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One of my all time favorites.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

There are people, who absolutely hate this film. OK, I can understand why. The movie going audience today expects humor, action, special effects... and no, nature can not offer the same breath taking effects as computer technicians at major Hollywood studios can, but if you'd stop and think (which isn't one of the strongest points of the average movie going population now-a-days) about it, you'd see the beauty of it.The shots are excellent and the comments are kept down to a minimum, so you can enjoy and experience the wildlife in one of the harshest climates in the world.No, this movie isn't about environmental change. It does show a very fragile environment and yes, due to human induced climate changes this balance can break, but that's about it (on the environmental issue). It tries to show all the glory of the wildlife. It doesn't explain or tell you about it, it shows you and you need to deduct (so if you have no knowledge about wildlife in the first place, no curiosity about anything that's not chip powered - you will be disappointed).Remember the grand documentaries about the wild life in Africa? This one is actually better. The camera work is remarkable and if you are interested you will learn quite a lot from behavior (for instance: how snoring can kill a pray). Also the natural light shows of the various animals you get to see in the underwater and under-ice world are remarkable. I've never before seen how an octopus lures it's pray instead of catching it and so forth.But as I claimed before - this one is for nature lovers only, the rest better avoid this (god forbids they'd become environmentally aware).

I found the documentary The White Planet to be an amazing photographic journey of the arctic and what the world stands to lose should all, or a significant portion, of the arctic ice melt. The film followed the lives of selected animals across a year - beginning with winter - including a mother polar bear with newborn cubs, and a large group of caribou. These were interspersed with footage of sea and bird life, including whales, walruses and seals.The photography was incredible, with both underwater shots and scenes from high above the ground. The music was haunting, and I felt it was well chosen to accompany each segment of the film. The message about the future of arctic animals was subtle but still made very clear - these animals stand to lose their way of life if the ice continues to melt.In summary, the film was exquisite on a large screen, and I will be recommending it to friends.

All I can say is this: This film may be advertised as being about climate change. It isn't!Most laughable moment was the shot of walruses sitting around doing nothing when the voice over said "The walruses philosophically await the return of the ice."Ahh, no they don't. They sit around and belch!This film was sponsored by WWF. Prime funding for that little organisation comes from climate changer #1 Shell.Boring, pointless and too many repeated shots.Official selection for the 2006 Melbourne International Film Festival.Shows what a sad state the film fest is in.Avoid at all costs.

Following the proud tradition of French Dockumentaries like "Travelling Birds" Thierry Piantanida and Thierry Ragobert take us on a journey through the arctic regions.The images are very beautiful, the scenery breathtaking and seeing the amazing herds of animals pass is something everyone should see, at least once. Overall, a very solid and entertaining look at animal life in the arctic circle.Minor spoilers follow from here on! Unfortunately the movie lacks coherence. It fails to draw a portrait of the landscape, hopping around wildly and fails to draw a portrait of the arctic animals, making a limited selection but going rather for the images with the most impact than for a fair representation of the species observed. Further the view taken is rather anthropomorphic, putting human traits and characteristics on animals. Admittedly, I am not quite fair to this movie comparing it to the excellent "Travelling Birds", but I was left with the strong feeling that the makers of this documentary attempted to emulate the success of that movie. This and the failure thereof was for me especially noticeable during the scenes with the ice bears. The mother bear was strongly humanized and the drive to include as many spectator drawing pictures as possible quite evident.Certain scenes like the whale scenes left me with the impression that the film makers ran out of other "impressive" material, so they kind of threw them in...everyone likes whales, right? And this is a nature documentary with some environmental undertones, so we need to have whales, right? Wrong, I would say, these scenes were distracting and ill-fitting with the rest of the film. They were very impressive and beautiful though.So, finally: I would recommend everyone to see this film once, just for the beauty and impact of the pictures. Ignore the commentary, which is relatively sparse anyway. Do not look for a coherent story or complete picture and don't have too high expectations. Keeping this in mind, you are in for 86 minutes of an entertaining documentary.