After their time in office, our presidents devote their time to many different projects and passions. For Pres. Barack Obama, preserving public lands has been a calling. Next week, Netflix is releasing a new docuseries narrated by Pres. Obama about national parks around the world. It’s called Our Great National Parks, and it premieres on April 13.
We’re always urging you to visit the national parks. But, the series visits places like Gunung Leuser National Park in Indonesia, Chilean Patagonia in Chile and Tsavo National Park in Kenya. These are global sites most of us will never reach, so the show is a wonderful way to experience them! The show looks at national land and the animals that live on it on five continents.
The president may seem like an odd host for the show, but Pres. Obama protected more land than any other president. Pres. Obama declared 1.65 million acres of land in Nevada and Utah, and an additional 87,000 in Maine, as national monuments. He and Michelle Obama are producers of the series.
“Around the world, the more isolated the national park, the more unusual its creatures and the more extraordinary their behaviors,” Pres. Obama said in the trailer. “When humanity started to protect these wild places, we did not realize how important they would become.”
The official synopsis is, “Spanning five continents, the series brims with wonder, humor and optimism as each episode tells the story of a national park through the lives of its wildest residents — both big and exceptionally small — and explores our changing relationship with wilderness.” As it shares the same executive producer as Blue Planet II, James Honeyborne, you know you can expect beautiful footage of gorgeous landscapes and incredible closeups of animals. You can also expect “storylines” that have you emotionally invested in the survival of individual animals.
Shooting the series took 33 expeditions to 10 different countries over three years. And, for parts of it, they were following Covid-19 precautions and handling the pandemic while making an ambitious film series.
“We set out to capture dramatic natural spectacles, reveal new behavior and experience our national parks as we never have before,” explained series producer Sophie Todd. “And to show that, even if you’ve never set foot in one, what happens in them affects each and every one of us. We wanted to showcase the incredible habitats that exist globally. It’s one human idea we can all agree is a good thing!”
This is a docuseries you won’t want to miss! You’ll be able to visit gorgeous national parks all around the world from your living room!
