Little critters face enormous challenges in the first trailer for Tiny World, a new nature documentary series coming to Apple TV+.
The trailer, released Thursday, shows small creatures on land, at sea and in the air as they struggle to survive in a world filled with threats both large and small. As is the way with all successful trailers, the eye-grabbing footage makes the tiny beings’ encounters look larger than life.
“Meet the smallest monkey in the world, the pygmy marmoset,” says Tiny World narrator Paul Rudd. “An adult will fit in the palm of your hand. Being so tiny makes it hard to know who’s friend, foe — or food.” (Rudd should know something about being tiny: He plays Ant-Man in Marvel’s superhero films.)
In the Tiny World trailer, vivid images show the itty-bitty monkey interacting with insects that seem to fascinate and startle it. And that’s just the beginning of the action. A rodent scurries through a pack of pachyderms. A tiny toad looks poised to act out a real-life game of Frogger. Various insects do those extraordinarily mesmerizing things that ordinary insects do everyday.
“In a land of giants, it’s the smallest creatures that make the biggest difference,” Rudd says. Sounds like somebody’s got size issues.
Check out the first Tiny World trailer and get a glimpse of the show’s tantalizing tiny stars:
Can Tiny World make a big splash?
Tiny World joins a veritable sea of TV nature documentaries that produce big thrills from everyday encounters in the wild. The genre dates back decades, to when shows like the BBC’s Zoo Quest and NBC’s Wild Kingdom first piped images of faraway places into living rooms.
As television evolved, so, too, did the nature documentary. These days, a steady stream of high-def imagery of creatures — large and small, endangered and commonplace — continues to enchant audiences around the world. The list of recent hits includes the BBC’s Life and Planet Earth (both the original and the sequel, which included one of the most terrifying snake encounters I’ve ever seen).
Apple TV+ describes its entry into the genre like this: “Narrated by Paul Rudd, this docuseries showcases nature’s lesser-known tiny heroes. Spotlighting small creatures and the extraordinary things they do to survive, each episode is filled with surprising stories and spectacular cinematography.”
In the Tiny World trailer, Rudd promises to showcase “tiny wonders like you’ve never seen before.” And the footage does indeed look fantastic. The eye-popping colors and intricate behaviors of these creatures remind the viewer just how strange Earth really is.
However, it remains to be seen if the new Apple TV+ series can really deliver the goods. All the nature docs that came before it make for some pretty mean competition.
Still, what’s not to like about a show packed with stunning images of the natural world? For Apple TV+, which is rapidly building out its library of movies and shows, a G-rated nature documentary seems like a safe and obvious bet. It’s kid-friendly, science-forward and undoubtedly entertaining.
It might not be unique enough to make the kind of cultural splash that draws in the paying subscribers that Apple TV+ execs crave, but it really can’t hurt.
3 new Apple TV+ nature documentaries coming in 2020
The first six episodes of Tiny World debut on October 2. The show is one of three new documentary series coming to Apple TV+ this fall.
The other two are:
- Becoming You, which follows more than 100 children from around the world to document how humans’ first 2,000 days on the planet shape their lives. Narrated by celebrated English actress Olivia Colman, it premieres on November 13.
- Earth at Night in Color, which presents imagery of animals’ nighttime activities. It’s narrated by another Avengers alum, Tom Hiddleston. (He played Loki.) It premieres on December 4.
