Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Hang on to your VHS version
Comment: This is Palin's best geo-travel documentary, starting in Alaska and traveling counterclockwise around the Pacific to the starting point, taking in Russia, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Philippines, Borneo, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and north. It's better than the newer ones in that it's less scripted and has more spontaneous "finds" and situations. In it, the road is just as important as the destinations, although the transport is occasionally skipped on big airplane jumps.
The DVD contains deleted scenes and a recent interview of Palin as he reminisces on the trip (on the 3rd DVD). Some of the deleted scenes are a plus such as when he first confronts a high tech toilet in the ryokan on Sadogashima.
However, some of the deleted scenes remind you that the scenes they were deleted from were also deleted (Pythonesque?) in this DVD version. One such is the matsuri in Nagasaki, which starts with a close up of dragon heads and ends where men are pulling the mikoshi around the shrine grounds. This is totally left out of the DVD version and the only traces are in the deleted scenes. However, the deleted scenes don't contain the original. If you want to see this missing section, don't sell or toss out your old VHS copies. They are on that release. I don't know what else is missing, but the VHS tapes supposedly add up to 600 minutes and the 3 DVDs add up to 488. There must be further editing that cut out sections of the original program. It's too long to specifically look for more just for this review, but if you're familiar with both, you many find yourself asking "What happened to that part?"
If you're not familiar with the original program this is still the best of Palin's many travels (Ireland, 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Sahara, Himalaya, New Europe & Hemingway). Although there have been many changes since along his route, it is still surprisingly pertinent. How could bunjee jumping in New Zealand go out of date?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Full Circle is amazing!
Comment: Full circle is an incredible 10,000 plus mile journey around the entire pacific rim. My favorite parts are the geo-reserve in kamchatka, the trip up the yangzte (pre dam), the jet boat in new zealand, and the amazon river boat trip. It's great that Palin documents China like this just before the technology explosion.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This was fantastic
Comment: OK, I know it's not out yet, but I recorded this on DVD when it ran on Bravo several years ago and I remembered watching it on PBS way before then. This was when I first heard of Michael Palin's travels. This is probably my favorite of all of them. Even so, I still plan to buy this when it comes out.
In this travel, Palin begins on Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait and travels, counterclockwise, around the Pacific Ocean visiting Russia, South Korea, Japan, China, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, the US, and Canada, but due to weather is unable to return to his starting point about one year later.
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