Ancient Australia

Aboriginal actor Balang Tom E. Lewis narrates this nature documentary about the wild untamed natural world of Northern Australia. It follows the life of Caspar, a saltwater croc, from egg hatching to swimming out to the Barrier Reef as an adult. It lives in a diverse world with strange creatures. It's written and directed by nature doc filmmaker Nick Robinson. The creatures are fascinating. The landscape is luscious and beautiful. The natural world is awesome. Lewis' narration is compelling and he gives his native touches to this world. The only drawback is a few annoying sound effects. They really shouldn't add any artificial sounds to these animals. Overall, it's great to see these wonderful creatures in their habitat.

This immediately appealed to me prior to watching. Absolutely love nature documentaries (have done ever since seeing 'Planet Earth' and 'The Blue Planet' for the first time when they first aired) and it is always wonderful seeing Australia, a beautiful and fascinating continent. Not to mention its beautifully varied wildlife, familiar and not so familiar. It was interesting seeing this approach and to have an Aboriginal narrator, meaning beautiful dignified speaking.

While not one of my all time favourite documentaries or one that is ground breaking (naming them would be unfair though due to the approach being very different), 'Ancient Australia' does a great job with its subject and locations and has so much to love. Its interest points are executed extremely well and there is very little wrong with it. If asked whether 'Ancient Australia' is recommended, my answer would most definitely be a yes without a shadow of a doubt. With it being as good a documentary on Ancient Australia and its wildlife as one can get.

'Ancient Australia' isn't perfect. Did feel that it was a little too short and could easily have been 10 minutes longer with so much information covered.

Do agree as well about the sound effects being intrusive and ill fitting.

However, it looks absolutely beautiful with some truly stunning shots and great expansive use of the varied location that is both beautiful and unforgiving. Nothing looks cheap or gimmicky. The music generally isn't overdone in volume and isn't discordant tonally, the sound effects are but not so the scoring. Tommy Lewis narrates with sonorous dignity and always engages with the narration. Which never sounds too cutesy or melodramatic, and manages to entertain and educate.

Furthermore, the animals are every bit as stunning as the production values visually yet the predatory animals lose none of their menace. The crocodiles being genuinely fearsome. 'Ancient Australia' never feels dull and packs in a lot of educational content without feeling like we are being told too much. Quite a lot illuminates, found myself learning a lot about crocodiles, their life cycles and also ancient humans.

Concluding, very well done. 8/10.