'Whales: An Unforgettable Journey'

The film opens with images of several blue whales feeding. Little is known of these elusive whales and capturing them on film must be quite a challenge. We then continue on to Argentina's Peninsula Valdez, a famous breeding ground for right whales, where there are some stunning aerial and underwater shots of the right whales and a glimpse of a rare white calf.

The remainder of the film focuses mainly on humpback whales, examining them first in their breeding grounds in the waters of the Hawaiian Islands and then in their feeding grounds off the coast of Alaska. There were many wonderful underwater scenes of groups of humpbacks as well as mother and calf pairs.

'Whales: An Unforgettable Journey' was originally filmed in 70mm IMAX format which means every inch of footage was captured with a camera the size of a small Volkswagen. The film was later adapted for television viewing. Since an IMAX screen is the size of half a football field and most television screens rival a mere Monopoly board, the original film was cropped ruthlessly to fit in your living room and then cropped again to squeeze within the borders of your television set. I'm afraid some of the magic of the original has no doubt been lost on the proverbial cutting room floor.

Cropping aside, I still think this film is well worth the watch. There are some stunning sequences of whale behavior and there are touching scenes of humans interacting with whales. The film also includes beautiful panoramic views of coastal Argentina, Hawaii, and Alaska and the narration by Patrick Stewart is engaging and informative.

Biologist Roger Payne helped plan much of the filming and narrates portions of the film, as does biologist Debbie Glockner Ferrari. These researchers offered valuable expertise to a number of scenes, but their narration slipped in and out of the film at unpredictable intervals.

The film is geared best to a general audience. It impressed me more for the unique images of whales than for the organization of the content and narration. The film offers a narrower view of whales than its title implies, but still offers a unique, beautiful, and worthwhile glimpse of these fascinating creatures.