By Max James
Okay, it’s a kids’ film. True, it is a tad anthropomorphic, and yes, it is slightly cutesy. But watch this Netflix special. The cinematography is incredible. Stream it on the largest, best-quality screen you can access, and sit back for just over an hour to be amazed and entranced.
Award-winning Australian documentary director Nick Robinson and cinematographer Pete West have captured in astonishing detail the life history of a sharp-nosed pufferfish from tiny larva to mature adult, on the Great Barrier Reef. Using super-macro techniques developed by West’s BioQuest Studios, who are at the cutting edge of underwater filming, this rivals anything being broadcast by natural history filmmakers.
Much is filmed on the reef and then melded with the stunning work produced by BioQuest’s indoor studios in Queensland using microscopic filming.
The slow-motion sequences and the careful editing create a stunning package.
Marvel as a seahorse hunts tiny crustaceans, then be knocked out when the cameras close in even further, and you see the microscopic crustaceans feeding on seagrass flowers. Watch a cone snail devour, in gruesome detail, a zombie snail. Stare into the eye of a frogfish in extreme close-up. Delight at a coral-spawning sequence.
Australian actress Rose Byrne narrates and, considering this is pitched at children, does a fine job of explaining the complexities of the eat-or-be-eaten world of the coral reef.
