March of the Dinosaurs [DVD]

The people who brought you the various Walking with Prehistoric Monsters series and "Prehistoric Park" present the story of two young dinosaurs coping with the rigours of an Arctic winter. Narrated by Stephen Fry, this film features Scar, the young Edmontosaurus, who must migrate south with his herd and face several dangerous trials along the way, ranging from predators to environmental hazards. Also featured is Patch, the adolescent Troodon, who has to rely on his insulating feathers and cunning to survive the onset of the cold, darkness, snow, and ice, as well as competition from rival Troodons and the threat of larger predators. During their adventures, we meet some species not yet covered in previous "Walking With" shows . . . .

EDMONTOSAURUS: A large, herd-oriented hadrosaur. The herd belonging to one of our protagonists (Scar) is central to the story.

TROODON: Once also known as Stenonychosaurus, these bird-like predators are big-brained and fast, possibly the most intelligent dinosaurs to have existed. The other of the main characters (Patch) belongs to this species.

GORGOSAURUS: A large solitary tyrannosaur which toughs out the winter with its size, feathers, and ability to eat practically any creature smaller than itself.

EDMONTONIA: A nodosaurine ankylosaur (one whose armour includes large shoulder-spikes but no bone club on the end of its tail), it's slow and unable to migrate, so it stays put and forages in the snow.

EARLY MAMMAL (not named in the film): A small, primitive, opossum-like furball. Its descendants will likely eventually evolve into lemurs, monkeys, apes, football players, and humans. In the context of the show, it's mainly Troodon's between-meal snack.

PACHYRHINOSAURUS: A short-sighted, foul-tempered ceratopsian herd animal which must also migrate according to the seasons. Unlike its more famous cousin, Triceratops, Pachyrhinosaurus doesn't have much in the way of horns, other than a few small spikes on its neck-frill. Instead, it has a large, thick boss of bone on its snout. Still not an animal to mess with, though.

QUETZALCOATLUS: Perhaps the biggest animal ever to fly, with a wingspan of up to forty feet. In this film, it fills the role of scavenger / predator, circling like a vulture and waiting for the weak, sick, and injured to succumb, raiding another predator's unguarded kills, or actively pursuing easy prey.

PROGNATHODON: A huge mosasaur that makes swimming in Cretaceous waters a very bad idea indeed.

ALBERTOSAURUS: Another large tyrannosaur, this time a pack-hunter. The thought of ten or more multi-ton death machines working as a team to kill and eat everything they come across . . . well, have a couple of changes of underwear ready if you're of a nervous disposition.

This is the first such undertaking done entirely in CGI. This is both a good and a bad thing. It's good, because location scouts don't have to scour the planet to find places to film that resemble the Cretaceous world as closely as possible. The programmers can MAKE the Cretaceous world as accurately as they can. It's bad, because during some of the fast camera-panning and quick action, the backgrounds or creatures move, flicker, jump, and blur like they come from a video game. I don't know if this happens in the Blu-Ray edition, but it does on my DVD, and it's rather distracting and detracts from the realism. Otherwise, the scenery is lovely, and in many places, breathtaking.

And speaking of realism and video games, a lot of effort was put into this show to make it as accurate as possible, but there is no way I can believe that a massive adult Albertosaurus can leap thirty feet into the air to deliver a killing blow like a character from one of the more violent martial arts beat-'em-ups. Many of the scenes which are supposed to take place in the months-long Arctic night often seem to be as brightly-lit as day. And maybe I haven't been keeping up with all the latest developments in palaeontology, but I could've sworn that pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus were supposed to be covered in fur, and that Gorgosaurus was a defunct name attached to some fossil material that was later found out to be from Albertosaurus. I might be wrong on that last point, though there still seems to be some debate on the matter. There's a bit of over-dramatising and some slight anthropomorphising, but on the whole, the story's gripping, the science is mostly sound, and the animals look extremely good. You might think that feathery tyrannosaurids might lack the necessary fright factor, but they somehow look even NASTIER with feathers.

The DVD itself contains some fun downloadable material, including colouring-in sheets, posters, and fact files. You also get a "Making Of" documentary, director's commentary, storyboards that play along with the narration, and fact-screens about the various prehistoric creatures.

On the whole, this is a very good DVD set. Not outstanding, but very good. It tells a fascinating story that hasn't been told before in any of the "Walking With..." series, and introduces some interesting species. Definitely worth a look for all dinosaur fans, but I might recommend renting it first to see if you'd want to own it.

This is an excellent film about adventures and fate of various dinosaurs living in the Cretaceous period on the northern edge of what would in the future become North America. 70 millions years ago the world was much warmer than it is now and forests extended very far beyond the Arctic Circle, into what is today the cold and desolate extremity of Canadian Far North. Large numbers of dinosaurs lived in those forests which offered food in abundance, from spring to autumn. Winters however were ferocious and many dinosaurs migrated south at the end of autumn - when others, less adapted to long distance marches, toughed it out through the cold season.

The story follows mainly two characters. Scar is a very young Edmontosaurus (a large herbivorous "duck billed" dinosaur) who must survive his first long march south. Patch is a young, although already more mature Troodon (a small, wolf sized, carnivorous dinosaur), who must not only make it through the winter, but also learn to attract a mate. There are however many other dinosaurs appearing in that story. There is a whole herd of Pachyrhinosaurs, large and brutish horned dinosaurs walking together with the hundreds of Edmontosaurus. On their way, the herbivorous migrants will have to face a pack of fierce Albertosaurus, following them and setting ambushes. There will be also danger in the rivers the two herds must cross and the giant scavenging Queltzalcoatlus will circle in the sky, awaiting patiently the death of stragglers...

Amongst those who choose to stay in the forests and face the winter, there is a solitary Gorgosaurus (a smaller cousin of T-Rex), the unquestioned alpha predator of the Far North, but also a resourceful and tough Edmontonia, an armoured dinosaur. The Edmontonia parts are slightly marred by an error, as the narrator calls this animal an "Ankylosaur". Edmontonia was indeed related to THE Ankylosaur but they were different animals (and Ankylosaur, at 9 m, was much more formidable that 6 m long Edmontonia).

The story is very interesting and there are many surprises in it, which I will not reveal here. The topic of the Troodons is a particularly interesting one, as those dinosaurs had brains larger (in proportion to the bodies) than any other dinosaur and they also possessed relatively long forepaws with quite agile fingers. Some scientists claim in fact (although it is a controversial claim) that given enough time Troodons or some of their cousins could have evolved into intelligent forms...

I absolutely loved this movie and I am certain anybody who is interested in dinosaurs will spend a nice moment watching it. Please be WARNED however, that younger children can find it scary due to the killing scenes, especially those in which some cute little mammals are swallowed whole or ripped in pieces by the Troodons.

These dinosaurs, and the landscape are extremely impressive to look at. The CGI is as good as any I have seen. What lets it down is both Stephen Fry's narration, which doesn't work since he is speaking in his lower range, and sounds rather subdued and depressed.Kenneth Branagh would be a better choice. Also, as this is supposed to be a type of documentary, representing the struggles in the life of dinosaurs, some things just weren't scientifically credible. One is where a 3 ton Albertosaurus jumps in the air to attack another dinosaur. The forces required for such a large beast to jump render such a thing impossible. Also, to make the story more 'interesting', they make an Albertosaurus track two dinosaurs despite it walking past already freshly killed dinosaurs. This wouldn't happen. If a dinosaur can eat already killed dinosaurs, with no risk, why chase others, and risk injury in a fight, and waste valuable calories in the chase. Since so much effort was put in the graphics, why not think a bit on credibility.