Product Review

Mutant Planet is a celebration of the power of evolution; an exploration of the forces that shape life in all its unexpected glory. This breath-taking series is a groundbreaking cross-genre fusion of blue-chip natural history and cutting edge science documentary. Viewers are transported to six strange worlds within worlds where it seems as if nature has thrown the rule book out the window. But Mutant Planet goes in for a closer look, and reveals how the magic of evolution and the forces of nature have together shaped eccentric animals, eclectic lifestyles and unorthodox patterns of behavior. Each place has a unique history and a suite of extraordinary characters. The episodes follow a story arc with the main characters - examining some of their life dramas. But it also weaves in the dramas of evolution that have made the animals so special - so weird and wonderful. Though set firmly in the present day, each episode also leaps back in time to reveal the geological and evolutionary forces which have resulted in such distinctive groups of creatures. Isolation, adversity, resilience and explosive radiations are among the series' recurring themes, but in each microcosm, these themes play out with astonishingly varied results. NHK and NHNZ's multi-award winning film-making partnership combined to use the latest technologies to cast a spotlight on six far corners of the planet, to reveal these rich and surprising natural worlds.

New Zealand is a fairytale archipelago with a turbulent geological past. A land with astonishing creatures: flightless birds, night dwellers, living fossils. Evolution has run wild on this isolated land, producing some of the world's most unusual animals.

Australia is a floating laboratory whose ancient geological past and changing climate have triggered mutations in the animals here, culminating in over 200 species of bizarre pouched marsupials, which are all equipped with astounding survival features.

On Brazil's ancient Cerrado grassland a community of eccentric creatures are all inter-dependent, and all life revolves around the landscape of mysterious mud-caked monoliths.

On the shores of Africa's Rift Valley Lakes a troop of chimpanzees provides an astonishing evolutionary counterpoint to the amazing story of small fish living beneath the surface, in a species pressure cooker, unlike anywhere else on the planet.

The land of lemurs, an ancient primate family that evolved from only one small group which arrived on the island more than 60 million years ago. For them Madagascar became the land of evolutionary opportunity and today there are almost 100 living species.

Isolated from the Asian mainland, Japan's animals have been forced to endure the most violently active islands on earth in a climate of extremes. Animals cast away on these outcrops must find innovative ways to overcome periods of starvation.