Armchair travelers have a bounty of options when it comes to trotting the globe via Blu-ray. It
seems like just about every week a new travel or nature-related title is released, offering a high
definition window into another country, city, or natural wonder. Quality inevitably varies. Among
the glut of cheaply produced cash-ins, dull as dirt documentaries, and the ubiquitous "screensaver
for your television" releases, only a few programs have managed to stand out and attract real
consumer attention. Most of these, however, deal almost strictly with nature. Planet Earth
and The Blue Planet have both stunned with almost unbelievable cinematography,
capturing
the world at its wildest and purest. The Universe dwarfs us with the immensity of the
cosmos. But there has yet to be one single travel-centric title that has emerged victoriously as a
benchmark by which to judge all others. While it doesn't quite meet the standards of the previous
titles I've mentioned, I'd like to nominate Discovery Atlas: Complete Collection. It trumps a
lot of travel programs simply because it focuses on the one thing that makes our world truly unique
—people.
Life hasn't changed much here in the past 10,000 years...
If you've ever spent a gap year abroad, backpacked across Europe, taught English in another
country, or simply booked yourself a two-week vacation as far away from home as possible, you'll
know that the quickest way to experience a culture is through its people. You can spend hours
taking snapshots at all the famous sites, wandering aimlessly through the streets, and consulting
your three-inch-thick guide book with alarming regularity, but unless you interact with the locals,
you're likely to only get the tourist experience—hitting up the mandatory monuments in the
morning, spending four hours in trinket shops looking for souvenirs, having dinner at The Hard
Rock Cafe, and then slipping back beneath the sheets at The Comfort Inn. And that's okay for
some people, just as some people are perfectly fine with travel documentaries that stick to far-off
aerial views of, say, Europe's greatest castles. There's no wrong way to travel, and there's no
accounting for taste. But if you've grown tired of travel shows that do fly bys of famous
landmarks while some breathless narrator tells you how exciting things are on the ground, or, if
you want a program that simply celebrates culture and human endeavor—all while showing you
some stunning scenery—then Discovery Atlas is worth a look. Yes, there's still plenty of
aerial photography here—and it's frequently beautiful—but the bulk of the episodes are spent on
the ground, up close and personal, introducing us to everyday people going about their everyday
business.
Since 2006, The Discovery Channel has aired 11 episodes of Discovery Atlas—all bundled
here in this 2-disc set—and each follows the same exact formula. Every country-specific episode
follows three or four or five individuals who are somehow representative of their culture. Taken as
a whole, they exemplify just how varied and unique each country can be. In the episode on
Japan, for example, a nation known for being both ultra-traditional and hyper-modern, we meet a
broad cross-section of the populace. 17-year-old Mari is training to be a geisha, a dying art in
Japan's cultural capital of Kyoto. Hiroshi Ishiguro is a professor who has created a robotic replica
of himself—impressive but creepy, still stuck firmly in the uncanny valley. Saeko and Yuko are
Tokyo schoolgirls, eager to shop and test out the latest photo booths. And Reiko Nomura is 75
but still takes pleasure in diving everyday for shellfish along the coast of her native seaside
village. Americans have stereotypically held the Japanese as emotionless drones—worker bees on
autopilot—but that couldn't be further from the truth. The goal here—in all the episodes—is to
value our cultural differences but emphasize just how alike we are, how we share the same
feelings, motivations, and aspirations.
The stories of many of the people we meet along the way are unabashedly inspirational. It's
impossible to suppress a smile as a mineworker in South Africa finally pays off the mortgage to
his company-owned home, making it his—and his family's—at last. Or when we meet guru
Saraswati, a swami who rescues orphans from India's lowest caste and trains them to be spiritual
teachers, effectively raising their standing in society. We witness an Australian aborigine trying
desperately to hang on to his people's traditions, and a female Egyptian magazine editor who
seeks to challenge the notions of what women in her country can and cannot do and be. There's
no sentimentalism here, just real, honest people living within, embracing, and sometimes
pushing against the boundaries of their cultures.
