Gorgeous docuseries features animal life, nature's wonders.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 6+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
a little
Territorial disputes among animals like walruses turn violent as they battle for dwindling safe havens. Reality of predator and prey in the wild is on full display, especially where animals hunt the young and weak in a group. In one emotional scene, walruses hurl themselves from a cliff onto the rocky beach below in a fateful attempt to return to sea.
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Series introduces viewers to wonders of the natural world, bringing the planet's remote corners and elusive inhabitants up close. The narrator explains unfamiliar animal behavior to put it into context for the audience and makes connections between the species' struggle to survive and the effects of climate change on their habitats.
Positive Messages
some
Exposes viewers to diversity of animal world and delicate balance of various elements in nature. Narrator relates climate change to animals' behavior and increasing challenges to survival, indirectly encouraging viewers to prioritize conservation.
Positive Role Models
some
Narrator's work inspires respect for nature and desire to protect it from harmful effects of human expansion.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Our Planet is a beautiful nature docuseries about the effects of climate change on wildlife and habitats from the team behind Planet Earth and narrated by David Attenborough. Most of the show is dedicated to exposing viewers to amazing species and their survival methods, overcoming harsh climates, scarce food sources, and dwindling resources for shelter. The topic of climate change and humans' role in it is less consistent. Some scenes involve predators' hunting of prey, which sometimes culminates in the death of a young animal. Others show carcasses of animals that died as a result of accidents like falling from cliffs. This captivating series is a smart pick for family viewing, but be ready to field questions about mating and reproducing, as they're mentioned in the content.
This series is amazing and breath taking in many ways - visually stunning, awe-inspiring, interesting and informative. In most of the episodes, animals die, but in 7 of the episodes, it’s not too violent...the worst you see is a group of cheetahs taking down a wildebeest, which is sad, but not super graphic...that’s the circle of life! It’s a nature documentary, and it’s gonna happen, right? Neither my kids nor I are excessively bothered by footage of animals carrying dead prey in their mouth, predators feeding prey body parts to their young, even tiny baby birds being left behind by the flock to die in the desert...it’s upsetting of course, but those are the facts of life, and we are able to move on from it and enjoy the rest of the show.
And then you get to Frozen World. In the Frozen World episode, first, you see a pod of killer whales chasing a penguin. Ok, killer whales eat penguins, we know this. I’m thinking they’ll snatch it and take it under, like most of the other predator/prey scenes in the other episodes. But for some unknown reason, Our Planet decides to show an extended montage of the orca repeatedly punting the penguin super high into the air while it flails helplessly...we are talking at least a minute long here, of either different angles of the same footage, or maybe just an extended period of time that the orca is playing with its food, and the penguin repeatedly trying to get away only to be caught again. It shows the orca from a side angle taking the penguin between its big teeth while the penguin gazes straight at the camera, and pulling it beneath the waves WHILE THE LIVE PENGUIN IS STILL LOOKING AT THE CAMERA AND STRUGGLING. Again, this exact same whale and penguin scene is shown more than once! THEN a few minutes later, in the same episode, they show a polar bear snatching up a little fuzzy baby seal by its head (complete with camera from above showing adorable baby seal looking up at the predator with wide eyes before it strikes) and carrying it off...again, multiple clips of it from different angles, probably a full minute of footage of a baby seal dying...then its mother coming up from fishing and looking for it, calling for it, and not finding it. I am a grown woman and was sick to my stomach and had to walk away. Even my not-sentimental husband was wincing and saying “Why is this one so violent? Why are they STILL showing that?!” I later googled to try to find out if future episodes had such graphic imagery and discovered that 1) that’s the last episode and 2) more horrible stuff happens in that particular episode - apparently multiple walruses falling off a cliff and landing on the rocks below and later being shown dead. I’m glad we turned it off before my son and I were even more upset. We love science and nature and know the circle of life happens, but this particular episode really seemed to show more graphic scenes repeatedly/for extended periods of time unnecessarily.
This show/documentary is truly amazing, inspiring, great message but...was it really necessary to show the same images of the walruses falling off a cliff and hitting boulders on their way down to their very certain death over and over again? I am a wildlife biologist and a science teacher and I have seen wild animals die with my own eyes, but I felt there was something dark in showing these images repeatedly. Whatever audience they thought they were reaching by this overly graphic and human caused violence, I like to think I am not part of.
What's the Story?
In OUR PLANET, renowned naturalist David Attenborough narrates a sweeping tour of Earth's natural diversity and explores how climate change is affecting different species' efforts to survive. From the frozen Arctic tundra to the lush rainforest to the vast African deserts, this production from the creators of Planet Earth celebrates the marvels of nature, the interconnectedness of animal species, and the responsibilities and hazards of a growing human population's effect on the planet.
Predictably gorgeous and awe-inspiring, this expertly produced nature docuseries turns thousands of hours of videography into eight episodes of captivating, compelling, and sometimes emotional drama. Life, death, feast, famine, and the eternal struggle to survive and reproduce lay the foundation for the show's content. Attenborough sets the scene by asserting the following statistics: As the human population has grown over the past 50 years, wildlife numbers have decreased by an average of 60 percent. From there, he extrapolates that as humans have contributed to nature's increased instability, we alone can help ensure its recovery.
The trouble is, it's an argument that gets swept aside as Our Planet treats viewers to stunningly beautiful scenes of nature and wildlife. Only occasionally does Attenborough return to the topic of climate change and conservation. It does nothing to detract from the impressive presentation of the world's wonders, but it gives the series a slightly indecisive purpose overall.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what Our Planet intends to teach viewers. Is its goal to expose them to nature and its inhabitants or to inspire behavior of some kind?
What examples of instinct do you see in this show? How does instinct help animals survive? To what degree do people use instinct for the same purpose?
What big and small changes can you and your family make to be better stewards of natural resources? What responsibilities do we have to protect nature? What are the risks to humans of not doing so? Is it difficult to keep a positive attitude in light of worrisome news about the environment and the world?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Emily Ashby
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
