Race of Life

This one seems only average hence a 5 of 10 rating. The writers for the show insist that the narrator uses the "race of life" phrase every 20 seconds. It seems the show creators are more interested in justifying the title of the show rather than an in-depth look at the predators and prey. However, the cinematography is excellent.

This documentary series is hard to handle for a number of reasons...

The facts are inaccurate. Part of the reason a person will generally watch a documentary is to learn, but I'd suggest viewers not to absorb the information presented here as the series is frequently wrong. 'The Tasmanian Devil has the most powerful bite in all the animal kingdom' - no it doesn't. 'A baby wildebeest can run as fast as the herd within minutes of being born' - no it can't. I could go on and on here...

The editing is terrible. A supposed chase between a lion and ostrich goes something like this...lion walking in the grass alone, ostrich starts running, cut to a clearly different lion running through grass, cut to what appears to be 70's film footage of an ostrich, cut back to yet another lion 'who has lost his meal for the day' when in the upper portion of the screen you can see the gazelle it was chasing getting away. These cuts happen frequently for the various animal segments.

Lastly, the repetition. Every other sentence contains the wording 'race of life'. The first episode is LOADED with this phrase, but the remaining episodes tone it down but only slightly. You'll hear things like 'the shark has sharp teeth to win its race of life. It uses them to catch this seal, which has lost its race of life.

Bottom line: Unless you just want to enjoy the wildlife footage, avoid this series at all costs.

First, the good: the content is good. Interesting animals and well-done footage, though I'll agree with a previous reviewer on the repetition of scenes. Now, the bad: the narrator is incredibly boring. Having a little bit of animation in his voice would be better. The background music is WAY too loud - makes it hard to hear the narrator.

The cinematography is great, with an abundance of extreme up-close shots of all types of creatures. The issue that I have with this series, is that the "facts" are not always correct and some even seem to be made up, based on what the video is showing. I would suggest that the producers check their data about animal, insect and any other form of life they show. If children are using this series to "learn", unfortunately, they will still need to do further research to get the correct "facts".

10/11/17. I really enjoyed this 13-episode series that looks at the lives of prey. Yes, animals that spend their whole lives avoiding being the next meal of the predators that hunt them. The cinematography is generally very good, however, I don't understand why the scenes of attacks were repeated 3x in each instance. Worth watching and educational overall.