Seven years ago, the theatrical release of Fly Away Home
gave us a glimpse of the airborne migration of Canadian Geese as Amy
Alden and her dad, Tom, imprinted their adopted birds with memories of
the route to their winter home to the South. In my review, I mentioned
that, "Director Carroll Ballard and cinematographer Caleb
Deschanel create wonderful images of an unlikely formation of machine
and waterfowl soaring over forest and mountain. The film is worth a
buy just for the aerial scenes." Two years after Fly Away
Home was released and perhaps inspired by those images, a team of
three directors and fifteen cinematographers began a four-year journey
on seven continents to photograph the similar images of Winged
Migration.
Jacques Perrin narrates the film and I was
pleased to find that his contribution is minimal. Rather than
lecturing the viewer on scientific minutia concerning animal behavior
and migration in particular, the filmmakers allow the images to speak
to the audience. The soundtrack is dominated by a score composed by
Bruno Coulais, the sounds of nature, and of the wind. We're
transported into a lyrical world inhabited by those feathered
creatures with the wonderful ability to fly, a world in which the food
chain comes very much into play. Four years of effort and
hundreds of hours of footage have been distilled into an annual cycle
of migration depicted over the course of eighty-nine minutes. We
follow several species - geese, ducks, cranes, pelicans - as they make
the yearly commute to feed, court, mate, reproduce, and ensure the
survival of their respective species. We're also treated to sequences
involving other birds that share the territories inhabited by the
animals we follow through the sky. (I was aware that there are both
migratory and non-migratory birds, but I did not know that eagles
migrate.)
The journeys of thousands of miles are not easy.
Weather and exhaustion claim victims. And the migrating birds find
themselves at risk from predators, including other birds and the
animal at the very top of the food chain, man. Hunters prey on the
waterfowl, luring them with realistic decoys and blowing them from the
sky with shoguns. Migrating birds fear of man equip them with an
instinctive avoidance that serves them reasonably well, but there is a
more modern threat, one that evolution hasn't had time to address,
pollution. But I don't want to create the impression that the film
concentrates on the harshness of life; it does not. 
The
filmmakers have captured remarkable scenes of birds in flight,
expending great energy to travel surprising distances. We join the
birds in their winter and summer homes, enjoying glimpses of their
full life cycles. The film is a towering achievement, leaving the
viewer to wonder how the filmmakers did it. All is revealed in the
supplements. But before you satisfy your curiosity, simply sit back
and enjoy the ethereal experience of being among those creatures that
truly experience life in three dimensions. Don't expect to be lectured
on the minutia of migratory bird science; this is simply a visual
feast, an opportunity to experience life from another creature's point
of view.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
The
film's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in anamorphic
video. This is a very respectable presentation from Columbia TriStar,
but in the end, I was disappointed. The color accuracy is terrific.
The bright colors of tropical Macaws are vividly painted to the screen
with no chroma noise or smearing. Shadow detail during the night
scenes is excellent. I noticed no macroblocking or mosquito noise.
Even edge halos are more suppressed here than in most conventional
Columbia TriStar releases. My biggest problem with this DVD is its
image resolution. Small object detail is merely average, and fine
textures like the intricate structure of feathers is not as well
defined as I would have liked. Shots angled downward reveal forests as
indistinct tufts of green. The film's beautiful images are simply not
conveyed with the level of detail they deserve. I was left with the
impression that the images were low-passed to reduce the film's bit
budget and ensure there would be adequate room on this single disc for
the generous supplements.
Audio: How Does The Disc
Sound? 
