The Future is Wild - 5 Million Years From Now

Imagine a world so different from ours it might as well be another planet. That’s the desolate and depressing world inhabited here by a wide variety of strange critters with we fleeting resource abusers, the Humans, having all been wiped out by natural selection.

And not before time.

When you put Humanity and the Environment into this context the whole issue suddenly disappears. No more need we worry about so short term a thing as ‘saving the world for our children’ because they’ll come and go in but a blink of an eye. Nature, it seems, has already selected us to be eliminated as a gross error in judgement and our time is limited… to about the next two or three hundred thousand years. So, if you've been putting anything off, now might be the time to do it.

"But in this future Ice Age, two kilometre high ice sheets have reached as far south as Chicago… "

Utilising the latest scientific theory and some second rate computer animation, The Future is Wild series kicks off here with the first of three projected installments; 5 Million Years From Now (the next two are 100 Million and 200 Million). Herein we learn about the new environments we shall be able to visit in five million years when our Time Machine is finally ready. There are all sorts of fantastic beasts that have descended from the creatures stalking the world’s backwoods today and some look pretty fanciful, I gotta say… I mean, the ‘rhinoceros’? Come on. A solid-skinned, horn-faced grass eater? What is this, Jurassic Park?

For fans of good solid science, there are plenty of freaky creatures (these are called scientists) delivering the theories about some other freaky creatures and environments. However, looking so deep into a future I have no way of ever reaching no matter how many souls I harvest, is tantamount to slight boredom. Remember when you were sitting in the theatre when the lights came up after Back to the Future II and not being as impressed as you were by the other two in that famed series? I imagine this is because we couldn’t relate to it as readily as we could identify with the others set in the past. And the same applies here. While the show is fascinating, there doesn’t seem that solidity of where we came from as opposed to where we are going. Who cares where we’re going? We’re here now. That counts for more.

And you’ve only got to look around at us to see that.

In foretelling a grim future, the show looks a tad archaic. While five million years is a long time to evolve stuff, in computer animation the gap is much shorter; say a year between average animation and balls-out-spend-your-whole-allowance-to-see-it-again stuff. This was made in 2002 and sadly resembles the former, whereas it could have looked Lord of the Rings good. No doubt they blew the budget on all them eggheads and boffins they interview throughout.

Delivered in 1.78:1 with 16:9 enhancement, we get some frequent visitors in low level grain although the colour palette is richly saturated and well used. Flesh tones vary from good to pallid to laboratory, with shadow detail great and blacks true to real life. There are some rare moments of shimmering within and some of the computer animation is fairly good; it just gets let down by the crappier stuff and the poor 3D modeling of character critters. Quite watchable for those who don’t much care about the computer animation in their science cereal. Personally, I felt it was re-used and flipped just once or twice too often in saving a buck.

Narrator Christian Rodska does a great job of putting dynamics into the series and really brings the environments in question to life. He speaks clearly and eloquently and with enough emphasis in parts to enthuse the viewer from their slack-jawed stupor. The sound effects used for the characters, however, differ greatly from Mr. Rodska’s voice, a fact I’m sure he’s happy with. These sounds all get a little stockish and again re-used throughout. They seem to be taken from our creatures of today and not authentically dredged from five million years hence, which just smacks of a tight budget. For shame, producers!

Music is suitably apt for the program, being dramatic or pensive as required and overall goes a long way to marrying the show’s multiple parts together in a unifying manner. Nice work, but nothing to camp out for tickets over. Oh, and being made for TV we naturally get a Dolby Digital stereo presentation in the audio mix. This is fine and does the job admirably.

Ah, those elusive extras. Here we have a swag that looks like a haul on the surface, but underneath, well, it’s a different kettle of futuristic fish.

First up is a short film entitled The Future is Now (technically accurate to someone living in the past) and this is actually a composite 25:10 version of the entire 101 minute program on this DVD. Perhaps made as a summarised precursor, this is a repeat performance if you watch the episodes first and therefore not of great interest.

Next comes the bizarre making of featurette, which is 5:01 that looks like it’s been snipped out of a much longer program with no edits, no intro or voiceover and no real explanation of why it’s considered a ‘making of’. In fact, it only briefly covers the wireframe construction of one of the creatures animated in the show while the rest is just interviews and crap. Then it cuts out mid-sentence and we’re back to the menu. Bizarre and worthless.

3D animation promises more than it’s worth as it’s just four animated character turnarounds of some of the critters. The following photo gallery, which holds 19 still images from the show, was probably used as promo stuff for advertising.

The video gallery sounds new and exciting and is actually just four montage shots of animation, sound levels and animal noises merged into a short (again, most likely) promo or background piece. Fairly useless, but better than paying for an empty disc.

Background Information features 21 pages of text documenting summaries of what the narrator tells us in the show, while 29 pages follow with that all-important information on the scientists involved in this production. It’s very comprehensive too.

Finally the links page which features but one address which is also featured on the back of the case. It’s over there (on your right) on the links bit if you’re interested.

So not a great deal, with plenty repeating itself from the show. Oh well, it’s still worth a look.

For fans of documentaries on scientific future developments of the world’s ecosystems and evolution of animals, this couldn’t be more perfect. For everyone else, while this is interesting and well researched and envisioned, it is lacking a bit in the animation department. Ordinarily this could be overlooked, but this show relies heavily on animation, making up roughly 20 of the 25 or so minutes per episode.

There’s no doubt this has been a labour of love for a lot of people with research and character development and interviews and all sorts of other things, but in the end, while it does hold some interest, I found it mildly soporific. And I get nerdy and enjoy docos regularly enough. So far in the future it has so little bearing on us today that it’s disembodied from us and thereby doesn’t appeal to that internal child always clambering for attention and reasons why anything applies to them.

Actually, the little male kids you know could probably get interested in it, but I’m not willing to bet on that.

Worth a look, definitely, but I’m not sure about ownership.