Here is a beautifully-filmed documentary on the migration of birds. This movie took four years to make, and one can see why. You cannot get much closer, I would think, to the flying birds than what you see here. Cameras were literally attached to some of the birds so you, the viewer, are up there in the sky right with these (mainly) geese as they migrant thousands of miles.The colors are beautiful and the sound is good. However, be warned there is no dialog so it can be tough viewing the whole 90 minutes in one sitting. Also, I found the best and most interesting footage at the beginning.Nevertheless, this is a good addition to anyone's collection if or no other reason than the magnificent photography and the effort filmmakers put out to make this wildlife documentary. It also is interesting how they show different species every few minutes, where they go each year, how many miles they travel, the exact route, etc. Wildlife and bird-lovers in particular, should love this film.

'Winged Migration' is beautiful, immense and ultimately... disappointing.As a British viewer I may have been previously spoilt by the work of the BBC's Natural History Unit which uses similarly mesmirising visuals to far better affect because we learn something about the subjects. The minimal narration of this film teaches us nothing of the birds, so after the first half hour of soaring geese and gannets diving to the harmonic tones celtic/Gothic choirs, it began to get rather boring, and I say this a bird enthusiast. The stunning visuals might take your breath away and make you marvel at the truly amazing journeys the birds annually undertake, but how much more impressive the birds might have seemed if there was a narration informing of the distances involved, or that birds perhaps born only eight weeks earlier manage to complete them. If on the other hand you want to switch your brain off, and relax to pretty pictures for an hour and a half, this is your movie. It's like muzak. It's an alternative to taking a herbal bath. So far as parents are concerned, unless you're personally capable of providing your children with information about the birds, they'll get just as bored as I did. Finally the staged scenes, primarily the frequent use of imprinted birds, which might not be obvious to most viewers, raises questions about how far wildlife documentary filmmakers should go in their portrayal of the truth. If you initially understand that the flight sequences are being filmed from a microlight the birds have been specially bred and trained to follow, it gets rather annoying after the first couple of scenes to see yet another wild species coerced that way by the filmmakers. The truth in this film, much like the birds, is manipulated to produce a superficial and oblivious illustration of what are remarkable creatures.Try David Attenborough's, The Life of Birds, instead. All the beauty and explanations too.

Winged Migration is a gorgeous film. I felt as if I were flying along with the birds. I was entranced by the beauty of the birds and their behavior during migration. The way the film was shot added to it's interest and I found it to be very informative. This was well worth the time to watch. You won't be disappointed! The only reason I didn't give this movie a 10 rating is because I didn't think the few minutes of narration added to the film. I felt very distracted by it, especially that the quality of the voice-over was so poor, and the speaker's voice was flat and boring and difficult to understand. There were times when I thought he was speaking through a tube, there was a definite echo in his voice-over. Also, the music was not all that great, I think the film would have been excellent if there was an all-instrument soundtrack. Some of the songs sounded like the choir from the French movie "The Chorus." Overall, it was a beautiful movie, and my criticisms are just my opinion. Please don't be put off by them. The movie is worth seeing.

The cast seems to be very, very comfortable with the camera. I don't know what the director has done to achieve this. I'll take a quick glance around to find out. Oh, so he used professional actors. Good choice. Takes a lot of effort, too - something that must be appreciated.The costume designer must've been smoking something. The designs are in some cases utterly, outrageously unconvincing and inconsistent.The script, then. There are just too many characters. No one gets enough attention. There should've perhaps been less characters. Moreover, it almost seems they aren't even connected to each other. The movie lacks a clear protagonist, a centerpiece. Of the ensemble, the Canadian chaps seem to have a bit more screen time than most. The others do get their moment in the spotlight, and deservedly so. Also featured are very brief but powerful cameos from P. J. Squirrel and Randy Warthog, among others.This paragraph has been designed to be a bridge between the two halves of this comment. I trust you'll notice what changes.I watched a version cut into a two-part miniseries and with Finnish narration, so I can only speak about that. (No penguins! Now, where the penguins? The runtime seems to be the same, though, so I don't know...) It isn't very informative. Eero Saarinen's voice stated such facts as "it is not for aesthetic reasons that the birds fly in formation". Mm-hmm.Some bad-quality video shots - if I have seen correctly - here and there and the ill-chosen music almost ruined my awe at points. I didn't notice the much talked-about CGI shots. Maybe there were none in this version.But the visuals... Simply stated, they are breath-taking, particularly during the airborne scenes, as you'd imagine. One four-second shot of a (excuse me while I consult my dictionary) stork above the Pyrenees alone is worth it.