Walking with Monsters

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)

The latest Walking with special follows life from one celled animals in the sea until the advent of dinosaurs. Its a thrilling trip that is the equal to the original series. Here the series looks not only at life at various times through the ages but also gives you a sense of how the various creatures may have evolved by having time lapse shots of the creatures moving up the evolutionary ladder. This is great stuff and the perfect way to begin a marathon look at how life has grown and changed over the eons. While there is the inevitable eat or be eaten theme to the whole thing you do get a nice sens that there is more to it all then just that. Also what we see here dovetails nicely with the other Walking specials so that when put together you get a sense of how life moves and evolves not only for dinosaurs but even now.

A must see, especially when coupled with the other series

What can I say, Walking With Monsters is quite possibly the greatest documentary ever. It is thrilling, suspenseful, action-packed, entertaining, and educational.

It portrays the constant struggle of life before the dinosaurs. It has some excellent CGI and music. The way it shows the prehistoric creatures are far better than how I imagined they would be.

No scenes bored me and I was always enthralled and at the edge of my seat. If you want to see a good documentary see this one. It exceeds in everything and far surpasses Dinosaur Planet and Walking With dinosaurs.

This is a spectacular documentary not to be missed.

My Rating: 9.9/10

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.