Walking with Monsters

I've have never seen a documentary explore the time before the dinosaurs, so I love this for trying! The only problem is that this documentary is too short, and should explore the age and evolution of reptiles more. But, it is a very good documentary to watch.

Interesting docudrama about life on Earth before the dinosaurs. Excellent CGI and scientific information is marred by an overly simplified and sensationalized presentation. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution are condensed into about a half-dozen scenes. Information about ecology and the food web is ignored in favor of scenes of large carnivores attacking each other.

I am curious how they determined the behavior, colouration, and sounds of these creatures. The arthropods are so loud that one would think that prey would be able to hear them coming. I was also not aware that amphibians and reptiles roar like lions.

Walking with Monsters covers the period from the appearance of the first marine vertebrates to the beginning of the rise of the dinosaurs - roughly from 500 to 250 m.y.a. The film shows how animal life spread from water to land, and covers some of its earlier land-based stages. The documentary is informative and comprehensive. It covers the changes in climate, the transformation of geography and plant life, and the evolution of our ancestral creatures.

The word "monsters" implies a sensationalist flavor, but the film really features animals of all scales and types, not just the biggest and the "scariest". One of the better documentaries I've seen on the subject; highly recommended. 9/10.

This documentary is a view of life on earth before the dinosaurs. The film begins with the creation of the Moon by the impact of the hypothetical planet Theia with the Earth. Starting with the Cambrian period 530 million years ago, the evolution of life on earth is documented, starting with the earliest of man's ancestors, the Haikouicthys, an orange "fish" the size of a thumbnail. The progress of the sea-dwelling creatures is charted as they evolve into being able to exist on land and ends where the documentary "Walking with Dinosaurs" picks up, at the end of the Triassic period, with the first dinosaurs walking the earth and forcing the smaller mammalian creatures into a nocturnal existence of hiding.

If you get the actual DVD, the extras include a thirty-minute documentary entitled Trilogy of Life. This documentary covers all of the Walking with series (Dinosaurs, Beasts, and Monsters). There are numerous interviews with the filmmakers and producers of the series. There is even footage of the real locations and backgrounds before the animated beasts were inserted by computer. It's funny to see the filmmakers kicking up dust and moving trees with wires "pretending" to be the dinosaurs since the dinosaurs would be inserted later. The documentary itself is presented with a great deal of detail and authority, as if the filmmakers know for a fact that this is exactly what took place, when in fact it is all quite hypothetical. However, you have to watch it understanding that its purpose is not to present an academic thesis. Instead, its purpose is to bring prehistory to life, just as if you were watching present-day animals being filmed, complete with animated prehistoric beasts occasionally bumping into an imaginary camera.

As children, my stepkids absolutely loved this documentary. This film just goes to prove that science can be made interesting, inviting the viewer to further investigate what is being presented. That is the purpose of the film, and it does succeed brilliantly.

One more in the stunning series from BBC television. The first, "Walking with Dinosaurs" was the best, in my opinion. They put a lot of effort in these productions with top shelf animation that will satisfy viewers of any age. "Walking with Monsters" goes back in time before the dinos to a truly overlooked period in life's evolution. Animals that defied taxonomy branched off and went their own evolutionary route that ended in the greatest mass extinction in earth's history about 250 million years ago. It'll never be known how those animals would have turned out since 95% of all species died. And it may never be known what they looked like and what their behavior was, but the producers of this work filled in the unknowns with brilliant speculation and imagination. They make it seem like it's a wildlife documentary. Wide eyed kids aside, I'll bet the biggest fans are paleontologists. Not to be missed if you're interested in this genre. (Spoiler - they eat each other)