Customer Reviews

Walking With Dinosaurs (Widescreen)

5 star:		(92)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We bought this DVD for our 3 1/2 year old boy who is in the advanced stages of dinosaur obsession. He is very interested in all the particulars of each dinosaur -- names, diet, chronology, habits, etc. He was beside himself with delight when we first started watching the DVDs, literally jumping up and down yelling "Coelophysis! I love this! Diplodocus! Look, Allosaurus!"

As almost all others have mentioned, the overall production design is beyond impressive, and beggars the word "clever." Witty, thoughtful, convincing, and highly entertaining.

Unfortunately (for us), there is one dramatic trope that appears in literally every episode of this and the later "Walking With Prehistoric Beasts" series: eating babies. Sometimes creatures eat their own young for murky defensive reasons; sometimes predators pick off defenseless baby prey; sometimes territorial males eat their competitors' babies; sometimes giant ants eat cute hatchlings.

I can't fault the dramatic effect of these passages, and the continuing theme that competition is the engine of evolution is accurate and effectively presented. But it takes the air out of my little boy's enthusiasm when he constantly expects the cute baby dinosaurs to be messily devoured, and it makes me grimace to watch him watching it. Those scenes are not especially suspenseful, and don't seem to agitate him (he got a lot more anxious at "Finding Nemo"). But when his reaction to two Allosaurus eating a baby Diplodocus is "look, they're sharing!", I decided the infanticide just wasn't age-appropriate.

We put the series aside for now, and maybe we'll take it up again in a year.

The name says it all! "Walking with Dinosaurs" beats most other movies a million to one! The best part about this movie is the fact that it is moderatly modest, making it a documentary not only good for adults, but also for the dinosaur fan kids out there! In fact, I have a never-ending belife that dinosaur documentaries are the best thing for kids- even better than stuff that is supposedly educational like "Dora the Explorer", and "The Wiggles".

If you are new to dinosaur documentaries, this is the movie you should get first. I personally like documentaries a lot!

With 230 minutes and bonus features this two disc set is a must if you enjoyed any of the other "Walking With..." series. From the very first dinosaur to to the very last, the show explores the changes to the world and evolution of the dinosaurs to keep up. Frankly, two of the shows don't even FOCUS on dinosaurs, but on the sea reptiles and the flying reptiles. It could of used more dinosaurs.
There is a 50 minute "Making Of" documentary in the second disc and about 29 minutes of behind-the-scenes picture-in-picture footage spread through-out the first disc. The behind-the-scenes footage tells you how they did the effects, why they picked certain locations and why they made the dinosaurs do what they did. Some of the behind-the-scenes footage is also shown in the "Making Of", so there is some overlap.
Interesting, but much of the information was already well known and covered by older shows or children's books. And, yes, lots of babies seem to die. A lot. THAT is nature, but maybe not something younger viewers should be exposed to in so many scenes.

Walking with Dinosaur; is a SPECTACULAR movie featuring different kinds of dinosaurs. The movie is done in a documentary style, like those nature shows you've seen on television. They used computer animation to bring the dinosaurs to life; and let me tell you that they look incredibly realistic. The movie is broken down into a series of episodes featuring a different dinosaur in each one of them. The narrator, Mr. Kenneth Branagh (sorry if misspelled) did in excellent job and just added to the immersive story telling! I felt like a child listening to a wonderous bedtime story. I laughed at the funny parts and felt sad during the tragic parts of the stories. The movie is very long and is complimented with beautifully orchastrated classical music. The movie is about three hours long and I still wish it was longer; because that's how much I loved watching WWD! Adults and children will like it! And although dinosaur behaviors are all hypothetical, the scientists explaining their theories sound pretty valid and logical. If you enjoy nature shows or love dinosaurs, you should add this movie to your collection! Walking with Dinosaurs is a Magificent Epic!

We bought this for my (almost) 5 year-old son who has already forgotten more about dinosaurs than I'll ever know. I have worked in the elearning world with programmers who make 3-D animations of industrial equipment, and I have to say I am just amazed at the quality of the work in this series. The dinosaurs just plain look like they are alive today. It looks as real as if they were shooting elephants in Africa.

PROS
* Presented in story style of real animal documentaries: Each of the six episodes follows a small number of dinosaurs for a period of time; we learn about their relationships with each other and their environmental struggles

* "Making of" bonus DVD is a treat for older viewers interested in seeing how the episodes were made. THERE WAS A LOT OF INTERACTION WITH PALEONTOLOGISTS DURING THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS THAT ADDS TONS OF CREDIBILITY AND REALISM TO THE END PRODUCT.

* Animations as real (or better) than Jurassic Park

* Comprehensive focus on different periods (Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous) of the dinosaurs and wonderful background on the different climates and geology of these periods

PURCHASING RECOMMENDATION
Anyone, young or old, with an interest in dinosaurs should get this. There may be some parts that frighten young viewers, so parents should screen it first and be with kids during the kids' first viewing. BUT THIS IS PHENOMENALLY ENTERTAINING AND EDUCATIONAL FOR EVERYONE.

