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Title:
Before The Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters
Region:
One
Genre:
Speculative Documentary Entertainment
Narrated
By: Kenneth Branagh
Producer:
Chloe Leland
Executive
Producers: Time Haines and Adam Kemp
Feature
length: 87 minutes
Extras:
Trilogy Of Life: The Making Of Walking With Dinosaurs, Beasts and Monsters
Languages:
English Stereo Sound
Subtitles:
English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 6 Per Episode/18 Total
Sound:
Stereo Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2006
Home
Video Distributor: BBC Video
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
What
began nearly ten years ago as an ambitious speculative documentary that mixed
live action settings with digitally created dinosaurs as well as animatronics to
come as close as possible the amazing work done by Industrial Light & Magic
and Stan Winston’s Creature Effects Shop for Steven Spielberg’s feature film
adaptation of Jurassic Park comes full circle with a prequel that explores the
origins of life in “Before The Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters.” Once again
Kenneth Branagh provides the voice over narration for this effects filled
examination of evolution that begins shortly after a literal visualization of
worlds colliding to form an Earth with giant insects and huge amphibians as well
as fish powerful enough the wade on land briefly to get at prey. Using an effect
that peels away the millions of years like a stopwatch, we see how early life
forms evolved to grow various appendages internally and externally that would
eventually lead to the blue prints for the mammalian life to come. These worlds
range from a time when oxygen was so thin that the air would have been toxic for
human beings to a time when oxygen was so rich that it allowed insects to grow
to frightening sizes. Through various mass extinctions, we are given
possibilities and examples of how these early monsters would eventually bring us
to the dawn of the age of dinosaurs as illustrated in the landmark speculative
documentary series “Walking With Dinosaurs.”
Like
previous entries in this series, we are given a pseudo camera lens point of view
as if someone actually traveled back in time to record these amazing and exotic
creatures. Personally I believe our ecology is still evolving and there is no
way to predict what might succeed humanity let alone mammals as a dominant
species unless there is an attempt to learn from the past beyond trying to
figure out how creatures dead for millions of years might have behaved and
appeared, lest we find ourselves the subject of a documentary in several million
years with inquisitive, but cold and seemingly alien minds trying to understand
the relationship between the bipedal nearly hairless primate and the hard
exoskeleton fossil consuming beasts of burden the bipedal primate seemed to have
a symbiotic relationship with that enabled both things to travels vast surfaces
in record amounts of time (Humans and Cars).
I
like the manner in which the BBC presents “Before The Dinosaurs: Walking With
Monsters” much more than the way I remember seeing it air on The Discovery
Channel. The shorter segments serve the program better than having shown as one
feature length speculative documentary as broadcast. Presented in a (1.78:1)
aspect ratio enhanced for 16 by 9 televisions, “Before The Dinosaurs: Walking
With Monsters” might just be the best installment in the entire series. The
English Stereo Soundtrack is clear and English Subtitles for the deaf and
hearing impaired are encoded as an option too. One can view the installments
individually or in succession using the “Play All” menu selection.
A
documentary entitled “Trilogy Of Life” (28:29) detailing the genesis of
“Walking With Dinosaurs” complete with never before seen test footage is
included as well. Personally I can understand why they consider “Before The
Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters”, “Walking
With Dinosaurs”, and “Walking With Prehistoric Beasts” a trilogy, but
why limit it to three speculative documentary series when we also know the BBC
produced other installments that are also available on DVD-Video that include
“Walking With Cavemen”,
“Allosaurus: A Walking With Dinosaurs Special”, “Chased By Dinosaurs”
and “Prehistoric Planet: The Complete Dino Dynasty.”
A
reel of previews for both “Walking With Dinosaurs” and “Allosaurus: A
Walking With Dinosaurs Special” as well as a BBC America TV spot appear before
the main program menu. The interactive menus also feature full motion scene
selections and all are easy to navigate. Complete the ever-growing collection of
programs in this series with “Before The Dinosaurs: Chased By Monsters,”
which is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline courtesy of BBC
Video.
©
Copyright 2006 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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