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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 36 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Best sea turtle life history film made to date! Nov 25, 2011
By R Schmidt
Wow.
I've reviewed most of the sea turtle films and books that you'll find on Amazon, even some that you won't find here (most recently "Last Journey for the Leatherback," by the Turtle Island Restoration Network). All films have pluses and minuses, strengths and weaknesses.
Turtle: The Incredible Journey is simply the best film depicting the natural history, trials and tribulations, and the lost years of sea turtles to date.
The focus is a female loggerhead, hatched off the coast of Florida (Miami area?), past the ghost crabs and seabirds, into the Gulf Stream and the Sargasso Sea, traveling to Newfoundland, then the Azores, then a Caribbean island, before heading back at age 21 to make her own nest on an altered Florida beach. The film depicts the effects of storms and gyres, discusses navigation, shows threats from oil spills, plastics, and long-line fisheries, and discusses the evolution of a loggerhead's feeding habits over time. Yes, there are additional things that could have been included, but the director put together a nice overview of loggerheads. And with noted sea turtle biologist Jeanette Wyneken as a consultant, the film is about as "correct" as a film depicting the life of a loggerhead can be. I knew that the same turtle wasn't being followed for 21 years, and I was amazed at how the film was edited to carefully merge the various sea turtles and locations into one coherent story.
Excellent, excellent film of loggerhead sea turtles. This is a must see for the sea turtle enthusiast!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Beautiful Filming and Compellingly Told, But Gets a Bit Boring for Young Viewers Dec 30, 2011
By L. Erickson
"Mommy Mystic"
I watched this with my kids, ages 5 and 7, who watch a lot of nature documentaries and generally enjoy them. This is the amazing story of a loggerhead sea turtle, which makes a 25 year migration from its birthplace on a beach in Florida to the North Atlantic, Africa, the Caribbean and back to the place of birth to lay eggs. It is based on the real migration patterns of these turtles, although obviously this is a fictionalized account - in real life only 1 in 10,000 make it. This particular turtle encounters every possible danger a young turtle can encounter, both natural and man-made. The narrator Miranda Richardson tells it like a story, and there is a lot of other animal and environmental facts woven in.
Overall, that should make for a great family film, and it almost does. It is just a bit long and slow though, for elementary-aged children, and my own wandered off several times. I enjoyed it, but also started getting restless in places. So I still recommend it, but know in advance that it might not keep young children fully engaged for the full running time.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Amazing Photography Dec 02, 2011
By Massage Therapist
"Massage Therapist"
I adore sea turtles and purchased this documentary to witness the life of the Loggerhead. It is amazing and the underwater photography is spectacular. A must see for everyone.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Educational, Entertaining and Brilliantly Presented! Nov 23, 2011
By Pauline Kael-Jones
"PK-Jones Film Reviews"
This is one of the best nature documentaries I've ever seen, due in part to the filmmakers' insistence on visual clarity in telling the story. In order to show the amazing migratory path of a Loggerhead Turtle, director Nick Stringer employs "A" level graphic elements (such as a 'zoom' shot from the Gulf Stream all the way out to low-Earth orbit in order to show the scope of this journey). Yes, some "purists" will cry foul in that dry documentaries rarely make full use of the visual palette that modern technology provides. This same absurdist thinking would suggest that using special cameras -- or even artificial lighting! -- perverts the genre. But Stringer understands that clarity of communication, and audience rapture combine to make a more rewarding, more education and more entertaining piece. I believe that most progressive documentarians will follow Stringer's lead by utilizing such graphics (although "An Inconvenient Truth" also made use of visual effects to present its case). Absolutely terrific film!
Great Documentary May 21, 2013
By lori l. donahoe
This movie was a great addition to my sea turtle unit. The kids loved the movie and it gave great information too.
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