I'll fully admit, I had my apprehensions about Prehistoric Planet before actually seeing it. I just remember thinking to myself; "Huh! What? David Attenborough narrating a new up-to-date dino documentary, presented in a style reminiscent to that of the original Walking With Dinosaurs (1999)?" You seriously can't blame me for thinking any of that, especially since he's the one who turned down the offer to narrate WWD in the first place (leaving lucky Kenneth Branagh to take up the position instead). So initially, I just blindly assumed this was the money side of things doing all the talking for him to make some easy cash, as I was sure he wouldn't be willing to lend his famous voiceover to a "fictitious wildlife" programme (his own words, not mine). And yeah, to say I was a wee bit skeptical at first would be a the understatement of the year.
I'll 100% hold my hands up and proudly admit I was totally WRONG with my foolishly preconceived notions and that this truly was like a "labour of love" done for the educational advancements in showcasing the most plausibly realistic portrayals (not just in design but behaviour, as well) of these mysteriously ancient creatures, and not solely just for the money. In short, to see something like this be produced on a grand scale with such generous resources (recent discoveries/financial backing) in this day and age is nothing short of a miraculous event. Although we sadly live in an imperfect world where most folks still perceive dinosaurs as merely nothing more than big scary Hollywood-made movie monsters and continue to view them as such, fortunately though the timely advent of this brilliant 5-part miniseries will hopefully change a sizeable amount of people's perspectives on this matter.
Only problem with it I can confidently point out is that now, after witnessing this blessed breakthrough, I don't think I'll ever again be able to go back and rewatch the original Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) series. And I'm not just talking about because of the numerous palaeontological inaccuracies or even its many scientific errors regarding their show's outdated model reconstructions, but the poorly-aged CG visuals and ugly-looking design flaws are key elements which also play a factor into this for decision me (when combined together, it's all aged about as well as milk). In fact, as much as it's really hard for someone like me (a big palaeo-lover) to say, most of the Walking With... documentaries unfortunately don't hold up all that too well today (as I'm sure we'd all like to imagine they do), with the only standout exception being Walking With Beasts (2001) which surprisingly feels timeless because of just how well its episodes still hold up today (at least the latter three of them do). But no, in all seriousness now, there're only a few minor things which keep this from being a totally flawless and absolute perfect 10/10 documentary series, for me personally.
Firstly, although it's nice hearing a soft-spoken Attenborough talk about the starring-dinosaur species themselves, it'd be even nicer if they included some lines in his narration to explain about how the world's environment has altered since the time of the dinos. This is an aspect I feel was executed precisely in the Walking With... series, as Branagh's classical narration not only introduced and listed off all the featuring-animals in a unique and smart way, but also never neglected to bring up the valued importance of knowing their preferred natural habitats, the ever-changing geological ecosystems thrashed by uncertain climate conditions and more in regard to the drastically different state our world was once in, such as the constant shifting around of pre-historic Earth's continents and the rise/fall of global sea levels. Secondly, just a little focus the floral side of things would've most definitely gone along nicely with the discussions on faunal organisms and complimented each other, describing how certain "new" types of ancient plant species have evolved to cope with the extremes of hot temperatures and are able to thrive as a bountiful food source for a many magnificent variety of distinctively developed herbivores during the Late Cretaceous period (all these additional geology & botany elements would've been interesting inclusions to learn about). And lastly, despite how decent Hans Zimmer's musical score is when hearing it play throughout the whole viewing experience, Ben Bartlett's cinematic-sounding composition is always going to be my number one go-to for great documentary soundtracks to listen to, by a mile. Sorry to say, but there's no comparison (at least for me, there simply isn't).
