DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Walking with Monsters – Life Before Dinosaurs

By Jeff Swindoll Feb 10, 2006, 21:08 GMT

This is a prequel to the BBC’s popular documentary Walking with Dinosaurs. However, is it science fact or science fiction?

The documentary brings to life Earth before the dinosaurs. It begins with the creation of the Moon by the impact of the hypothetical planet Theia with the Earth, continues with the evolution of various monstrous creatures and ends at the beginnings of Walking with Dinosaurs. The series consists of three thirty-minute episodes. The episodes have several amusing moments - such as when a Brontoscorpio (a sort of giant, underwater scorpion) strikes out and cracks your TV with its stinger or when a monster “bumps” the camera. You can watch each episode separately or there is a “play all” function. These speculative monsters are computer rendered. Kenneth Branagh expertly narrates the three episodes. Walking with Monsters is presented in widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. All episodes have English subtitles.Extras include a thirty-minute documentary entitled Trilogy of Life. This documentary covers all of the Walking with series (Dinosaurs, Beasts, and Monsters). There are numerous interviews with the filmmakers and producers of the series. There is even footage of the real locations and backgrounds before the dinosaurs were inserted by computer. It’s funny to see the filmmakers kicking up dust and moving trees with wires “pretending” to be the dinosaurs since the dinosaurs would be inserted later.

However, for certain scenes they had a foam mock up of a dinosaur head that some “lucky” crewmember got to wear. Looks heavy. The fellow who was the luckiest was the one that got to go into local pharmacists and sheepishly ask for thousands of boxes of KY jelly. KY jelly, when not used for other activities, makes excellent dinosaur drool for the mock up heads.The filmmakers were taken aback when Walking with Dinosaurs pulled in an audience of 14 million on its first night on the BBC. It then went on to be the most watched program on the Discovery Channel. They also go on to discuss the rise in interest of paleontology due to the popularity of Walking with Dinosaurs. There was also some controversy in that the program presented speculation as fact in some people’s opinion.Although I found Walking with Monsters interesting, this was the problem in the back of my head. They appear to be presenting this time before the dinosaurs with a great deal of confidence. I don’t recall Branagh mentioning that this was all hypothetical in the three episodes. The filmmakers state that the objective of the series is not to formulate an academic thesis but bring prehistory to life. It might help your enjoyment of the show to keep this in mind. I know that it would’ve helped me to know this beforehand, not that it greatly affected my enjoyment of the programs.

The programs are very enjoyable if you just remember that the filmmaker’s intention is to bring prehistory to life and not present scientific fact (well hypothesis really since nobody really knows for sure).Walking with Monsters - Life Before Dinosaurs is available at Amazon. As of yet, the DVD is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD’s database for more information.

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Dr. Kyaw WinnMar 28th, 2006 - 11:21:46

I am a research scientist at the Institute of Geosciences of Kiel University in Germany. I also look after the Institut's Geological Museum (free entry).
I got a DVD 'Walking with monsters' (Die Ahnen der Saurier) from a german company. We are in the process of establishing a computer terminal for visitors and would like to incorporate the first 80 seconds of the movie from the origin of the earth to the beginning of life in our Terminal. Who should I contact to get the permission?
Incidentally, the shelf during the Silurian is not without sedentary life as shown. Among others, crinoids, corals and byrozoens abound and the fossils indicated that the first reefs were formed during this period. For example, some solitary corals were only 5 cm in diameter in isolated finds but reached over 12 cm diameter in 'reef' areas with abundant diversity.

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Patrick LuceMar 28th, 2006 - 15:49:01

The DVD was given to us by Warner Bros BBC division. I would suggest you check with someone at Warner Bros. or BBC about how to get rights to use their products.

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DVD Review: Walking with Monsters – Life Before Dinosaurs

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