Walking with Dinosaurs
1999, BBC
Hailed as a landmark series, Walking with Dinosaurs was a simple idea on paper: a nature documentary presented as though the dinosaurs were filmed while they lived. The series is on record as being the most costly documentary to produce, thanks principally to the many CGI effects required. Walking proved so popular that it spawned six sequels, a theatrical film, a "stage play" of sorts, and even a role-playing video game.
DKS 7/3/20
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Walking with Dinosaurs: Allosaurus
2000, BBC
Walking with Dinosaurs: Allosaurus, a.k.a. The Ballad of Big Al, focuses on the life of one dinosaur, from birth to death. The two-part special won two Emmys.
DKS 7/3/20
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Walking with Prehistoric Beasts
2001, BBC
In this sequel, we travel forward in time to witness the precursors of modern-day whales, horses, elephants and humans. The concept started ageing, with the effects dropping in quality and the narration becoming overbearing. Strangely, for the US release, Discovery Channel replaced Kenneth Branagh with Stockard Channing as the narrator.
DKS 7/3/20
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Chased by Dinosaurs
2002, BBC
Now we're just being silly. In this series, we follow zoologists who travel through time to witness dinosaurs in the wild.
DKS 7/3/20
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Chased by Sea Monsters
2003, BBC
Switching to an underwater environment helped breathe new life into a franchise that was getting rather long in the tooth.
DKS 7/3/20
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Walking with Cavemen
2003, BBC
Moving into the more recent past, the series examines our ancestors, and presents little "dramas" highlighting the assumed behavior of the hominids. Strangely, there were wholly different versions shown in the UK versus the US. For the UK, Robert Winston travels through time to witness the action in person, whereas Alec Baldwin remains in the present for the US version, standing in a museum room filled with the skulls of the ancestors being shown. I found the dramatic contrivances to be a bit tedious, and the series as a whole getting entirely too overworked.
DKS 7/3/20
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Walking with Monsters
2005, BBC
Just when you thought you couldn't take another one of these, the series shifted its focus to the time period before the dinosaurs, which was populated by some genuinely fascinating creatures.
DKS 7/3/20
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Walking with Dinosaurs: The Movie
2013, BBC et al
What could have been an excellent film was destroyed by awful, juvenile narration.
DKS 7/3/20
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Walking with Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular
2007-2019, The Creature Technology Company
This highly-successful stage presentation toured the world for over a decade. At a cost of $20 million, sixteen full-size dinosaurs were brought to life using animatronics, puppetry and actors in rubber suits. I never saw it, although there are some brief videos online, and it looks to have been geared mostly toward youngsters.
DKS 7/3/20