Nerd Out On Nature

You’ve just been sentenced to LIFE…with bonus features!

Today, Ma Nature drops her hotly anticipated album of greatest hits and previously unreleased tracks as the BBC/Discovery-produced nature doc LIFE arrives on Blu-ray and DVD. The four-disc, eleven-part ode to wildlife comes from the same tree huggers responsible for the 2007 Planet Earth spectacular and is narrated by none other than Oprah Winfrey -- because, you know, she needs the work.

The landmark creature feature was four years in the making, during which time its creators actually invented new filming techniques to capture the wild ones like never before. The yogi-cam, for instance, is a gyroscopically stabilized shooter like the ones used on helicopters for smooth areal shots, only this one is rigged to a 4X4 to deliver bump-free footage of migrating reindeer and elephants.

The new camerawork resulted in the capture of tons of animal shenanigans previously never-before seen on film. You’ll see humpback whales in heat (finally, they live up to their name!), young cheetahs taking down ostriches twice their size and capuchin monkeys slapping their nuts (pictured).

Bonus goods include ten production diaries, deleted scenes and, without question, the greatest DVD extra ever conceived: the ability to turn off Oprah’s yammering and listen to soothing music instead.

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