[tonyvdb]

With the release of the new BBC series Life on both BluRay and standard DVD there are two versions available.
One with David Attenborough narrating

and the other release with Oprah Winfrey narrating

Who do you prefer to do the narration?

I personally like David Attenborough and bought that version.

The other interesting thing is the David Attenborough version is a total of 550 minutes But the Oprah version is only 440 minutes as it seems only the David Attenborough version has the 10 min extra behind the scenes clips after each episode.
Also the Oprah BluRay version is only 1080i where as the Attenborough BluRay is 1080p with the exception of one episode "Plants".

 

[celica_pete21]

Oh the one with David Attenborough is by far MUCH better! There is no way you can take Oprah seriously. Maybe if you have young kids (0-5ish) then Oprah might be better. But if you don't want to feel like someone is talking to you like you are 2 years old, go with Sir David!

By the way I bought the one with David. I watch a lot of clips on discover.com with Oprah...some of the same clips I've seen now even, and David does a MUCH better job narrating, and explainging things going on.

 

[tonyvdb]

By the way I bought the one with David. I watch a lot of clips on discover.com with Oprah...some of the same clips I've seen now even, and David does a MUCH better job narrating, and explainging things going on.

Are you saying that they dont say the same thing? I was under the impression that they were scripted?

 

[celica_pete21]

Not at all! I mean for the most part, they are in a sense saying the same thing, but they are two different people, so they have their own way of saying things. On top of that, some of the scripts are different at least from a handful of clips by Oprah I have seen.

Below is a quote from a person on Amazon who reviewed the Oprah version, this is not my quote,

"This is atrocious. I'm watching "Life" on Discovery channel right now, with Oprah narrating. Some of the reviewers said that the script was re-written for her, and I can believe it. I can't believe Attenborough saying lines like "hunting crab seals is toooo much work!" Oprah narrates this thing as if she were reading a bedtime story to little kids and comes off as snarky and condescending. In the opening segment, she's discussing a fox chasing an ibex kid and it's basically like "heeeere comes the fox! UH OH!!"

And on amazon, the US version has a 1.5 star rating, while the British version is 5 star, so I'd say that was enough for me. lol

 

[Matteo]

I agree, Oprah almost made it hard to watch. I found myself turning the volume down and just watching the video. I know a lot of people think she can do no wrong, but she done a bad, bad thang.