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National Geographic - The Incredible Human Body
Warner Bros. // Unrated // July 16, 2002
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Like the National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Specials cover a wide variety of interesting topics in history, current events, science, nature, archaeology, conservation, and anything else that's part of the human experience. In The Incredible Human Body, National Geographic takes a look at the biological side of humanity: how our physical bodies work.
The 55-minute program (not 60 minutes as the packaging claims) is well-structured and well-paced, but the choice of material is oddly unbalanced. Though it's entitled "the incredible human body," it's curiously narrow in its focus, being divided about equally between topics related to in-vitro fertilization and surgery for a brain tumor, with a "real-life" couple followed through each situation. A few other aspects of the body are briefly touched on, like the heart or the genetic code of DNA, but they are indeed just touched on, not explored.
Overall, though, it is unfortunately still rather shallow. By being restricted to just two topics, it lacks the breadth that I'd expect from a program on "the human body" as a whole, while at the same time, it doesn't offer much in-depth information on either of the topics that are presented. A great deal of time is spent on the "human face" of each situation, with many interviews with the couple who are trying to conceive a child by IVF and the couple who are facing the husband's impending brain surgery; I have to say that this "personalization" of the material increases the fluff-to-content ratio without really enhancing the program. A light touch of the human face of the situation is certainly a good idea, but in The Incredible Human Body it has expanded to fill too much of the program time at the cost of more informative material.
Visually, The Incredible Human Body is very well-presented. Concepts that are introduced are not just described by the narrator, but also shown visually, usually with computer-generated images. The brain surgery section in particular shows how far medical imaging has come in terms of visualizing the inside of someone's skull, layer by layer. It's just too bad that the quality of the content doesn't live up to the presentation.
Video
The Incredible Human Body is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, as it was made for television broadcast, with excellent image quality. Colors are strong and vivid, which makes for additional impact since many of the scenes make great use of colors in the computer models of DNA, the heart, the brain, and so on. The print is very clean and noise-free, with the exception of a few brief shots that showed some grain. The image is also quite sharp and well-defined; all in all, it looks great.
Audio
The Dolby 2.0 track for this program does its job quite well; the narrator's voice, as well as the voice of the various interview subjects included in the piece, is clear and pleasant-sounding. These two sets of voices take up most of the soundtrack, but some incidental environmental sounds, such as the sound effects for a heart beating, are also picked up fairly well.
Extras
The DVD's menus are reasonable to navigate, but there's an irritating forced introduction to begin with. The special features are fairly simple: trailers for three other National Geographic Specials (on crocodiles, the making of The Lord of the Rings, and the Vatican) and short promotional snippets for National Geographic in general, and for the National Geographic web site and television programs.
Final thoughts
For an adult, the program really doesn't have much to offer. For a family with kids, it probably would make a passable evening's viewing; kids might enjoy the low-key introduction of a few interesting facts about the body. On the other hand, the brain tumor sequence includes actual footage of the surgery, which while not exactly gruesome, is somewhat disturbing and could very easily bother a viewer with a combination of a vivid imagination and a weak stomach. If your family is fond of National Geographic specials, it's probably worth a rental.
The 55-minute program (not 60 minutes as the packaging claims) is well-structured and well-paced, but the choice of material is oddly unbalanced. Though it's entitled "the incredible human body," it's curiously narrow in its focus, being divided about equally between topics related to in-vitro fertilization and surgery for a brain tumor, with a "real-life" couple followed through each situation. A few other aspects of the body are briefly touched on, like the heart or the genetic code of DNA, but they are indeed just touched on, not explored.
Overall, though, it is unfortunately still rather shallow. By being restricted to just two topics, it lacks the breadth that I'd expect from a program on "the human body" as a whole, while at the same time, it doesn't offer much in-depth information on either of the topics that are presented. A great deal of time is spent on the "human face" of each situation, with many interviews with the couple who are trying to conceive a child by IVF and the couple who are facing the husband's impending brain surgery; I have to say that this "personalization" of the material increases the fluff-to-content ratio without really enhancing the program. A light touch of the human face of the situation is certainly a good idea, but in The Incredible Human Body it has expanded to fill too much of the program time at the cost of more informative material.
Visually, The Incredible Human Body is very well-presented. Concepts that are introduced are not just described by the narrator, but also shown visually, usually with computer-generated images. The brain surgery section in particular shows how far medical imaging has come in terms of visualizing the inside of someone's skull, layer by layer. It's just too bad that the quality of the content doesn't live up to the presentation.
Video
The Incredible Human Body is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, as it was made for television broadcast, with excellent image quality. Colors are strong and vivid, which makes for additional impact since many of the scenes make great use of colors in the computer models of DNA, the heart, the brain, and so on. The print is very clean and noise-free, with the exception of a few brief shots that showed some grain. The image is also quite sharp and well-defined; all in all, it looks great.
Audio
The Dolby 2.0 track for this program does its job quite well; the narrator's voice, as well as the voice of the various interview subjects included in the piece, is clear and pleasant-sounding. These two sets of voices take up most of the soundtrack, but some incidental environmental sounds, such as the sound effects for a heart beating, are also picked up fairly well.
Extras
The DVD's menus are reasonable to navigate, but there's an irritating forced introduction to begin with. The special features are fairly simple: trailers for three other National Geographic Specials (on crocodiles, the making of The Lord of the Rings, and the Vatican) and short promotional snippets for National Geographic in general, and for the National Geographic web site and television programs.
Final thoughts
For an adult, the program really doesn't have much to offer. For a family with kids, it probably would make a passable evening's viewing; kids might enjoy the low-key introduction of a few interesting facts about the body. On the other hand, the brain tumor sequence includes actual footage of the surgery, which while not exactly gruesome, is somewhat disturbing and could very easily bother a viewer with a combination of a vivid imagination and a weak stomach. If your family is fond of National Geographic specials, it's probably worth a rental.
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