Showing posts with label computer generated. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computer generated. Show all posts

Prehistoric Planet/Allosaurus - A Walking With Dinosaurs Special (1992) Review

Prehistoric Planet/Allosaurus - A Walking With Dinosaurs Special (1992)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
When I was a little kid, I used to dream of a world teeming with dinosaurs. I used to imagine what it would have been like when those skeletons I saw on exhibit lived, and how someone needed to play tour guide to that realm and how I should twist the handle. Sadly, no matter how I tried that doorway, it always remained closed, my time machine not quite working the way I would have intended, and dinosaurs were left either in bone formation or in the movies as monsters.
There was never an in-between.
With the creation of the Walking With Dinosaurs series, however, everything began to change and I, still that boy with an interest in that hobby, found myself addicted. The key that separated this series and made it "unique" - a word I try to use sparingly - is in the way the dinosaurs, our main actors and actresses, are portrayed. Instead of turning then into a depiction of a colossal, toothy menace or dryly discussing their lifespan in the way one discusses ancient relics, the series showcases dinosaurs by allowing one to walk with them through their terrain. From the flora and the fauna, the insect life and dinosaurs themselves, a depiction of CGI effects, prosthetics, and of "dinosaur knowing" comes to life. Here, you see the landscape the way it would have been, the animals roaming free and observed naturalistically, and the experience is incredible because it looks so vibrantly realistic.
In Allosaurus: A Walking With Dinosaurs Special, the Allosaurus "Big Al" is showcased as he struggles from the cradle while trying to grow into something fearsome. In sixty minutes, the fifteen years from the egg to the eventual demise it faces are depicted, showing a person that going to the head of the class wasn't easy in that age. Here, other dinosaurs walk as well, and the efforts of one of the top predators of its age seem a tad on the hard side - making me rethink the allure of being the biggest kid on the block. Survival while growing, it is dramatic and enlightening experience, and its pretty interesting how harrowing an introduction can be and how brutal it can be.
For anyone that has yet to watch this series, I'd recommend tuning in as soon as possible and catching up on all those moments you missed out on. I would recommend starting with Walking With Dinosaurs, however, and moving on from there. Still, that is far from being a bad thing. Besides this video that focuses on Big Al and a few of species, other DVDs house other forms of life that are entrancing. Wonderfully fast predators, Megladons swimming the high tides and eating enough to be interesting, and other strange species await you. And they, all the DVDs released thusfar in this series, simply look fantastic.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Prehistoric Planet/Allosaurus - A Walking With Dinosaurs Special (1992)

PREHISTORIC PLANET/ALLOSARUS - DVD Movie

Buy NowGet 10% OFF

Click here for more information about Prehistoric Planet/Allosaurus - A Walking With Dinosaurs Special (1992)

Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters (2005) Review

Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters (2005)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Nobody should confuse this with a course of paleontology. Nobody should even confuse this with a broad survey of the subject. Instead, it is a magnificent flight of imagination based upon some real science but which does not let the science take precedence over the wonder. It is wonderful
This is a series of three programs. Each deals with prehistoric life before the advent of the dinosaurs.
In the first program, we are treated to one theory of the formation of our planet and introduced to the Cambrian seas. There are not dinosaurs here. Fish barely even exist. That does not stop the cycle of predation in a world of gigantic marine scorpions and the proto-fish prey. We see the colonization of the land by the first plants and encounter the first amphibians, learning a little bit about the evolutionary pressures that drove their emergence. The program ends with the first true reptiles and the hard shelled egg.
The second episode takes place more on land. Gigantic arthropods contest with gigantic amphibians and the odd reptile here and there. We see the first strains of reptile that will eventually give rise to the mammals. Life is still a contest of the predator and the prey.
The third episode advances the story through the lives of some early, pre-dinosaur reptiles. The motif of eat and be eaten is still the rule of the day. The episode ends with the apprearance of true dinosaurs, where the series first began.
There is a lot of speculation in this work. Some of it is well reasoned and logical. Some of it is much less so. Only a few species are looked at with any degree of detail. The great Devonian age of the fishes is bypassed in a short sentence. That does not stop the wonder of it all. It is fascinating seeing the fossils come to life even with the speculations.
The DVD also includes a "making of" segment which covers all three of the series. It too is worth watching.
This will never replace real coursework and has all of the depth of the old, "Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom" but neither was ever intended to teach zoology. Both were meant to kindle a sense of wonder. Both accomplish that end.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters (2005)

