On magnificent 4K
Ultra HD and Bluray from director Jean-Michel Cousteau and 3D Entertainment
Films comes a piece by the most trusted name to talk about WONDERS OF THE SEA.
The Cousteau family
is a name synonymous with the ocean beginning with Jacques Cousteau who was a
French Naval Officer who became a conservationist and filmmaker studying life
under the sea. Many people might not know, as I didn't, that Cousteau also helped
to develop the aqua-lung allowing for longer and deeper ocean dives. Through
his research he wrote books and brought the ocean into our living rooms with a
series I saw growing up called The Undersea
world of Jacques Cousteau.
Now his son
Jean-Michel and his children Celine and Fabien are following in their father's
scuba-steps to show us more of the fascinating creatures that live under the
sea. Narrated by Arnold Schwarzenegger who is himself an professed
environmentalist, the film follows the Cousteau's from Fiji to the Bahamas (and
even a stop at Catalina Island), the film is "an important educational and
ecological component, which is emphasize throughout [the film] in a subtle and
non-aggressive manner".
The idea is put
forth that without the ocean we cannot live because 50% of the oxygen on the
earth is provided by the sea and it also absorbs thirty percent of all the man
made Co2. Cousteau says, "When you protect the ocean you protect yourself
and future generations."
All of this is
incredibly important and this documentary allows viewers to see the wonder,
beauty and even comedy of the creatures that depend on the ocean for their
survival. They are colorful, mystical, hilarious, endearing and so stunningly
beautiful that it is impossible to not want to pick up every piece of anything
floating in the ocean. I tell my granddaughter on our walks along the shore
when we see trash, "how would you like to live with that in your
home?" and she understands the importance. It may seem a small thing but
if everyone did a small thing it would easily become a big thing!
The Cousteau's bring
to us all the wonder that is the ocean but they also bring something else - a
bit of themselves. Talking through the documentary, each telling their story
along with Schwarzenegger, the viewer has a chance to know these conservationists
on a family level and discover what motivates them to continue with Jacques
Cousteau's original work.
The bonus features
of the disc include Interview with Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Making of WONDERS OF THE SEA, and Music Video: Heart of the Ocean.
WONDERS OF THE SEA
is eighty one minutes of information and visuals that are absolutely clear,
colorful and tell stories about the creatures we know so little about. It is a
way to understand why people are concerned with what is happening below the
water line. We all tend to take the ocean for granted, especially where I live
because it's right in front of me daily. People walk along the sand, fish,
swing and surf never truly taking a moment to realize the life that is below
and the effect that climate change and pollution have.
I truly believe this
documentary should be shown in schools everywhere as a teaching tool to
introduce students at a young age to a bigger, wetter world. There is a
generation that is coming into their own about the world around them and this
is a chance to see how many of them might see themselves in a wet suit swimming
alongside a Cousteau in the future!
On a side note, in
1975, singer/songwriter John Denver wrote a song Calypso
after Jacques Cousteau's mini-craft and the lines of the song says,
"To sail on a dream on a crystal clear
ocean, To ride on the crest of a wild raging storm, To work in the service of
life and living, In search of the answers to the questions unknown, To be part
of the movement and part of the growing, Part of beginning to understand, Aye
Calypso the places you've been to, The things that you've shown us, The stories
you tell, Aye Calypso, I sing to your spirit, The men who have served you so
long and so well". I couldn't have sung it better myself!
In the end - there
is so much to wonder about in the sea!
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