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Walking with Dinosaurs

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Walking with Dinosaurs
GenreDocumentary
Developed byAndrew Wilks
Narrated byKenneth Branagh
Theme music composerBen Bartlett
Country of originUK
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerJohn Lynch
ProducersTim Haines, Jasper James
Running time30 min.
Original release
NetworkBBC
Release16 April 1999
Related
Walking with Beasts, Walking with Monsters

Walking with Dinosaurs was a six-part television series produced by the BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the UK in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel, with Branagh's voice replaced with that of Avery Brooks. The series used computer-generated imagery and animatronics to recreate the life of the Mesozoic, showing dinosaurs in a way that previously had only been seen in feature films. The program's aim was to simulate the style of a nature documentary and therefore does not include "talking head" interviews. The series used paleontologists such as Peter Dodson, Peter Larson and James Farlow as advisors (their influence in the filming process can be seen in the documentary Walking with Dinosaurs - The Making Of).

The Guinness Book of World Records reported that the series was the most expensive documentary series per minute ever made.[3]

Episodes

Each episode of Walking with Dinosaurs focused on the lives of one or more "protagonists", depicting fictional and speculative events based mainly on inferences and the behavior of modern animals, produced in a style that mimicked traditional wildlife documentaries.

"New Blood"

The first episode filmed and broadcast. 220 Million Years Ago — Late Triassic; Arizona

Filming location: New Caledonia
Conditions: semi-desert with short rainy season. In the year of the episode, the rains are late.

The episode followed a female Coelophysis as it tried to survive in the dry season. The Coelophysis was shown hunting a herd of Placerias, looking for weak members to prey upon. Early pterosaurs (specifically Peteinosaurus) were also featured, depicted cooling themselves in what little water was present during the drought. A female rauisuchian (Postosuchus, one of the largest carnivores alive at the time of the Triassic) was also shown following the Placerias herd. Still searching for food, the Coelophysis are shown discovering a burrow of the small mammal-like cynodont, Unfortunately one youngster strays too close and is eaten, The father cynodont attempts to protect the youngster, but to no avail. At night, the pair of cynodonts are shown eating their remaining young, then moving away. The female Postosuchus is later wounded by a Placerias's tusks, and is beaten out of its territory by a rival Postosuchus. Wounded, sick and without a territory, the female dies and is eaten by a pack of Coelophysis. Finally, the wet season comes again, and the Coelophysis have survived, along with the cynodont pair. The episode ends with the arrival of a herd of the prosauropod Plateosaurus, foreshadowing the future dominance of giant sauropod dinosaurs as depicted in the second episode.

"Time of the Titans"

The second episode to be filmed and broadcast. 152 Million Years Ago — Late Jurassic — Colorado

Filming locations: Redwood National Park (Fern Canyon), Chile, Tasmania, New Zealand
Conditions: warm with mixture of forest and fern-prairies.

The main character of the story is a female Diplodocus. The epsisode opens with the female Diplodicus hatching from her egg. One of her siblings hatches late when an Ornitholestes tries to eat the sibling's egg. The show then rolls forward 7 days after hatching. The Diplodocus siblings wander into a canyon of ferns. The walls were encrusted by moss and ferns. Two Allosaurs were attracted by the smell of prey here. The allosaurs attack. The babies flee. One Allosaur kills and eats a baby Diplododuc. The other Allosaur runs into a Stegsaurus. After a fight, the allosaur is driven off. The two allosaurs finishes up the kill. Two years later, a forest fire kills all but three of the Diplodocus young, who then proceed out of the forest, hoping to join up with an adult herd of Diplodocus - they are accepted, and still later the female Diplodicus is shown mating for the first time. The episode ends with an Allosaur attempting to eat another of the siblings. The Allosaur is then faced in a battle against the female. An adult Diplodocus drives the carnivore away. Dinosaurs featured: Diplodocus, Allosaurus, Ornitholestes, Stegosaurus, Anurognathus, and unidentified ornithopods (Possibly Dryosaurus).

"Cruel Sea"

The third episode filmed and broadcast. 149 Million Years Ago — Late Jurassic — Oxfordshire

Filming locations: Bahamas, New Caledonia
Conditions: Hurricanes hit the islands repeatedly, making it difficult for dinosaurs and sea reptiles to adapt.

The main character of the story is a female Liopleurodon, the apex predator of the Jurassic seas. The show opens with an Eustreptospondylus eaten by a Liopleurodon. The show rolls forward 5 days. The Liopleurodon is out hunting. He finds a Ophthalmosaurus breeding ceremony going on. He finds a pup and mother crusing together. The Liopleurodon attacks. He eats a juvenile Ophthalmosaurus and moves on. Later, an Eustreptospondylus tries to catch a swarm of Rhamphorhynchus-but ends up snaring only six because the pterosaurs are fast on escape. Soon, a female Liopleurodon finds herself in the male's territory. The male won't tolerate it and rips off a chunk of her back flipper. The female swims off, attracting sharks as she leaves the male's quarry. Soon, the male eats a shark for food and swims off to find something else to eat. Later, a hurricane hits. Huge waves crash against the rocky coasts. Another wave smashes a large patch of coral into an outcrop of sharp rocks. A Cryptoclidus fights the winds and waves. A Eustreptospondylus drowns after being engulfed in a storm surge. The storm is over when the hurricane cuts a corner and wheels north toward what is now, China. The storm is over, but the beach is littered with dead Rhamphorhynchus. The storm has spared the Ophthalmosaurus but the whole reef is devestated. The female Liopleurodon is stranded on the beach. Labored, the Liopleurodon dies of being stranded. It is the end of a Cruel Sea.

