Walking with Dinosaurs

So disappointed with this series. I was hoping for factual updates not silly stories about George the dinosaur! Who was in mind when this was thought up? I can imagine 4 year olds being enthralled but their parents watching with them are getting nothing from it. The dig sights are insightful. There could have been more about the dig sights and how the dinosaurs lived and died without making it for 4 year olds. I don't mind the CGI. It's not great but anything better would have been costly. I get that. My main gripe it the silly stories about juvenile dinosaurs with given names of different species playing together etc. Disappointed.

I have been so excited for this show to premiere, however first episode in and I was already disappointed, they called it walking with dinosaurs but it is anything but. I have never wrote a review for anything but I had and still have such a love for the original, I was so excited when I heard they were remaking it. The timing is so out of place with them flipping between a the dinos and the dig sites, they could've had an extra episode focused purely on the digs sites but chopping up the story was just difficult to watch, the animation is also sub par. All in all very disappointing. Definitely does not have the same feel as the original. The music, narration, storylines and script are all bellow my expectations for what this should have been.

Sincerely, a dinosaur nerd since the early 2000's.

So the Walking with Dinosaurs reboot came out and many of the complaints are indeed true. Rather than a straight documentary narrative, each episode is intersected with modern day excavations to explain the narrative better. In essence it's like Planet Dinosaur and to a lesser extent Sea Monsters, but it definitely lacks the heart of the latter.

Accuracy is all over the place. Some things fly, other don't (like the many dense canopy settings, when Mesozoic forests were more open). The dinosaurs mostly look fine, but the animation isn't fully polished so they look often quite unnatural. The worst offender has to be the Edmontosaurus from episode 1, which look really unreal with their bright blue bodies contrasting against daylight.

Unlike Prehistoric Planet, there aren't many times dinosaurs act besides stereotypical ways like hunting, fleeing and fighting. There are a few instances of them acting more cuddly and playing, but it mostly happens with young dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs are the focus on the series, with little on other prehistoric reptiles and mammals. I guess that's to be expected, but the original run gave us episodes focusing primarily on marine reptiles and pterosaurs, so that's a downgrade.

But hey, at least it's better than WWD 2013!

The Original 'Walking with Dinosaurs' (and the two subsequent Series 'Walking with Beasts' & 'Walking with Monsters') were ground-breaking insomuch that they presented 'Prehistory' in a Wildlife Documentary-style. The 30 minute Episodes allowed the viewer to remain in the time period concerned and thus forced the makers to write a cohesive (and informative) Narration script to explain to viewers the important scientific facts of the animals and Periods themselves.

Fast forward to 2025 - and we have the long anticipated 'follow-up' to this classic Series. BUT, oh my goodness, what on earth have the makers decided to do? Well, they have decided to 'discard' the original concept and replace it with something that simply does NOT work. The idea that you can flit backwards and forwards from Mesozoic to modern dig-sites completely destroys any proper narrative and is a serious distraction. In addition, the script seems to have been written with an audience of 10 year olds in mind! All the wonderful 'cliche's' are in there - I was even anticipating the next line (successfully) on several occasions! The 'Science' seems to have taken 'second place' to telling a 'Story', so the Narration gives hardly any scientific insight, leaving that to the 'Dig-site' portions of the Episode. Even worse, the CGI itself was absolutely SECOND RATE. I have seen a lot of Dinosaur CGI and this was distractingly BAD & added to the dreadful Narration, just made it an effort to watch.

It appears the 'Makers' thought it needed a 'modern reboot' touch and in this they have seriously compromised the Series.

In conclusion, the entire 'concept' for this Series is totally WRONG, the jumping around is distracting, the Narration is simplistic tripe, the CGI creatures themselves are second-rate, the 'stories' all seem to be rehashed from elsewhere and both the sound-effects - and music - are plain and uninspired.

I will re-watch the old Series now. I doubt I can even be bothered to watch any of these new Episodes again as they are simply awful in every respect...

Compared to the original this is something that belongs on Disney+ The dinosaurs are far to cartoony and look really CGI. In places it looks almost to computer-gamey and unrealistic.

How can something with 25 years computer and animation development look worse than the original?

The stories are happy-clappy woe is me with dinosaur behaviour you have no way of substantiating scientifically.

Stick to the science and stop trying to "tell a good story".

The narration is very poor and it is hard to get into.

Then there is the painful dialogue between researchers is cringeworthy to listen to - why make up obvious fake dialogue for people in the field.

Overall this is a major let-down - the original was (and still is) far superior.