"Walking with Beasts" (2001) TV series

Director:

Nigel Paterson

Writers:

Kate Bartlett (writer) &
Jasper James (writer) ...

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

15 November 2001 (UK)

Genre:

Animation | Documentary

Plot:

Using the latest digital technology, the era between the dinosaurs and man is superbly recreated by the BBC and Discovery Channel in another winning production from the coalition.

Plot Keywords:

Prehistoric | Computer Animation | Prehistoric Life

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Kenneth Branagh	...	Narrator (8 episodes, 2001)
Stockard Channing	...	Narrator (8 episodes, 2001)

Also Known As:

Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (USA)

Runtime:

180 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

BS Asahi

Trivia:

According to the bonus features on the "Walking with Monsters" (2005) DVD, Walking with Beasts was the series the producers originally planned to create. They went with "Walking with Dinosaurs" (1999) first, though, as they thought it would be a bigger success, since dinosaurs are more well known to the public than prehistoric mammals. Dinosaurs proved to be a big hit indeed, so eventually the production for Beasts got green-lighted as well.

Quotes:

[Last lines.]
Kenneth Branagh: [narrating] We have since built museums to celebrate the past, and spend decades studying prehistoric lives. And if all this has taught us anything, it is this: no species lasts forever.

Movie Connections:

Spin off "Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy" (2003)

A milestone natural history series

This series is truly awe-inspiring, besides being entertaining and educational to boot. The CGI graphics are so good that the creatures look completely real. And to the nay-sayer below who complains that `no human ever saw these creatures … blah blah … how do we know … blah blah … its like saying Thomas The Tank Engine is the real story of the British railway … blah blah' I say this: First if all, palaeontologists can tell a whole lot from fossils – everything from an animal's size and gait, right down to what it ate. Secondly, some of these animals (mammoths, sabre-tooth cats, woolly rhinos, giant elks) WERE seen by human eyes, and indeed cave paintings have proved to be another valuable source of information about these creatures. And thirdly, some of these creatures are so closely related to modern animals that it is possible to draw fairly sensible conclusions about what their social habits must have been like just by observing their modern relatives. Of course there's inevitably going to be an element of conjecture and speculation in a production like this, but at least it is educated, sensible and logical conjecture, and it's probably not far off the truth in most cases. My minor quibbles are pretty much the same as those already aired by other reviewers: I found it incredibly naff giving the sabre-tooth cats names - `Half Tooth' and `The Brothers'. Why not just call them Brian, Clive and Trevor instead? That would have been no more or no less silly. And some fascinating and truly bizarre prehistoric animals were completely overlooked or mentioned just briefly (the ancient horses being one example). But these are minor quibbles about an otherwise superb effort by the BBC. It gets 9 out of 10 from me.