Walking with Dinosaurs (1999– )

Documentary-style series about the era of the dinosaurs, mixing real locations and CGI.

Stars:

Kenneth Branagh

Won 3 Primetime Emmys. Another 11 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Kenneth Branagh	...	Narrator (6 episodes, 1999)

Storyline

Using the latest technology the amazing lost world of the Cretaceous, Triassic and Jurassic periods of Earth's history, when the dinosaurs reigned supreme, is brought stunningly back to life. The series provides insights into how these mammoth creatures appeared, how they survived for millions of years and probes the mysteries of their sudden disappearance leaving only a fossil record to show they had ever existed!

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Plot Keywords:

dinosaur | cretaceous | triassic | jurassic | computer animation | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Animation | History

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC [uk] Discovery Channel

Country:

UK Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 April 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Akolouthontas tous deinosavrous

Filming Locations:

Bahamas

Box Office

Budget:

£6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Discovery Channel, France 3 (FR 3)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

180 min 30 min (6 episodes) 30 min (6 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kenneth Branagh also provided narration for the follow-up series Walking with Prehistoric Beasts and Walking with Monsters.

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Goofs

A recurring animation error throughout all of the episodes is how the body parts and muscles of the CG animals clip through each other while moving. Wrinkles and skin patterns appear and disappear, and sometimes strange bulges stick out of the animals, seemingly moving independently from the surrounding flesh. This kind of error is perhaps the most noticeable on the shoulder region of the Diplodocus, as the shoulder muscles and the upper part of their front legs "merge" and separate repeatedly at each step.

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Connections

Featured in The O'Reilly Factor: Episode dated 3 July 2008 (2008)

User Reviews

Mind blowing

The concept behind this series is so brilliant, you wonder why nobody thought of it before. Do a dinosaur documentary, but do it in the style of, say, "Mutual of Omaha's Wild America" or something.

The result is astonishing.

The thing is, you end up not marveling at the special effects but at the fact that *you do not notice the effects*. You'd swear the filmakers really did go to the future Petrified Forest to get their footage. It's unreal.

Simply put, this is what "Disney's Dinosaur" had mad delusions of being.

There were, granted, a few scenes that had me going "I... don't... know..." (most notably the mother sauropod laying her eggs with an ovipositor that'd shame the "Aliens" queen and then leaving them there), and the music tends to be *very* hyperdramatic. All complaints aside, this is true movie magic. And who can complain about that?

Note to teachers: In case you're thinking of showing this to the kids, I'd give this a PG-13. It isn't any more violent than your average animal documentary, but there's quite a bit of -gasp!- saurian sex.