Big Cats

A lushly filmed compilation, Big Cats features two entries from PBS's acclaimed Nature series, both of which focus on carnivorous cats. In “Chasing Big Cats,” photographers extraordinaire Owen Newman and Amanda Barrett capture ultra-rare scenes of cats--leopards, lions, cheetahs, servals, and caracals--in Africa over a 14-year period. What's striking is the quality of the images, especially as the pair move from standard cameras to makeshift high-tech (when filming the nocturnal habits of the leopard, for instance, the filmmakers started with new video cameras that work well in low light and added a combo infrared/night vision setup that allowed them to capture beautiful grayscale images in pitch dark). The famous '90s-shot footage, which has now appeared in other nature documentaries, is amazing: viewers witness how a leopard, guided by its powerful senses of smell and hearing, carefully stalks prey it can't see for hours. In “Jaguar: Year of the Cat,” filmmakers use a series of carefully constructed sets to capture a number of animals (including the titular jaguar, snakes, butterflies and moths, birds, monkeys, turtles, ocelots, and more) in their natural environment in Central America's Belize. Once again, the visuals are excellent, but what is truly striking here are the sounds of the tropical rainforest (when the rain is falling, the viewer almost feels wet). The pace here is a bit slower than in "Chasing Big Cats," and the somewhat anthropomorphic narration, suggesting what the animals may be thinking or feeling, occasionally distracts from the real onscreen drama. Still, these are minor quibbles, given the overall high quality of these two Nature episodes on one bargain-priced disc. Highly recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (C. Block)