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*Dinosaurs: The Weird and the Wonderful*
Dinosaurs: The Weird and the Wonderful
Genre	Documentary
Narrated by	Kenneth Branagh
Composer	Ben Bartlett
Country of origin	United Kingdom; United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	BBC
Original release
Network	BBC, Discovery Channel, TV Asahi, France 3, ProSieben

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Dinosaurs: The Weird and the Wonderful is a 2019 documentary series about dinosaurs produced by BBC Earth. It is the biggest project of its kind since Planet Dinosaur.

Premise

This series will have episodes, focusing on a particular theme, such as polar dinosaurs, or the newest dinosaurs discovered, with six 10 minute stories (which the only expection being programme 9, which has 5 stories, the last one lasting 20 minutes) and be shot and narrated in the format of a nature documentary. The project is also the most expensive television series the BBC has ever made.

Episodes

Episode 1 - Dawn of the Archosaurs

231 million years ago, Argentina

Animals featured

Herrerasaurus
Eoraptor

205 million years ago, Germany

Animals featured

Liliensternus
Plateosaurus

230 million years ago, Scotland

=Animals featured

Pinnamimus
Albanognathus

200 million years ago, South Africa

Animals featured

230 million years ago, Argentina

Animals featured

195 million years ago, Arizona

Animals featured

Episode 2 - The Golden Age

155 million years ago, Utah

Background

In 2012, Michael Lambson was a teenager on the Dinosaur Toy Forum. He came up with an idea of a dinosaur documentary, which he titled, "Dinosaurs: Monsters of the Mesozoic". He did it for fun, but never knew it would become a TV series. Michael stated that he was influenced by Planet Dinosaur, Dinosaur Revolution, and Walking with Dinosaurs. However, his biggest inspiration was The Life of Birds. He stated that the format was perfect for a dinosaur documentary, and that the series format did in fact come from Life of Birds. However, he stated the reason why it was the main inspiration, is because he was intent on depicting dinosaurs as animals, not monsters, and it also had great examples of what dinosaur behaviour was like. Several stories and dinosaurs in the series where inspired and based off of those in Life of Birds.

Production

In 2015, a friend approached him, and his wife has created a production company, and she talked to the BBC who wanted another big dinosaur documentary series. Michael shared the information to his friend, and his wife went to a meeting, and the BBC got the green light to go ahead, and have BBC Earth collaborate on the project. The budget is estimated to be nearly £35 million. The series was shot in various locations, the most prevalent where the Canary Islands, Chile, Patagonia, New Caledonia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Australia, and Alaska. The animation took nearly two years to complete, and was done by Framestore and Mokko Studios. Occasionally, CGI environments where created when locations where not available, and where rendered for nearly six months. Many artists where assigned to the project, but where all based on designs by Michael himself. David Krentz and Darren Horley where the biggest artists on the project. The scripts where all exactly the same as Michael's internet stories, and all storyboards where approved by him. Kenneth Branagh was casted as narrator.

Cut Segments

During production, many stories where made, but then cut and replaced by other stories. These included -

A sequence about Vetupristisaurus and Ostafrikasaurus in The New Dinosaurs.
A sequence involving an Argentinosaurus herd migrating to their nesting sights was shelved to instead cover the life of the recently discovered tyrannosaur, Lythronax, in The New Dinosaurs.
A sequence involving Brasilotitan, Baurusuchus, and Montealtosuchus was replaced by Siats, in The New Dinosaurs.
A sequence starring Monolophosaurus was replaced by Sciurumimus in The Golden Age.
A sequence starring Halisaurus in The Marine Killers, instead replaced by Plesiosaurus.
A sequence involving a Sinosaurus and Yunnanosaurus, replaced by a sequence with Supersaurus and Saurophanagax in The Golden Age.
Eurazhdarcho was the main creature in the first sequence in 'The Flying Reptiles, but was replaced by Hatzegopteryx. The location and other animals stayed the same.
A sequence involving Nothronychus, Zunityrannus, and Zuniceratops was replaced by Deinocheirus in The Bizarre Dinosaurs.
A sequence involving Irritator, replaced by the alaskan therizinosaurs in "The Bizarre Dinosaurs".
A sequence involving Dromaeosaurus, instead replaced by Microraptor in "The Feathered Dragons".
A sequence about Rhomaleosaurus replaced by Globidens in "The Marine Killers".

Out of all of these stories, only Brasilotitan and Dromaeosaurus were used for a special and a spin-off, respectively, the others were cut entirely.

Release

The series first aired on 23 October 2019, on BBC One. The first episode was such a success, that the second episode instead aired the next day. The series then aired on 13 June 2020 in the United States and Canada, on the Discovery Channel. Each episode was instead of 60 minutes, was 45 minutes, to make room for commercials, and included brief talking head segments at the end of each sequence, making each episode only use 30 minutes of the original footage from the UK. A DVD and Blu-ray where released in the UK and most of Europe, but has not been released in the US. It has recently been announced by BBC Earth, that they have no plans to release in the near future, but they do admit that eventually, they will release it to the US. A Canadian DVD has been released recently, the same version of the UK release. However, no Blu-ray will or has been released in Canada.

Subsequent work and production

After the success of Monsters of the Mesozoic, Michael had many other series to work on. He first created three specials for Dinosaurs. One was a half-hour single programme, titled Forest of Chinle. The special revolves around the life of a pack of Coelophysis during the ten month drought in the Chinle formation. The second special was also a half-hour programee titled "Chubut Spring", which focuses on life of a pack of Carnotaurus and a Buitreraptor in the spring of Chubut. The third and final special was titled "The Fish Hunter", also half-an hour, following a bull Spinosaurus through nine months in his habitat. After that, came the sequel, After the Dinosaurs, following the life of Cenozoic animals. It has currently three specials, titled Sabretooth, Crocodiles: The World's Greatest Survivors and World of Ice. The first one had four half hour episodes on a single animal. Crocodiles had two episodes, both an hour long with six sequences. World of Ice was a single half-hour programme following a female Coelodonta and her life.

Reception

This series was listed as 2nd place in the British Science Programmes, surpassed only by Walking with Dinosaurs. It later won several Emmy Awards, including best visual effects, best editing, best animated documentary for more than one hour, best narrator, and best factual programme. CommonSense Media described the series as "An information rollercoaster ride. Not since Walking with Dinosaurs has a dinosaur documentary been so good. The stories and animation are as real as a modern day documentary. Not only are you being entertained, but you are learning about the prehistoric world." It was rated the highest watched programme on Fridays on BBC One, with an average of 16 million viewers per episode. While the series was praised and very well receipted, there where some criticisms. Creationists claimed that the series was full of misinformation, poisoning the culture's view on dinosaurs, and all part of a vast Darwinian conspiracy to disprove God and Creation. The creator of the series, Michael, stated that this was not the shows intent, and that THEY were the misinformed ones. Other criticisms where from scientists and viewers, who though that the mix of speculation and fact was very dangerous to the audience, who may think that they will get their heads filled in misinformation of speculative ideas. Michael's response is as follows, "the critics of the series are missing the point. This is not to create an academic thesis, but to bring these dead animals back to life."

Trivia

This is the first documentary to feature fully feathered large tyrannosaurinaes.
This series is the most expensive television series the BBC has ever made.
This is the most speculative series on dinosaurs to date.