The production level is excellent. Shot in high definition video, the cinematography is frequently
awe-inspiring, going effortlessly from vast aerial vistas to close-ups of a craggy, sun-beaten face
with a story to tell. The Discovery Channel has also brought together a fine cast of narrators,
including Russell Crowe, Isabella Rossellini, Heroes' Masi Oka, and acclaimed director Mira
Nair. Most importantly though, the narration is informative but unobtrusive, giving us a good
balance of facts and history but also knowing when to stay quiet and let the locals do the talking.
And this is what sets Discovery Atlas apart from other travel programs. By following
average—and sometimes extraordinary—citizens, it skips the usual tourist traps and gives us a
glimpse at what it's really like to live in each culture.
Disc One:
1. South Africa (Andre Braugher)
2. France (Candice Bergen)
3. Japan (Masi Oka)
4. Mexico (Edward James Olmos)
5. China (James Spader)
6. Italy (Isabella Rossellini)
Disc Two:
7. Egypt (Omar Metwally)
8. Russia (Dan Oreskes)
9. India (Mira Nair)
10. Australia (Russell Crowe)
11. Brazil (Sela Ward)
Note: Each episodes clocks in at 43:35. Apparently, a few of the episodes ran slightly longer when
they first aired, and have been trimmed down a bit here. I haven't seen the original broadcasts,
so I really can't compare, but I certainly didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. All of the
episodes seemed very complete, though I can understand if diehard fans of the series feel slightly
miffed.
Image Entertainment and The Discovery Channel have crammed nearly 8 hours of 1080i/AVC-
encoded video footage onto two BD-50s. While I was initially worried that the series would be
subject to all sorts of compression issues, my fears were largely alleviated when I popped in the first
disc. Yes, there are some artifacts, especially in the darker scenes, and yes, there are some
occasional instances of blotchy colors and banding—particularly around sunsets and other fine color
gradients—but the vast majority of the series looks fantastic. I'm always interested in how various
cultures are drawn to certain colors, and this transfer never let me down in that regard, with a
globetrotting palette that's bright and vivid. Whether it's pink sakura blossoms in Japan, the orange
robes of a guru in India, or the multihued carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro, the colors here are
saturated and strong. Black levels are adequately deep, and contrast is usually spot-on, though
highlights look occasionally blown-out—a common occurrence in digital video. Aside from the color,
the most impressive part of this transfer is the excellent sense of overall clarity. Close-ups show
crisp—but never edgy—textures and longer shots are well-defined and never muddled. The image
here may not be up to the standards set by, say, Planet Earth, but few will have any real
complaints about the look of Discovery Atlas.
On the other hand, I can see some folks getting upset about the fact that this release
doesn't include a lossless audio track, opting instead for Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes. To be fair,
though, these tracks suffice. Sure, they don't offer brain-melting dynamics or an ultra-pristine
soundfield, but they are clear, understandable, and modestly immersive. In the 5.1 mix, rear
channel usage is limited—to music and quiet ambience, like city street sounds—but it's enough to
make you feel involved with the storytelling. Most importantly, the celebrity voiceovers are clean,
never muffled, and positioned right at the top of the mix, making the narration effortless to follow.
There's not a lot that immediately impresses here, but there's also nothing to nitpick about—no
hisses, crackles, pops, or thinness. The 2.0 stereo mix is also competent, with slightly boosted
vocals. It's doubtless that a lossless or uncompressed mix would have added some extra heft and
breadth to the proceedings, but it's no big loss, especially considering how the fantastic visuals and
the individual stories are really the focus of each episode.
Bonus Vignettes (1080i)
The second disc of the set includes four vignettes, Italy (9:42), Egypt (14:21),
Russia (12:34), and Brazil (6:36). This is more of the same, really, but with less
focus on individuals and a more general emphasis on the locales themselves. While my TV told me
that these clips are indeed in 1080i, they clearly look upscaled from a standard definition source.
I really enjoyed watching Discovery Atlas: Complete Collection. The series mixes standard
issue travelogue-style material with personal stories to great effect, giving a brief but solid overview
of each culture it sets out to cover. Whether you're a real traveler, a couch potato, or just someone
who enjoys learning about other peoples and places, Discovery Atlas is a trip worth taking.
Recommended.
All countries
