Walking with Monsters

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.

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.

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

Walking with Monsters is the last of the Walking with series which truth to be told brought the prehistory to life. This one focuses on the life before the age of dinosaurs when creatures, even stranger than those we saw in the previous installments,walk the earth. The animation looks terrific and the story here is pretty much the who our bodies and all the bodies of any organism alive today.From my point of view makes sense to do that because back then was the time when all the organisms were much more closely related and to see the way they became was a awesome experience. To see these series end, made me express bitter- sweet feelings .From one hand you feel like when the summer vacations before going to college are over, you know only too well that ,that this time is going to be be the most relaxed time that you will ever have. But on the bright side you are happy to see what you put so much time end in a high note and not milked to death like the movie franchises with sequel after sequel and horrible spin offs. In conclusion I love it, although the fact that it was only three episodes long in bug me ,but apart from that I have no reservations suggesting to someone who love good documentaries in general.

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)