The Living Sea
Regular readers know that I’m SCUBA-certified
and drawn to documentaries that have as their themes the ocean and its
preservation. The Living Sea is another MacGillivray Freeman
production shot in the IMAX format that has splendid visuals of the
oceans and seas both from above and below. And it’s yet another
instance of sensitizing the viewer to our dependency on the
world’s oceans, which produce over 70% of the Earth’s
oxygen. This is a highly regarded IMAX film, nominated for the Academy
Award as best documentary short subject in 1995.
 The film offers a sequence that highlights the efforts of the Coast
Guard in rescue mode, and another that highlights the skills and
daring of surfboarders off the coast of Hawaii, but the most
compelling sequences are underwater. We’re whisked to colorful
coral reefs, watch incredibly colored reef fish, are immersed in a
million of stingless jellyfish, share the water with vast whales, and
become fascinated by an intelligent visual communicator, the
cuttlefish.
 It does not emphasize the death of coral reefs; that was covered in
another IMAX production, Coral Reef
Adventure. This short film has Meryl Streep narrating a
worldwide tour of the planet’s oceans, its abundant life, and
those who embrace the seas for both sustenance and recreation. Most
affecting is a journey to the South Pacific’s island of Palau,
where a father imparts a respect for the sea in his two children. They
dive and share with us the wonders of aquatic life.
 It’s both life affirming and a cautionary tale that encourages
us to be more thoughtful and appreciative of the oceans that cover the
overwhelming majority of the planet. Underscored with music composed
and sometimes performed by Sting, the film is a delight to behold.
I’m inspired to research Palau as one of my next dive
destinations.
The Video: How Does The Disc
Look?
The film’s theatrical aspect ratio
of 1.44:1 has been cropped vertically to fill the 1.78:1 HD frame; the
transfer was compressed with the AVC video CODEC. Alas, this single-
layer disc has high compression, was possibly subjected to low-pass
filtering, and has visible edge halos, implying that artificial
sharpening was applied. What a pity. The beautiful images are
compromised, resulting in a slight, electronically processed look
instead of a pure film-like presentation of the exemplary resolution
of the large-format 70 mm IMAX horizontal film format. The source
print is in excellent condition, which only compounds the offense. On
the plus side, black levels are deep and inky, shadow detail is
excellent, and the video dynamic range, from dark underwater sequences
to the bright sunlit South Pacific, is excellent. Chroma is pleasingly
vibrant with natural flesh tones and remarkably colorful fish and
coral. If only the images were more film-like.
The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is quite good, but does not
stress the sound system. I found the dynamic range to be limited and
running a bit hot. I had to reduce the amplitude by 6 dB to approach
some semblance of amplitude parity with voices on other BDs. Meryl
Streep’s voiceover work is inconsistent. Early in the film, she
seems to have an unpleasant and unnatural upper bass emphasis that
gives her an unnatural sound. And yet, later in the film, she sound
quite natural, with a fine sense of presence. The narration by the
Palauan is more natural, with a voice timbre that’s much more
convincing. The music by Sting completely envelops the viewer.
It’s not uncommon for his voice to emanate from the front center
channel and the instruments to be spread among all the remaining
channels, placing the viewer within the instruments. The bottom end
satisfies, particularly when we’re underwater and waves break
above or when the Coast Guard cutter slaps down on the water having
just cleared a wave. Those sequences are also when the surrounds
become more active.
The alternative language tracks
are in Spanish and French, both in Dolby Digital 5.1.
There are
no subtitles.
The Supplements: What Goodies Are
There?
The Making of The Living Sea
documentary runs about thirty-seven minutes, which is
just a few minute shy of the feature presentation’s length.
It’s organized into sections that correspond to each sequence in
the film. The filmmakers fill in the blanks and explain and
demonstrate the challenges of the shoot. As with previous IMAX
underwater productions, the difficulties of shooting and moving such a
large format camera while immersed is emphasized. The making-of is
substance rather than EPK fluff and is almost as interesting as the
feature film.
There are the usual
trailers for other IMAX films. You’ll find a
familiar text feature that highlights Greg
MacGillivray and his production company. This is a BD-
Live disc and you’ll be able to connect to the
disc’s site for a few more supplements that I did not take the
time to assess.
Final Thoughts
This is another visually compelling nature film shot
for the IMAX venue. It translates well to the Blu-ray Disc format, but
I wish the halos could be lost and the bit rate pumped up. These
highly detailed films shot in the horizontal 70 mm format deserve the
finest transfers. Regardless, this is a worthwhile experience for
those who have an appreciation for nature and the sea in
particular.
 Here’s a note about the apparent duplicate Buy Guide.
Our understaffed I.T. people are still hard at work on a
large project, putting out fires, and have not yet had the time to
modify the underlying site database formatting code to accommodate the
new 0-to-10 rating scales. So until they do, for HD on disc,
I’ll insert this note and a Buy Guide at the end of the review
text and leave the conventional 0-to-5 Buy Guide blank.
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