Colorado Plateau/Grand Canyon set

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Programs: B-

 

 

The success the last few decades of Imax/Omnimax films, which are usually educational, has put into question the quality of educational programming on the sciences.  Those that were smart and great endure, while those that were skimping start to look old.  A double DVD set released under the Reader’s Digest moniker called Peaks, Plateaus, & Canyons of the Colorado Plateau/Grand Canyon.  It offers good details of the subject at hand, and the footage is not bad, though its quality is often lacking.  Where the set gets in trouble is when it deals with film.

 

The narrator brings up so many films and movie stars so casually that it otherwise would not be an issue, but that it does this as if it knew what it was talking about is a disservice to the viewer.  It is trying to get the audience excited, but it lands up embarrassing itself.  As compared to recent similar materials form the likes of PBS and A&E, Reader’s Digest finds themselves outclassed.  Considering other better DVDs the Digest name has been on, that is disappointing.

 

That leaves us to ask who this was aimed towards.  It is not childish, but it is far from full informative.  If the idea was to go for a “family” audience, whose family did they have in mind?  Since each program is only an hour long, why not put all of this on one DVD?  It is just too stretched out in so many ways, that it makes an interesting set of subjects boring.  The program on Disc One was made in 1992, Disc Two from 1988.  The older program is the better of the two, but it also gets carried away with overblowing its subject, if not as badly as the first one.

 

The full frame images on both DVDs are from film, but use videotape for graphics and are a few generations down from their original sources.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 offers simple stereo at best and the music is nothing extraordinary.  There are no extras.

 

This is fair passive viewing, but limited as reference work.  It also supports the false stereotype of Reader’s Digest as lightweight.  Only those most interested in anything involving these locations should get this DVD set.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo