Wild Pacific

Although the monumental Planet Earth has become the gold standard by which all nature documentaries are measured, that hasn't stopped filmmakers from continuing to work in the genre: witness the handsomely mounted, six-episode Wild Pacific, which explores the planet's largest body of water. Produced by the BBC (which also made Planet Earth), the series was originally (and more accurately) called South Pacific, where all of it was filmed. While the production doesn't break any new ground, the cinematography is consistently breathtaking (especially the underwater footage): viewers will see many astonishing creatures unique to specific islands (like the eight-pound robber crab, which is big and strong enough to open a coconut; and New Guinea's dingiso, a bear-like tree kangaroo), along with the magnificent sperm whale and some tiger sharks who migrate every year to a tiny Hawaiian island where young albatrosses are easy pickings when they land on the ocean surface while learning to fly. Some of the locations are familiar (Hawaii, Easter Island, the Galapagos archipelago), while others are obscure specks of land (Anuta Island supports a human population on just one-sixth of a square mile). DVD/Blu-ray extras include “making of” segments, which reveal the difficulties and dangers of filming in the wild. Highly recommended. Aud: P. (S. Graham)