Our Great National Parks

Colors pop, details come out, and if you’ve got a big screen, some of the visuals are immersive. So, how is Obama as a narrator? He’s OK. His tone is more Policy Wonk Obama than Surprisingly Funny Obama or Soaring Orator Obama, but there are moments where his wryness comes through.

Unsurprisingly, Obama turns out to be a very fine narrator, and not just when Our Great National Parks has dogmatic points to make. ... There’s a very relaxed dissemination of information here that’s genially informative if not rigorously intellectual. Given Obama’s lack of academic background in the subject matter, that’s probably completely appropriate.

While Our Great National Parks has the entirely laudable message that more must be done to preserve natural habitats around the world, the scuffed-up Attenborough-ness of the whole thing feels like a recycling project taken too far.