects"! An unprecedented time-lapse shot underwater records the growth of a brinicle ? an ice stalactite progressing downward toward the seabed ? killing everything its frozen plume touches. This otherworldly sight is as eerie and magical as a CGI effect from a sci-fi film. But it's real.

"That's the thing about the natural world: It gives you amazing natural drama," says Vanessa Berlowitz, "Frozen Planet" series producer, "It looks like it's scripted, but we don't fake anything. Everything that we film is a complete portrayal of reality. And the audience thinks, 'Wow, they did that without trained animals!'"

Berlowitz has produced and directed a score of BBC documentaries, including two episodes of "Planet Earth," and, like Fothergill, she logged time at both poles for "Frozen Planet." She lived aboard a Royal Naval icebreaker for four months filming penguins and?whales, and, in the Arctic, spent three weeks filming female polar bears and their cubs while she was five months pregnant.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/APB21nzyGR4/Frozen-Planet-will-make-you-fall-in-love-with-north-south-poles

same day flower delivery valentines day westminster dog show valentines day cards hallmark grammy winners obama budget