"Giant of the skies"

In the book, the fourth episode is called, "Story behind a Spinosaurus", but the fourth episode of the television series is called,"Carnivore clash". The fourth episode filmed and broadcast. 127 Million Years Ago — Early Cretaceous — Young Atlantic Ocean (Brazil, Cantabria)

Filming locations: New Zealand, Tasmania
Conditions: Sea and coastlands.

The story begins with a male Ornithocheirus dead on a beach. It then goes back 6 months to Brazil, where the Ornithocheirus flies off for Cantabria among a colony of Tapejara. He flies past a migrating column of Iguanodon and a Polacanthus. He reaches the southern tip of North America, where he is forced to shelter from a storm. To pass the time, he grooms himself, ridding his body of Saurophthirus. Then he stets off across th Atlantic, which was then less than half as wide is it is today and, after a whole day on the wing, reaches the westernmost of the European islands. He does not rest here, as a pack of Utahraptor are hunting Iguanodon. He flies to the outskirts of a forest, but is driven away by Iberomesornis. He reaches Cantabria, but was delayed by the storm and cannot reach the centre of the many grounded male Ornithocheirus. Consequently, he does not mate and dies from exhaustion under the glaring Sun.

"Spirits of the Ice Forest"

[5] The fifth episode filmed and broadcast. 106 Million Years Ago — Early Cretaceous, in the rift valley where Australia is beginning to separate from Antarctica.

Conditions: Forest dominated by podocarps, very near South Pole (the sun did not rise for 5 months in the winter). The lopsided arrangement of the continents keeps ocean currents and strong monsoon winds blowing across the polar area, keeping it free of icecap and warm enough for forests to grow.
Filming location: New Zealand

This episode focuses upon a small clan of Leaellynasaura, hypsilophodonts native to Australia at the time, examining their lifestyle over the year - as they defend their territory against a rival clan, as they proceed through the mating season, as they rear their chicks, and as the cycle repeats again at the end of the episode. Other features of the episode are a carnosaur, identified as a dwarf species of Allosaur, as it stalks a herd of Muttaburrasaurus' and manages to kill the alpha female of the Leaellynasaura clan, and a Koolasuchus as it, and every other permanent denizen, endures the polar winter of the Antarctic circle while the Allosaur and the Muttaburrasaurus herd move further north to warmer climates.

In the American version of the narration the polar allosaur in the fifth episode is based on an isolated astragalus. Also in the American narration of the episode, the dwarf allosaur is referred to as a carnosaur instead, while the book identified it as a "polar allosaur".</ref>, but identified as a dwarf allosaur in the book)

"Death of a Dynasty"

The sixth episode filmed and broadcast. 65.5 Million Years Ago — Late Cretaceous — Montana

Conditions: Areas of low herbaceous plant cover, and forest, affected by volcanism. The episode shows some effects of the end-of-Cretaceous asteroid impact.
Filming locations: Chile (Conguillío National Park), New Zealand

This episode starts several months before the extinction of the dinosaurs. According to the book, the forests were shrinking and the Pierre Seaway between Laramidia and Appalachia was slowly drying up from the north. The main character is a female Tyrannosaurus, chronicling her brief motherhood and the destruction of the dinosaurs, and the end of the Mesozoic. The episode opens with a Tyrannosaurus trying to attack an adolescent Torosaurus - it is a male, seeking to make a kill that will attract a female, with whom he will mate before being driven off. Though the hunt is unsuccessful, he manages to kill a Triceratops instead, another ceratopsian, and the vent takes place. Much later, a Quetzlcoatlus has landed just as the herd of Torosaurus herd stops at an oasis and drinks the waterhole. It is ambushed by a crocodyllian, but manages to escape (in the book, it was killed) Then the show rolls back five days. It is night and the adolescents are sleeping. A dromeosaur tribe is approaching. The Torosaurus sense the danger. Two lead females distract the bulls while the cows try their best to keep their young hidden. During the night, the Dromaeosaurs use the cover of darkness to kill one of the Torosaurus young, and the carcass is shown almost completely devoured in the morning. Later, a Didelphodon tries to attack a Tyrannosaurus nest. The mother Tyrannosaursus effortlessly drives the tiny predator away with a gruff roar. The show rolls forward six days. A group of Anatotitan are feeding at an oasis after migrating for many years in a desert of ash wilderness from the volcanoes of the island. Suddenly, a male attacks and one juvenile is killed - it is the mother, breaking her months-long fast, to provide meat for her newly hatched chicks. The episode ends with the mother dueling an Ankylosaurus that has strayed too near her nest, and her young. The Tyrannosaurus is mortally wounded by the other combatant's tail club, later dying as its chicks look on, alarmed. As the chicks realise their mother is truly dead, and begin to feast on their parent's corpse, A bright flash spreads across the land. A meteorite has struck the Gulf of Mexico. Then a huge cloud of ash and dust spreads all over the globe, accompanied by a rain of fiery debris. The dinosaurs have died off by the time the clouds of black dust cleared.

