Race of Life (2015– ) User Reviews

Both good and bad

[horse_hugger · 5/10 · 8 March 2018]

First, the good: the content is good. Interesting animals and well-done footage, though I'll agree with a previous reviewer on the repetition of scenes. Now, the bad: the narrator is incredibly boring. Having a little bit of animation in his voice would be better. The background music is WAY too loud - makes it hard to hear the narrator.

Love nature shows but

[warrenomesser · 5/10 · 4 April 2018]

This one seems only average hence a 5 of 10 rating. The writers for the show insist that the narrator uses the "race of life" phrase every 20 seconds. It seems the show creators are more interested in justifying the title of the show rather than an in-depth look at the predators and prey. However, the cinematography is excellent.

Great cinematography... however the information given is inaccurate.

[bugscoke · 6/10 · 18 April 2018]

The cinematography is great, with an abundance of extreme up-close shots of all types of creatures. The issue that I have with this series, is that the "facts" are not always correct and some even seem to be made up, based on what the video is showing. I would suggest that the producers check their data about animal, insect and any other form of life they show. If children are using this series to "learn", unfortunately, they will still need to do further research to get the correct "facts".

Could have been great!

[samanthasolson · 2/10 · 21 August 2018]

By episode 9 I had to stop. SO MUCH good information but it seemed like at least every other sentence had to include the phrase "Race of Life". It was to the point it drove me insane. I love animal shows, I actually learned something, the research and production was astounding. But, hearing "Race Of Life" in every sentence ruined it.

Factually inaccurate

[mrpelletier-85349 · 1/10 · 16 November 2018]

The narrator begin the episode on Gila monsters and scorpions by saying life came out of the ocean 5million years ago. Seriously!? Then the montage of the rattlesnake hunting: while hunting the rattlesnake is rattling its rattle. Again, seriously?!

False facts, terrible editing and repetition...

[DeceptiveFox · 27 January 2019]

This documentary series is hard to handle for a number of reasons...

The facts are inaccurate. Part of the reason a person will generally watch a documentary is to learn, but I'd suggest viewers not to absorb the information presented here as the series is frequently wrong. 'The Tasmanian Devil has the most powerful bite in all the animal kingdom' - no it doesn't. 'A baby wildebeest can run as fast as the herd within minutes of being born' - no it can't. I could go on and on here...

The editing is terrible. A supposed chase between a lion and ostrich goes something like this...lion walking in the grass alone, ostrich starts running, cut to a clearly different lion running through grass, cut to what appears to be 70's film footage of an ostrich, cut back to yet another lion 'who has lost his meal for the day' when in the upper portion of the screen you can see the gazelle it was chasing getting away. These cuts happen frequently for the various animal segments.

Lastly, the repetition. Every other sentence contains the wording 'race of life'. The first episode is LOADED with this phrase, but the remaining episodes tone it down but only slightly. You'll hear things like 'the shark has sharp teeth to win its race of life. It uses them to catch this seal, which has lost its race of life.

Bottom line: Unless you just want to enjoy the wildlife footage, avoid this series at all costs.

Race for Life: Catchphrase Gone Wrong

[makolina · 2/10 · 1 March 2019]

I normally love watching documentaries about animals. I watched the first two episodes of this series. This series is fraught with inaccurate facts (the ocean is deeper than 10 kilometers, it stated the ocean was as deep as 10 kilometers, stated platypus were part mammal, part marsupial and part something else, not even sure how that can be scientific fact) and terrible footage (I don't think they recorded it themselves and they use many repeated scenes). The catchphrase "race for life" was used at the end of every other sentence instead of trying to make better use of the 25 or so minutes each episode is. Also the episodes felt disjointed. They hardly spent anytime talking about any animal, just as you were like yeah (insert animal), they were done talking about it and the narrator used his best monotone voice each episode the entire time. I wish I could say this series does animals justice, but alas, an epic fail.

Boring.

[bcalvert9 · 3/10 · 23 October 2017]

One of the worst modern animal documentaries I have ever watched. Slow, boring, like it is made for third graders. Episode 9 on animal defenses talks about deer and all the species in the deer family. It is like they got their information from the Disney " Bambi" movie. Saying the "dad" protects the mother and the fawn. It calls the male elk a buck and a female a doe. This is really major mistakes. The video is put together haphazard with no continuity. Not worth any time.

How prey animals avoid being their predator's next meal

[bettycjung · 11 October 2017]

10/11/17. I really enjoyed this 13-episode series that looks at the lives of prey. Yes, animals that spend their whole lives avoiding being the next meal of the predators that hunt them. The cinematography is generally very good, however, I don't understand why the scenes of attacks were repeated 3x in each instance. Worth watching and educational overall.