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is a delight. This is
not an official EX mix, but I found that enabling EX decoding was a
more immersive experience. As we soar through the sky, the dominant
sounds are the wind and the delicate flapping of wings. The viewer is
plunged into this aerial sea of sound, creating the delightful
illusion of being among the birds. Exceptionally deep bass will
require a superior subwoofer; thunder and an avalanche are very
persuasive. The eclectic score by Bruno Coulais is an odd blend of
orchestral motifs, childrens' voices, and a small male chorus chanting
in heavy rhythmic breathing. These sequences are supplemented with the
occasional solo male voice, singing a more contemporary ballad. The
music is presented across a broad soundstage, sometimes locating
musical sources in the surround speakers. The fidelity is surprisingly
good. The modest dialog is always distortion-free, devoid of digital
compression raspiness.
Subtitles are provided in Hindi,
Portuguese, Spanish, and English, for which Closed Captions are also
available.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? 
When
we learn in the supplements that this film is essentially a staged
nature documentary, we're no less amazed. The filmmakers exploited a
predisposition of these migratory birds made so clear in Fly Away
Home: the being a hatchling first encounters as it emerges from
its shell is imprinted as its parent. Several species of large
migratory birds are raised from egg to adolescent. The birds are
conditioned to accept the noisy machines that the filmmakers will use
to create their movie, among them trucks, powerboats, and ultralights.
Each parent spends all his or her time with their birds, feeding them,
petting them, holding them, even sleeping with the birds at their
sides. The bonding worked exceedingly well. The birds eagerly follow
each camera platform when their "parent" is onboard. When
each species becomes old enough to be taken on its migratory route,
the filmmakers mount up and began their adventures.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has included many supplements that describe
this process end to end. First is a commentary by director
Jacques Perrin. This is the only extra spoken in English (the rest
are in French with forced English subtitles) and a bit of
concentration may be required to understand Perrin's charming accent.
He goes into considerable detail about the making of the film, but he
also waxes philosophic about the nature of life as a bird and the
appreciation he and his fellow filmmakers developed for their adopted
children. Not to worry... The full screen Making of Featurette
(52:13) provides greater insights and a comprehensive behind the
scenes view of the film. It's here that we come to fully appreciate
the filmmakers' ingenuity and persistence. The magic behind many of
the shots that viewers will find both beautiful and incomprehensible
is revealed.
The eclectic score by Bruno Coulais is the focus
of the full screen Creating the Music Featurette (17:23). The
composer shares his inspirations and the means by which he satisfied
the director's wishes. The source of some of the oddest sequences,
like the panting chants, was difficult to identify during the film; in
this featurette, we see them performed. Somewhat interesting, but a
bit dry.
The rest of the supplements are presented in
anamorphic video. There are two sequences of Filmmaker
Interviews: About the Film (9:44) and Further Insights (14:05).
This supplement extends our view beyond the director's to some of the
other participants. It is a combination of a philosophic appreciation
of the natural world, a description of the relationships among the
filmmakers and the birds, and the challenges and dangers of capturing
these images on film. The Photo Gallery with Filmmaker
Commentary (13:17) is a lovely collection of images that become a
visual background to another deeply detailed discussion. The feature
is organized based on species. We learn more about them and more about
how they were filmed. There are two Trailers on this DVD:
Winged Migration (1:59) and a promo for Varekai - Cirque Du
Soleil (0:31).
The 89-minute documentary is organized into
twenty-four chapters.
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get
when you pop the disc in your PC?
A Flash file opens upon
loading the DVD into your computer. A number of menu item are then
available. You may visit the Winged Migration Web Site,
Columbia TriStar home page, or Columbia TriStar's DVD site. If your
computer behaves like my Windows XP machine, don't expect your browser
to pop up when you press any of those choices. A copy of the browser
does open and loads the page, but stays in the background, quite
invisible. In my impatience, repeated clicking opened five instances
of Internet Explorer, all displaying the same web page. Be prepared to
manually sequence to the browser window to see the selected site.
Parting Thoughts
This is a lovely DVD. The film is
captivating, more involving than many feature films with intricate
plots. The beautiful images are virtually hypnotic. While I was
disappointed with the quality of the video, the sound is great and the
very generous quality supplements have an aggregate running time that
exceeds the feature film by over twenty minutes. Highly recommended.
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