BEFORE THE DINOSAURS:WALKING WITH MON - DVD Movie

Buy NowGet 42% OFF

Click here for more information about Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters (2005)

Chased by Dinosaurs Review

Chased by Dinosaurs
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
My 6-year old son has 4 of the recent dino DVDs created with computer-generated graphics:
* Chased by Dinosaurs (BBC)
* Allosaurus (BBC)
* Walking With Dinosaurs (BBC)
* Dinosaur Planet (Discovery Channel)
I have reviewed all the others, too.
The BBC productions are all far better quality than Dinosaur Planet. But Dinosaur Planet has longer stories, and the dinos are given names and more personality, which appeals to kids.
Of the BBC productions, Chased by Dinosaurs is the best. They are all exceptional. You'd think somebody managed to go back in time and shoot film of real dinosaurs. In fact, that is the plot of Chased by Dinosaurs. The host, Nigel Marvin, is something of a "dinosaur hunter", ala the Crocodile Hunter series. He goes back in time and interacts with marvelous dinosaurs in 3 long episodes. The animation is brilliant! In one moment, Nigel captures a small bird-like dinosaur. In another, a T-Rex nearly back into Nigel, who is hiding in the bushes. The animation is just mind-blowing.
This is absolutely my son's favorite. He's old enough to know that Nigel Marvin didn't really go back in time. But he's young enough to be absolutely delighted by the possibility.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Chased by Dinosaurs

You'll be on the edge of your seat when the creators of the groundbreaking Walking With... series send zoologist Nigel Marvin back in time to track down the owner of the Giant Claw.But as soon as his mission is accomplished, it's on to prehistoric South America, inLand of Giants, where Nigel witnesses the battle between history's largest predator and its even more gigantic prey. Finally, in Chased by Sea Monsters, our intrepid explorer dives into the world's most dangerous depths.In seven different seas in seven different eras, Nigel meets scary sea scorpions, terrifying giant squid, massive armored fish, and the vicious sixty-foot Mosasaur!

Buy NowGet 40% OFF

Click here for more information about Chased by Dinosaurs

The Complete Walking with... Collection (2000) Review

The Complete Walking with... Collection (2000)
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This review is only to point out that this product is not in fact "The Complete Walking With... Collection." It has only 3 of the 5 "walking with" TV specials - "Dinosaurs," "Allosaurus," and "Prehistoric Beasts." It does not have "Cavemen" and "Life Before Dinosaurs - Walking with Monsters." To get all 5, you'll need to buy Prehistoric Earth: A Natural History (Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters / Walking With Dinosaurs / Allosaurus / Walking With Prehistoric Beasts / Walking With Cavemen).

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Complete Walking with... Collection (2000)

Finally all three programs from the Emmy Award- winning Walking With...series -- Walking with Dinosaurs, Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Specialand Walking with Prehistoric Beasts-- are available for the first time as a collector's set on DVD and VHS. The epic begins with a journey back 65 million years ago to a virtual lost world which has been recreated with spectacular digital effects and animatronics. The series continues as we follow the life and death struggles of 'Big Al,' the most complete allosaurus skeleton ever found. And finally, we explore our planet after the reign of the dinosaur and the succession of extraordinary creatures that came and went over the following millennia. The end of the dinosaur was only the beginning!

Buy NowGet 48% OFF

Click here for more information about The Complete Walking with... Collection (2000)