Das Jahr, das unsere Erde veränderte

Perfectly timed for Earth Day, The Year Earth Changed is a mesmerizing portrait of the natural world in a year of lockdowns and quarantine. It's a must-watch for nature lovers, and even if you aren't a nature lover, you'll love the cinematography!

Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, The Year Earth Changed is a documentary featuring exclusive footage from five continents that shows you a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic - the planet was given a much-needed break! The BBC Natural History Unit compiled film from Jalandhar, India of the Himalayas on the horizon, of clear skies in polluted places like Los Angeles and China, of birdsongs in San Francisco, of whales in Glacier Bay and of hippos walking to the gas station in South Africa, among many others. The crew even got the chance to film a leopard, which adapted from its nocturnal routines to hunting in the daylight, within feet of their camera.

The Year Earth Changed is a beautifully constructed film, and the care taken in creating it and obtaining accurate facts is evident. There's little I can mention that would detract from the glory of elephants and humans living side-by-side, of Japanese deer running across the city to their old grazing patch, and of capybara finding new pastures in the homes of Argentina's suburban families. This is simply an amazing family watch.

The Year Earth Changed puts forth perhaps the most convincing argument that the pandemic has actually had an upside to it, showing real evidence of natural change and organisms thriving in their habitats, unbothered by humans. The message of the 48-minute film is to respect nature and recognize that after this pandemic, we need to do all we can to be kinder to the Earth.

I give The Year Earth Changed 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for kids age 7 to 18, plus adults. You can watch it now on Apple TV+!

Reviewed by Eshaan M., KIDS FIRST!

If one has any doubts Re climate change or how humans continue to destroy our only home in the universe, then watch this film. Sir David narrates beautifully, teaching without preaching the quick recovery from devastation this living planet & many of its species makes in under 1 year, incl some endangered species. All it takes are RAPID minor changes.

With us only modifying our lives due to COVID, not spreading every type of pollution from noise to toxic, this earth & ultimately humans are the big winners.

If one plans to live for another day, this is a must see, as it shows the little things we CAN do add up globally. Beautiful camera work & sound like most BBC nature shows.

The scale our human encroachment and destruction of our own beautiful world is soul crushing. This documentary puts a glorious 4K UHD beam of white light on our disgusting mistakes. We need to change. All of us. Been needing to change for a few centuries now.

Nature has always let us live in peace but have we ever let her?

As the longest and darkest shadow descended over the human race, it occluded the light entering in to our homes ,it filled up our lives with a dread, it made the air around us thinner to breathe and we witnessed it making our planet a deserted one ... but then there were flickers of light at the end of the dark tunnel... This is a story of that light and positivity during those challenging darkest lockdown times .. the times when nature finally was able to breathe freely...Jaw-dropping photography, spectacular cinematography, an eye opener...a movie that will bring a smile to you and fill up your heart with pure joy, a meditational experience .. a MUST MUST watch...

A delightly-photographed but all too short documentary about the amazing way Nature & the animals that live in man's ever-encroaching shared space have responded in the 'time of shutdown' - an ultra-rare chance for us to see how they should fare in a world free (or at least minimised) by the presence of man. As someone who works in the COViD frontline it's so nice to see some positive in the face of all this depressing worldwide news...for the negative reviewers on here - seriously? Just enjoy it for what it is...not pointless propaganda, just Nature doing what it does best.