Wild Ocean

I saw this today on an IMAX screen, it was a pretty cool piece, it had nice visuals that worked well. There were some nice shots flying over coast line which were very exciting, and lots of footage of schoals of sardines and their predators, it was nice to see dolphins, whales and other animals on a huge screen in 3D. The documentary was about the natural food chain of the ocean and how it has been disrupted in many places by human fishing. This focused on the sea around South Africa where the food chain is still intact like it used to be elsewhere. It also showed a fair bit of fisherman and other people of the area which was just as interesting as the amazing land/sea shots. It spoke about how we need to protect the delicate balance of the food chain. It also had quite nice accompanying music.

Each year an unbelievable feeding frenzy takes place in the oceans of South Africa as billions of sardines migrate up the KwaZulu-Natal Coast. The migration has provided an annual food source for both life in the sea and the people living along the African shores for countless generations. The film demonstrates how business, government, and the local people have joined forces to protect this invaluable ecological resource. "Wild Ocean" will delve audiences into an epic underwater struggle for survival and reveal the economic and cultural impact the migration has on the coastal communities.

This nature documentary traces the volatile events of the annual sardine migration through the KwaZulu-Natal Wild Coast off of South Africa. As massive schools of the fish move through the ocean like living black clouds, they attract the attention of dive-bombing Cape Gannets, Cape Fur Seals, and Common and Bottlenose Dolphins, as well as Blacktip, Copper Head, and Dusky Sharks. Also on the scene are massive Humpback Whales, who feed off of the plankton that live in abundance off of the coast. Wild Ocean is a dazzling assembly of breathtaking underwater and aerial cinematography that captures the exquisite beauty of the Wild Coast in the kind of ultra-fine detail that only IMAX can deliver.

Wild Ocean's awe-inspiring shots of the South African coast and stunning underwater cinematography are allowed to speak for themselves. The natural beauty of sweeping vistas and the primal but elegant behavior of aquatic animals are the stars of the show. Highlights of the program include the slow and stately movements of grizzled, barnacled Humpback Whales, a shark feeding frenzy, and the surreal sight of flocks of Cape Gannets zipping downward through the water like missiles as they plunge-dive the schools of sardines, striking the water at incredibly high speeds. We also get a glimpse of local fishermen—who rely on the sardine migration for survival—casting their nets into the teeming water. If Wild Ocean has a flaw it's that, like most IMAX features, its 40-minute running time leaves you wanting more.

Wild Ocean was shot by veteran IMAX cinematographer Reed Smoot. His beautiful work is captured in high style by the 1080p/VC-1 transfer on this Blu-ray. Detail is spectacular throughout the feature, rivalling the crisp imagery of high-definition digital video without sacrificing any of the warmth and character of celluloid. Colors are bold and accurate. The image is free of digital artifacts. The only limitation is by the large and unwieldy IMAX cameras, the show is constructed of the sort of long, stately wide shots so common in IMAX that they've almost become the visual cliché. But each and every frame of the movie is so packed with beauty, that visual aesthetic is hardly a problem.