But with all those trivial nitpicks of mine aside, this honestly is an extremely worthwhile documentary for enthusiasts of prehistorical wildlife and it's one that I genuinely believe almost everybody who's super into dinosaurs should really take time out of their day to watch all the way through carefully (speaking sincerely, this was well deserving of all the high praise and universal acclaim it's received). My one hope would be to see them make more nature documentaries like Prehistoric Planet and that they quickly arise in the near future, perhaps a sequel miniseries centred around the mighty ice age giants of the Late Pleistocene epoch (fingers & toes crossed we'll end up getting a spiritual successor done in a similar fashion akin to this).
I'll 100% hold my hands up and proudly admit I was totally WRONG with my foolishly preconceived notions and that this truly was like a "labour of love" done for the educational advancements in showcasing the most plausibly realistic portrayals (not just in design but behaviour, as well) of these mysteriously ancient creatures, and not solely just for the money. In short, to see something like this be produced on a grand scale with such generous resources (recent discoveries/financial backing) in this day and age is nothing short of a miraculous event. Although we sadly live in an imperfect world where most folks still perceive dinosaurs as merely nothing more than big scary Hollywood-made movie monsters and continue to view them as such, fortunately though the timely advent of this brilliant 5-part miniseries will hopefully change a sizeable amount of people's perspectives on this matter.
Only problem with it I can confidently point out is that now, after witnessing this blessed breakthrough, I don't think I'll ever again be able to go back and rewatch the original Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) series. And I'm not just talking about because of the numerous palaeontological inaccuracies or even its many scientific errors regarding their show's outdated model reconstructions, but the poorly-aged CG visuals and ugly-looking design flaws are key elements which also play a factor into this for decision me (when combined together, it's all aged about as well as milk). In fact, as much as it's really hard for someone like me (a big palaeo-lover) to say, most of the Walking With... documentaries unfortunately don't hold up all that too well today (as I'm sure we'd all like to imagine they do), with the only standout exception being Walking With Beasts (2001) which surprisingly feels timeless because of just how well its episodes still hold up today (at least the latter three of them do). But no, in all seriousness now, there're only a few minor things which keep this from being a totally flawless and absolute perfect 10/10 documentary series, for me personally.
Firstly, although it's nice hearing a soft-spoken Attenborough talk about the starring-dinosaur species themselves, it'd be even nicer if they included some lines in his narration to explain about how the world's environment has altered since the time of the dinos. This is an aspect I feel was executed precisely in the Walking With... series, as Branagh's classical narration not only introduced and listed off all the featuring-animals in a unique and smart way, but also never neglected to bring up the valued importance of knowing their preferred natural habitats, the ever-changing geological ecosystems thrashed by uncertain climate conditions and more in regard to the drastically different state our world was once in, such as the constant shifting around of pre-historic Earth's continents and the rise/fall of global sea levels. Secondly, just a little focus the floral side of things would've most definitely gone along nicely with the discussions on faunal organisms and complimented each other, describing how certain "new" types of ancient plant species have evolved to cope with the extremes of hot temperatures and are able to thrive as a bountiful food source for a many magnificent variety of distinctively developed herbivores during the Late Cretaceous period (all these additional geology & botany elements would've been interesting inclusions to learn about). And lastly, despite how decent Hans Zimmer's musical score is when hearing it play throughout the whole viewing experience, Ben Bartlett's cinematic-sounding composition is always going to be my number one go-to for great documentary soundtracks to listen to, by a mile. Sorry to say, but there's no comparison (at least for me, there simply isn't).
But with all those trivial nitpicks of mine aside, this honestly is an extremely worthwhile documentary for enthusiasts of prehistorical wildlife and it's one that I genuinely believe almost everybody who's super into dinosaurs should really take time out of their day to watch all the way through carefully (speaking sincerely, this was well deserving of all the high praise and universal acclaim it's received). My one hope would be to see them make more nature documentaries like Prehistoric Planet and that they quickly arise in the near future, perhaps a sequel miniseries centred around the mighty ice age giants of the Late Pleistocene epoch (fingers & toes crossed we'll end up getting a spiritual successor done in a similar fashion akin to this).