Walking with Dinosaurs is an interesting series for lovers of natural history. I have not seen the Discovery Channel version with Avery Brooks narrating, but only the DVD-version with Kenneth Branagh.

One should think that someone who does Shakespeare well should be able to get a dinosaur show done right, but it's obvious that dinosaurs are not Kenneth's passion, and both in WWD and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts one sometimes hears that he is reading a badly-rehearsed (and occasionally poorly-written) script. Sir David Attenborough with his authority and enthusiasm would have been perfect for the job, and I was a bit surprised that such a major BBC fronting didn't feature his legendary voice and employed his singular talent in writing nature show narrations.

That aside, I enjoyed it both visually and from the educational point of view, even if many elements of such a show naturally soon becomes dated as calculated guesses are disproved by more recent findings.

I saw this program when it aired on the Discovery Channel, and I loved it. Now my kids love it, too. They love it so much, I'm buying the DVD to replace my poor worn-out tape of the Discovery airing. The only thing that makes me sad, is the narrator. Avery Brooks gave the narration a certain flair that, no offense to the man, I do not think Kenneth Branagh can.
I've seen some really bad reviews of this program here, and i have to say, they are dead wrong. Is "Rancor" high? Hey, buddy, unless you lived there, you don't know anymore about the dinosaurs then anyone else. Also, what the heck is this "anit-reptile/bird, pro-mammal bias" he's talking about? The last time I checked, we were mammals and the dominant species. Survival of the fittest, sir. Besides, it was proven years ago that dinosaurs and birds were in no way related. Put down the crack pipe and pick up a book.
Anyway, this documentary is a must-have for anyone who has school-aged children or who just loves dinosaurs. Take it from someone who falls into both catagories.

After reading alot of these reviews it becomes quite clear that this series is both education AND entertainment. People have a right to there opinions. If they want to criticise the use of puppets, disputed claims, minor inaccuracies(disputed), excluded details... (you get the point), I believe they have every right to do so. All I can say is THANK GOD FOR THE BBC!!! If the "Experts" had made this series we'd get to watch them argue over how the Diplodocus REALLY performed bodily functions!! Let's face it, if they made this series showing the "real" day-in-the-life of a dinosaur, we'd all turn the channel (and certainly not buy the DVD) after watching them eat grass and leaves for 2 hours. This series was designed to do 2 things:

1. ENTERTAIN YOU.
2. EDUCATE YOU (no, not you "Vertibrate Paleontologist", the average person).

Without 1, 2 does not happen. That's the reallity of it. I learned more from this series (or ever needed to learn)about Dinosaurs than I'd ever imagined. The details about Dinosaurs will always be disputed, but the fact that this series (DVD) is great educational entertainment can not. I highly advise anyone who is not a Vertibrate Paleontologist to add this DVD to your collection. YOU will not be disappointed.

DISCLAIMER:
(Vertibrate Paleontologist have been known to enjoy this series from time to time. They just get a little picky about Dinosaurs like it was there JOB!!)

Not so much a program as it was an event. Walking with Dinosaurs was without a doubt one of the most stunning releases to come from the BBC. Dinosaurs once again walk the earth in this groundbreaking documentary. Tim Haines has done something that had never been done before, breath life into a world vanished long ago. Unlike Spielberg, Harryhausen, Disney, or anyone else in Hollywood. Haines portrays dinosaurs not as cinematic monsters, but as living animals for the first time. With dazzling visual effects, incredible cinematography, moving musical score, and a powerful narration by Kenneth Branagh. This film could have easily been a theatrical release. Included is a very entertaining and amusing featurette on how the whole program was made. As well as interviews with some of the technical staff. All in all this would be a most welcomed addition to anyone's DVD library.

Given the amount of time and money put into the production of this series (3 years and approx. $9million) you might expect that the producers would be careful to make it as accurate as possible.

HOWEVER - they didn't. Who says so, some nutty anti-evolutionists?
No. Henry Gee says so.
And Henry Gee is a senior editor on "Nature", one of the most highly respected scientific journals in the world. I quote:

'Viewers should have the right to expect that everything is true; or, if it isn't, they should be able to tell fact from fiction. This is not the case with Walking with dinosaurs' (Nature, 7 October 1999, 401, 530).

What we have here is NOT science but sci-fi.

Far from showing us how things were, the series depends upon a whole heap of imagination. How did various creatures actually look, move, eat and otherwise behave? We can guess, and depending on the completeness of various fossil skeletons we can make some educated guesses.

But "Walking with Dinosaurs" goes far beyond 'educated guesses' and gives us something that excels in the animation department, but which has been roundly criticised by numerous scientists for the extent to which it has passed off fantasy as fact.

So, did we worry how accurate the creatures were in "Jurassic Park"? I shouldn't think so.
And when viewers realise that this is also a largely PSEUDO-scientific production then I guess it can be enjoyed in much the same manner - as entertainment NOT as education.