Walking with Dinosaurs...Again

Today I, Ethan Stranger, will be reviewing “BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs”, a series that I grew up with, mainly due to my love for dinosaurs, especially from watching other Dinosaur-related films, from the childish Land Before Time, to Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, to the short-lived Dinotopia Series & to my favorite Disney film of all time, Dinosaur”, but all that can be review for another time, mainly more on 2000s Dinosaur film & The Dinotopia Series).

I wanted to share my love for Dinosaurs (ever since I was young) & the best way to this is by reviewing this series (to tell you the truth, my favorite Dinosaur of all time is the “Triceratops” (alongside any species related to the “Ceratopsia Family”). I never had a good reason why I like these particular Dino Species, I guess I always picture these types of Dinosaurs to be like “Prehistoric Bulls or Rhinos”). So without further ado, let’s get into reviewing (in my opinion) the best Dinosaur Documentary Series of all time (too bad they don’t do these kinds of Dinosaur-Styled Documentary Series anymore).

To Recap, The series was developed by Tim Haines and producer Jasper James for the BBC Network, here’s an exclusive clip of the “Rare Walking with Dinosaurs pilot”, that was done by Tim Haines & only one Cameraman (gotta say, pretty impressed, though if this were to be the final cut, pretty sure it wouldn’t be so successful, the Eustreptospondylus in the pilot resembles an Iguana standing on its 2 legs):

After filming the pilot (which BBC’s executives were impressed with), The network began to fundraise for the Series to begin production for creating the actual series, as the crew traveled to various locations around the world to shoot their Dino-Stories, they used a mixture of both CGI & Puppetry (Puppetry was mainly used in some specific scenes, cause CGI was difficult to use back then, plus using Puppetry allowed the crew to actually feel like they’re “somewhat living among dinosaurs”). Being able to watch “dinosaurs walking” was pretty amazing for me at the time and became the primary hook when watching the series.

Once production was wrapped up, The  Walking with Dinosaurs series premiered on the BBC in the Fall of 1999 and was narrated by Kenneth Branagh. Fun fact: Famous Wildlife Documentary Narrator, David Attenborough, was approached to narrate the series, but he turned down the part, unwilling to support a fictitious fake wildlife documentary, had he narrated the series, could it have still been successful or not? A year later, the series aired on the Discovery Channel, thus becoming a smash hit, receiving critical acclaim, numerous awards & would later inspire Americans to create their own “Dinosaur-like documentaries” (that I also enjoyed watching, but they also turned too much of the attention to a random paleontologist, which, in my opinion, kinda slowed the story of that  particular series, plus the CGI for the other Dino Series looked like something from a Video Game. But then again, CGI back then was still developing then compared to today’s standards). Plus I recalled watching a Modified version of “Walking with Dinosaurs”, entitled “Prehistoric Planet” (narrated by Ben Stiller), it was made to be more appropriate for children by removing most of the graphic content and trimming down some footage to fit the run time (still good).

In 2001, the BBC did a “Walking with Dinosaurs Special”, entitled “The Ballad of Big Al”, which was based on an Allosaurus skeleton (dubbed “Big Al”), as the crew prepared a reenactment of Big Al’s time when he was alive & what might have caused his death. Like the rest of the series, I actually enjoyed this special (especially that “Battle of the Salt Plains” scene): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1yv7Pi78Og&t=1s&ab_channel=BBCStudios

 

As a Former High School Band Student, there was no way my Band Director would never wanna perform music like this (he was quite stubborn… I know, I tried), plus I wonder if that segment would later inspire Peter Jackson to recreate something like that for the “Dinosaur Stampede” from his 2005 King Kong Film (which was my favorite scene out of the entire movie, imagine reacting to both scenes while running through a herd of elephants)?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taWEu20apu4&ab_channel=TrendingVideos

I also enjoy the “Battle of the Salt Plains Scene” (from the Ballad of Big Al Special) cause (hear me out), I kind of compare it to real-life society (in a way), for the Allosaurus represent the strong, as they grow impatient, they decide to separate the Diplodocus herd so they can kill the weakling, witness how they’re roaring at the Diplodocus herd, which caused them to move faster & raise their necks higher. In a way, it’s how real-life society works for many people out there, where the strong (not necessarily physically) sometimes have certain advantages.

There is another reason why I enjoyed this series in particular, it gave me a lot of bonding time to spend with my dad (who also enjoyed the show). In 2009, my Dad took me & a cousin of mine to go see “Walking with Dinosaurs Live'', and may I say it was breathtaking (though the animatronics were nothing compared to what I was used to seeing in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park Films), but overall, we all had a good time.

In 2013, BBC partnered with 20th Century Fox to create a “Walking with Dinosaurs Movie”, however, it wasn’t successful, not only because it came out a month after Disney’s Frozen, mainly due to Fox’s interference in attempted to make the film “more kid-friendly” (for originally the film was supposed to be “slightly less kid-oriented with just narration”), thus deciding to add voice overs, believing it would connect audiences to the characters, ultimately backfire on the studio, like compare this scene from the film to the “Battle of the Salt Plains Scene (From the Ballad of Big Al)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FrFApHjNjE&list=PLf2rubCBRErF0cE6jvAiyCZiKoxZixyWi&ab_channel=MovieclipsComingSoon (No classical score, annoying voices &  does a Dinosaur even know what a happy thought is or how to even think of a Happy thought?)

What I liked about the overall series is that I felt like it was like Jurassic Park, but Jurassic Park was to show audiences what the possibility of humans interacting with Dinosaurs would have looked like. Walking With Dinosaurs was created to show audiences how Dinosaurs lived long before humans existed, it was extremely breathtaking (it was almost like they were alive today). I do hope in the future, the crew behind the original series can (possibly) do a reimagining on the series (or a new movie, with just narration & a classical score), with aid from “Jim Henson’s Creature Shop & Peter Jackson WETA Digital company”, but only time will tell, as Ian Malcom said…

Next time join me, Ethan Stranger, as I review The sequel series, “Walking with Beasts”.

-To my Dad, who also loves Dinosaurs as much as me: