Walking With Dinosaurs DVD > Reviews > Walking in an Ancient Wonderland

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Advantages:	Superb Graphic completely complementing the superb BBC Documentary Style
Disadvantages:	May too violent for the more sensitive and small children

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Despite my rant about the BBC License fee, the Beeb does manage to produce some corking programs, both educational and fictional. Since Jurassic Park in 1993 computer generated imaging has come on in leaps and bounds, helped by the huge increases in computer processing power. This DVD falls firmly into the "edutainment" category, being fairly educational and entertaining at the same time. I think they wanted David Attenborough to narrate this , but he declined, so they drafted in Kenneth Brannagh, who does a passable Attenborough imitation.

The back of the DVD contains the following blurb:

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"Imagine you could witness a prehistoric sunset - imagine you are watching insectivorous pterosaurs chase moths in the moist evening air and bull triceratops lock horns over a female. This is no longer a dream.

Walking With Dinosaurs makes that distant world as real and natural as images from today's Serengeti. Tracing the 160 million year history of dinosaurs, from their first appearance to their abrupt demise, this series marks a watershed in television imagery.

A combination of classic natural history techniques, leading edge computer technology and animatronics, and the latest scientific findings recreate the sights and sounds of an endlessly fascinating era. Walking With Dinosaurs brings to life the mystery and excitement of the age when the reptiles roamed our planet"
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The series was originally broadcast in 1999 and consisted of six 30 minute episodes, covering 160 million years from the genesis of dinosaurs to their eventual extinction and the advent of mammals. This is a two disk set and includes extra "making of" footage taking the running time to almost four hours. As you watch the DVDs you can select a little picture in picture cameos that explain how sequences were shot, all very interesting.

The cinematography is stunning, and you have to remember that these are computer generated images, not real creatures. The landscapes, are stunning and you believe that what you are seeing really exists (or existed). Some of the scenes contain graphic violence as the carnivores tear apart their prey , or graphic er , "je ne sais quoi", as dinosaurs take a sizeable poo or wee.

There are plenty of cute small creatures, but often they meet their ends at the hands (or rather teeth filled jaws) of the more vicious creatures. Most children will love it but it may be advisable for an adult to vet it before letting smaller children watch this. The original series was broadcast at 8:30 on Monday night and repeated the following Sunday tea time, so the Beeb didn't deem it too violent , and I don't think there were too many complaints.

Because , by it's nature, it is episodic, it's great to just dip into a single episode when you feel like it, so you can have the birth of the dinosaurs one day, sea dwelling ones next, the day in the life of the T Rex the next and so on, you don't need to watch it in one sitting, and it is a disc you will watch again and again.

It is a fantastic reference disc, but again , you have to remember that this is someone's idea of what actually happened. The series did come in for some criticism because some experts disagreed with how situations were portrayed, but who is to say who is right.?

The two disc set retails at around 25 GBP but with a little searching you can get it cheaper.

As I have said this is a great example of the sort of thing that the BBC does really well, and producing more of this sort of thing would generate a huge amount of income. If you have a DVD player this should be a essential purchase for you collection