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Walking With Beasts : Complete BBC Series [2001]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Walking With Beasts is an introduction to the animals (predominantly mammals) that roamed the earth from the extinction of the dinosaurs until the rise of early humans. The sequel to the BBC’s acclaimed and highly successful series Walking With Dinosaurs, Beasts also uses a combination of clever special effects and computer-generated imagery to create a realistic world as it may have appeared millions of years ago. As to be expected from any BBC nature programme, the images are visually stunning; the prehistoric animals look impressively lifelike, interacting seamlessly with each other and their environment to create an entire world that could have been photographed only yesterday. Best of all is Episode 2, "Whale Killer", which follows a female Basilosaurus, an enormous ancient predatory whale, as she travels through shallow seas and along coastlines--the underwater images could have just as easily originated in the BBC’s spectacular Blue Planet series. It’s unfortunate, therefore, that Walking With Beasts is let down by its script and the often dubious science therein. Episode 3, "The Land of Giants", begins with an anthropomorphic statement better suited to a Disney film than a scientific documentary, referring to the featured animals as "The good [a herbivore or plant-eating animal], the bad [a carnivore or flesh-eating animal] and the ugly [a giant warthog which is, admittedly, pretty ugly]." Still, Walking With Beasts has a host of little touches and flourishes that add to the feeling of realism (the animals knock over the cameras, pebbles hit the lens), which make this programme a success as a piece of pure entertainment and prehistoric escapism. A companion book and soundtrack CD is also available. --Ted Kord

Editorial
Video Description

DVD Special Features
Triumph of the Beasts: 50-minute special on the rise of the mammal.
The Beasts Within: 50-minute special on scientists' search for man's link to apes.
Beast Fact Files
Photo Gallery
Production Crew Interviews

Storyboard Comparisons
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 173 mintues approx
Regions: 2+4 PAL UK
Dolby Digital Stereo

Editorial
Synopsis

This BBC nature documentary uses animation and hours of researched facts to attempt to recreate the age between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the dawn of the modern human. Among the most intriguing creatures are giant flightless birds, the saber-toothed tiger, and the many predecessors to human beings. The programme, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, is an incredible document focused on prehistoric beasts, brought to life with amazing computer-rendered graphics.
Editorial
From the Back Cover


The demise of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, did not leave the world empty. A succession of extraordinary creatures has since come and gone, leading to our own ancestors, and yet we know virtually nothing about them. These bizarre beasts were some of the most fascinating creatures ever to have inhabited our planet.
The award-winning team that brought us Walking With Dinosaurs now explores the rise of the mammals. The latest scientific findings, advanced computer graphics and strong natural history stories are combined as we return to the sights and sounds of extinct worlds - this time full of life you hardly knew existed.
Walking With Beasts takes you on a journey through time to distant worlds: from the hottest, wettest climate the earth has ever known to one of the coldest - the Ice Age. See the early forerunners of the whale (walking!), avoid the carnivorous pig the size of a rhino, and pity the horse the size of a cat, eaten by a bird the height of a man! And we humans are not safe either - mighty sabre-toothed cats with teeth the size of carving knives have a taste for our own ancestors!

fantasy or fact?
Review date: 2008-01-06 Rating: 6 out of 10

Based more on fantasy (or at best speculation) than fact. No one knows about the social structure of sabre-toothed cat society, so why pretend (in such detail) that we do. That's just one example.

The visuals are splendid.

The narrator's voice annoyed me. Sounded like a typical off-the-shelf narrator who understood nothing of the subject. Was taken aback to discover it was Kenneth Branagh.

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Reviews


walking with beasts
Review date: 2003-05-27 Rating: 8 out of 10

exellent ,fantastic and exciting its is good if you that sort of stuff it is a peice of art a complete CLASSIC it good for its money!
SO BUY IT AT AMAZON!
(you know you want to buy it!)

Marvellous depiction of a lost age
Review date: 2002-04-02 Rating: 10 out of 10

Watched this series the end of last year but I still feel that Walking with Dinosaurs was more interesting. Favourite episode was the last and the Mammoths looked so authentic that after witnessing them on the programme, you wouldn't be surprised to see some traversing the wilderness of Siberia!

Its an extremly brillant movie/show. Its truley amazing.
Review date: 2001-12-13 Rating: 10 out of 10

This movie is an extremly brillant movie. I am studing to be a paleontologist, and it has helped me to learn, names and what they look like, do, and more. I am so facinated with this, and also Walking With the Dinosaurs.

Compelling at times, but short of extraordinary
Review date: 2001-12-04 Rating: 8 out of 10

This follow up series to Walking with Dinosaurs takes up from where it left off, and is an obvious improvement in at least one respect: the credibility of the imagery. The series follows the same periodic snap-shot format, following within each snap shot the fate of an individual or a group from a particular species.

I found episode 4 "Next of Kin", the most compelling, featuring as it does Australopithecines, our ancestors. I thought that these were quite well rendered, and believably presented in terms of attributed behaviour. At times I even felt a moment of awe. On a second watching, these moments were still felt to some extent, and therefore I feel the series has some enduring merit.

It would not be honest to say that the series is gripping, and I don't feel that either this series or Walking with Dinosaurs is a match for much of David Attenborough's work, for example (in terms of structure, variety of material covered, and photography - simulated or otherwise..!), however it is definitely worthwhile, and in the case of the creatures it features, it opens up a window on a period of our world's prehistory that has never before been convincingly depicted, (certainly not with this favour of authenticity and spectacle) and that is a wonderful thing in itself.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Stockard Channing
Larry Agenbroad
Larry Witmer
Frank Fish
Maureen O'Leary (II)

Creators:
Stockard Channing (Primary Contributor)
Larry Agenbroad (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503110123
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2002-04-08
Number of discs: 2
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 180 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001-11-15
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: English (Original Language)

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