Traditionally, nature shows offer a soothing escape into the beauty of the natural world. But with ‘Our Planet,’ the creators aim to bring new layers of honesty and environmental responsibility to the genre.
In the new series ‘Our Planet,’ producers counterpoint gorgeous shots of the natural world and animal behavior with information about the threats to those ecosystems from climate change, deforestation, and other human activity.
For decades, the velvety lilt of David Attenborough has served as a soothing backdrop to nature documentaries. But Mr. Attenborough’s latest project isn’t your average nature show.
“Our Planet,” which begins airing Friday on Netflix, has plenty of jaw-dropping imagery, from humpback whales bubble-net feeding to flamingos flocking to a desolate salt pan after a rain. But those shots are couched in a narrative that underscores just how much humans are destroying the Earth. In the past, there’s been a divide between nature shows that highlight the wonders of the animal kingdom and documentaries with a more activist agenda. “Our Planet” aims to bridge those two worlds.
The “Our Planet” creators try to straddle that divide.
Colorful reefs, a tiger stalking through the grass, and David Attenborough’s soothing voice: The opening scenes of the new documentary “Our Planet,” which begins airing on Netflix Friday, feel very familiar.
But the message accompanying those opening shots isn’t about the visual splendor on screen.
There’s been a certain divide in the past between nature shows that are primarily about delighting viewers with the wonders of the animal kingdom, and documentaries with a more activist agenda. The “Our Planet” creators are hoping to bridge those two worlds – and some environmentalists and documentary producers are hoping that the days of pure natural beauty, divorced from the context of the threats to those ecosystems, are ending.
‘Our Planet’ explores the ways in which gentoo penguins are adapting to their changing environment – while highlighting how those shifts are creating challenges for other species in the region.
There is still plenty of jaw-dropping imagery, from humpback whales bubble-net feeding to flamingos flocking to a desolate salt pan after a rain. But those shots are couched in a narrative that underscores just how much humans are destroying the Earth.
A riveting orangutan sequence ends with the note that this could be the last generation of wild orangutans as their jungle habitat disappears. And a devastating scene of more than 100,000 walruses hauled up on a single beach, overcrowded due to lack of sea ice, shows walruses plunging to their death from cliffs that they should never have had to scale.
A Humpback whale feeds off Cape Town in November. Humpback whale numbers have recovered since the ban on commercial whaling, but global warming is now reducing krill, their main food supply.
A sequence like the courtship ritual of a bird of paradise has “got that absolute pure wonder,” says Colin Butfield, the conservation adviser to “Our Planet” from the World Wildlife Fund. But it also “brings home the fact that each patch of tropical forest contains wonders in many cases that are seen nowhere else, so the loss of that particular area has importance,” he adds.
From the beginning, Mr. Butfield notes, the “Our Planet” creators aimed to discuss threats to the natural world in a more overt way than previous large-scale productions have. They hope that they can appeal to a broad audience by balancing discomfort and outrage with hope and beauty.
Of course, there are still plenty of questions about just how much change such productions do inspire. Mr. Butfield says he hopes the show elevates the importance of biodiversity, climate change, and sustainability just as the United Nations is getting ready to revisit big international goals for all three topics in 2020.
A tree frog ponders his next move in the rain in Manu National Park, Peru. The Peruvian park is home to more than 150 amphibian species. The greater Amazon rainforest is home to more than 1,000 different kinds of frogs, and new ones are still being discovered.
Louie Psihoyos, who made “Racing Extinction” and the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” about dolphin-hunting practices in Japan, notes that storytelling is very often the most effective way to drive change. In his films, he focuses on narrative arc that first engages viewers, then outrages them, then shows them a path forward and gives cause for hope and reason to change.