Companion book

A companion book was written by Tim Haines to accompany the first screening of the series in 1999. The settings of some of the six episodes were changed between the time the book was written and the screening of the television series, and some of their names were changed: 'New Blood' is set at Ghost Ranch; 'Cruel Sea' is set at or near Solnhofen in Germany near what then were the Vindelicisch Islands [4]. The book elaborated on the background for each story, went further in explaining the science on which much of the program as based, and included descriptions of several animals not identified or featured in the series.

Critical reaction

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted on by industry professionals, Walking with Dinosaurs was placed 72nd.

The series won three Emmy Awards, including Best Animated Program (For More Than One Hour). [5]

Censorship

In the initial U.S. broadcasts of the series, a few scenes were omitted from some of the episodes. The most notable deletions were a shot of the cynodont pair devouring their offspring, and a scene where a dead-in-shell Tyrannosaurus embryo is preyed upon by a pair of Didelphodon. The DVD and VHS contains the original UK broadcast, so the omitted scenes were restored.

Spin-offs

See more info in the Walking with...

The popularity of Walking with Dinosaurs led to numerous spin-offs in various media.

Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience

A live theatrical adaptation was created in Australia and began touring in early 2007 (starting in Sydney's Acer Arena, and continuing to Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide & Melbourne). Coming from the mind of William May, the show features life-size mechanical dinosaurs operated by teams of puppeteers and drivers as well as music by James Brett.

It was produced by Malcolm C. Cooke & Jill Bryant and directed by Scott Faris.

The dinosaurs featured are:

The show began touring North America in June 2007.

Encyclopedia

Tim Haines and Paul Chambers have also written a Walking With... encyclopedia known as The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life, featuring most animals from the series, including the specials, and the accompanies Walking with Monsters.

Prehistoric Planet

A child-oriented reversion of this series was released in America under the title Prehistoric Planet for the Discovery Kids Saturday morning line-up on NBC, with new narration read by Ben Stiller and Christian Slater over the same visuals. This version cut out the majority of the "violence" of the original.

The Walking With series

Because it was a big success, Tim Haines's direct follow-up in, what is known, the Walking with series. In 2001 the sequel Walking with Beasts, set in the Cenozoic era. This series featured extinct mammals and birds like Indricotherium and Gastornis. In 2005 the prequel Walking with Monsters, set primarily in the Paleozoic era, was produced.

Specials

Main articles: Chased by Dinosaurs, Sea Monsters, The Ballad Of Big Al, and Prehistoric Park

Chased By Dinosaurs, featuring Nigel Marven, stars Argentinosaurus and Therizinosaurus in two episodes in which Nigel tries to track down the biggest dinosaurs and the longest claws. The Ballad Of Big Al follows the life of an Allosaurus (Inspired by evidence found on a single Allosaurus skeleton). Nigel returns in Sea Monsters Trilogy, trying to survive the seven most dangerous seas of all time and meet the dangerous sea predators of the past -- Cameroceras, Cymbospondylus, Dunkleosteus, Basilosaurus, Megalodon, Liopleurodon and Tylosaurus. Nigel also stars in the latest special: Prehistoric Park, six episodes in which he tries to collect Tyrannosaurus, Mammoth, Smilodon, Microraptor, Arthropleura, and Deinosuchus for a prehistoric zoo known as Prehistoric Park.

Computer Games and Arcade games

Dinosaur World is a free downloadable, Walking with Dinosaurs game available at the BBC website.[9]

Notes

  1. ^ According to the website and companion book, the body shape is based upon a scaled-up version of Thrinaxodon. As stated in the book, the presence of cynodonts in the depicted region and the larger size of the reconstructed animal was based on fossil teeth which have subsequently been described as Kraterokheirodon. While considered to have been from a large cynodont at the time of filming, the affinities of these teeth are currently unknown. [1]
  2. ^ The Liopleurodon is oversized as 25 meters (82 feet) long and 150 tons
  3. ^ Shown without feathers
  4. ^ The species depicted was undescribed in 1999 but has subsequently been described as Tapejara navigans .
  5. ^ The chapter was named Spirits of the Silent Forest in the book.
  6. ^ Pterosaurs in Victoria are based on fossils that are non-diagnostic to genus level.
  7. ^ Shown without feathers
  8. ^ It is shown as an albatross like fish eater, while in real life it would had been more like a stork [2]
  9. ^ Dinosaur World Walking with Dinosaurs video game. Accessed August 13, 2008.

See also

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