mrschristine.com

Hold me closer, tiny dancer

Published October 30, 2020

Tiny World

I don’t normally care for nature programmes. I mean, let’s be clear, I think they’re incredible. The time, effort and production values always blow me away and whenever I see an episode of a nature show, I’m usually entranced. But they don’t really grab me and I don’t seek them out.

However, I couldn’t really ignore the enticing idea of Paul Rudd narrating a half hour show that focuses in on the smaller elements of this planet of ours - the new Apple TV nature show Tiny World.

Each episode takes a look at a different area - woodland, jungle, islands, even a back garden - and instead of looking at lions and tigers and bears, instead zooms in on the smaller animals. Some are so tiny they’re about the size of a grain of rice.

I genuinely spent most of every episode saying: “This can’t be real. How have they done this? It’s insane!” That both reflected the incredible scenes that nature gives us for free, but also what amazing visuals the production team managed to come up with. Slo-mos, tracking tiny animals, tracking fast animals, being in the right place at the right time to get some absolutely intense and astounding shots.

The sales pitch says: “Brand new camera technology allows us, for the very first time, to see the world through the eyes of the tiniest creatures and witness the extraordinary things they do to survive.” I’m assuming this brand new camera technology is effectively just becoming Ant-man and following the creatures around. There is no other explanation.

It’s definitely worth watching, even if nature TV isn’t normally your thing. I was very grateful that although there were some elements of peril, for the most part nothing too harrowing occurred. For a relative documentary newbie, I appreciated that.

Oh, and I can’t post this review without mentioning the highlight of the entire series. It’s something of a meme already, it seems, but the moment a peacock spider ups arms and starts dancing to the Macarena… I really couldn’t stop laughing.

← Previous Widget wonderland
Next → Rocking the boat