One of the best documentaries I have ever seen, this BBC series uses a combination of Computer Generated Images (CGIs), animatronics, realistic sound effects, an intelligent script, and effective narrative transitions to tell the story of the rise and fall of the majestic creatures that lived during the Mesozoic Era. The program is educational, entertaining, and breathtakingly realistic.
Though the focus is on the dinosaurs, the program puts them into their natural habitat, and thus we learn also about the vegetation, the climate, changes in the continental land masses, and smaller life forms of that era. Background music, combined with ominous images, conveys a hauntingly terminus message, accompanied by poignancy and sadness.
Maybe some of the technical detail about the dinosaurs is a bit speculative or not quite in line with more recent information. Our knowledge about them continues to ... evolve. But these minor imperfections are overwhelmed by the program's terrific presentation of such a grand sense of historical perspective.
Dinosaurs lived for over a hundred million years. Their extinction was not their fault; they did nothing wrong. By comparison, humans, thus far, rate barely a one sentence footnote in a multiple volume encyclopedia of Earth's history. And I doubt that we will be so fortunate as to be around for even one million years.
My only disappointment is that the dino's demise only covers a few minutes of the final episode. I would like to have seen more information presented, and more time spent, on the likely causes of the K-T extinction event, specifically from the Chixculub crater impact and the volcanic eruptions from the Deccan Traps.
Breathtaking in historical coverage and brilliantly produced, "Walking With Dinosaurs" is a program that everyone needs to see. I hope viewers will watch all of the episodes and thus can appreciate the diversity and grandeur of such magnificent creatures. If nothing else this program's geologic time-scale puts our little egocentric lives and petty political squabbles into proper perspective, showing how irrelevant we are in the grand scheme of things.
Though the focus is on the dinosaurs, the program puts them into their natural habitat, and thus we learn also about the vegetation, the climate, changes in the continental land masses, and smaller life forms of that era. Background music, combined with ominous images, conveys a hauntingly terminus message, accompanied by poignancy and sadness.
Maybe some of the technical detail about the dinosaurs is a bit speculative or not quite in line with more recent information. Our knowledge about them continues to ... evolve. But these minor imperfections are overwhelmed by the program's terrific presentation of such a grand sense of historical perspective.
Dinosaurs lived for over a hundred million years. Their extinction was not their fault; they did nothing wrong. By comparison, humans, thus far, rate barely a one sentence footnote in a multiple volume encyclopedia of Earth's history. And I doubt that we will be so fortunate as to be around for even one million years.
My only disappointment is that the dino's demise only covers a few minutes of the final episode. I would like to have seen more information presented, and more time spent, on the likely causes of the K-T extinction event, specifically from the Chixculub crater impact and the volcanic eruptions from the Deccan Traps.
Breathtaking in historical coverage and brilliantly produced, "Walking With Dinosaurs" is a program that everyone needs to see. I hope viewers will watch all of the episodes and thus can appreciate the diversity and grandeur of such magnificent creatures. If nothing else this program's geologic time-scale puts our little egocentric lives and petty political squabbles into proper perspective, showing how irrelevant we are in the grand scheme of things.