Galapagos 3D

The Galapagos Islands and their animals are the stars of this documentary. David Attenborough's narrative gives an easily understandable explanation of how the islands came to be, their lifecycle, the animals that live there, how they got there and evolved, and what is so remarkable about it - their adaptation and evolution. Very interesting to watch, including for children 8 and up.

The shots are very well done, but not as grand and breathtaking as other big scale documentaries with a global scope, but that is largely due to the specialized topic of this mini series. Some of the token shots to just have the aging David Attenborough in the frame felt slightly contrived, but his narrative and delivery of explanations is certainly still up to the task! I watched this in 2D, as I don't like the visual look of 3D, so the "making of" was a bit of a waste, as it focuses a lot on 3D and the difficulties of bringing the big and heavy 3D cameras to hard to reach filming location. A slightly saddening note was also realizing in that last episode how much tourism has (inevitably?) already swamped the Galapagos, especially since the main episodes of the series portrayed an untouched original wilderness.