Product Details

• Actors: Kenneth Branagh
• Directors: Tim Haines
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Worldwide
• DVD Release Date: January 17, 2006
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000BNI9EU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,290 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

BEFORE THE DINOSAURS:WALKING WITH MON - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Few Facts, Lots of Speculation and Worlds of Wonder, February 12, 2006

By 

John A Lee III "jal3" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters (DVD)

Nobody should confuse this with a course of paleontology. Nobody should even confuse this with a broad survey of the subject. Instead, it is a magnificent flight of imagination based upon some real science but which does not let the science take precedence over the wonder. It is wonderful

This is a series of three programs. Each deals with prehistoric life before the advent of the dinosaurs.

In the first program, we are treated to one theory of the formation of our planet and introduced to the Cambrian seas. There are not dinosaurs here. Fish barely even exist. That does not stop the cycle of predation in a world of gigantic marine scorpions and the proto-fish prey. We see the colonization of the land by the first plants and encounter the first amphibians, learning a little bit about the evolutionary pressures that drove their emergence. The program ends with the first true reptiles and the hard shelled egg.

The second episode takes place more on land. Gigantic arthropods contest with gigantic amphibians and the odd reptile here and there. We see the first strains of reptile that will eventually give rise to the mammals. Life is still a contest of the predator and the prey.

The third episode advances the story through the lives of some early, pre-dinosaur reptiles. The motif of eat and be eaten is still the rule of the day. The episode ends with the apprearance of true dinosaurs, where the series first began.

There is a lot of speculation in this work. Some of it is well reasoned and logical. Some of it is much less so. Only a few species are looked at with any degree of detail. The great Devonian age of the fishes is bypassed in a short sentence. That does not stop the wonder of it all. It is fascinating seeing the fossils come to life even with the speculations.

The DVD also includes a "making of" segment which covers all three of the series. It too is worth watching.

This will never replace real coursework and has all of the depth of the old, "Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom" but neither was ever intended to teach zoology. Both were meant to kindle a sense of wonder. Both accomplish that end.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Putting meat on the bones..., February 16, 2006

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters (DVD)

Three episodes that explore the life, or what life might have been like, before the dinosaurs showed up onto the stage. With only about 90 minutes that does seem to leave a lot of details out but most of the major turning points are hit on - animals and plants moving from the oceans to the land, the development of certain organs for survival, evolution working to make animals and plants more fit. Sea scorpions, giant spiders and killer fish that could take on sharks make me happy I live NOW and not back then.
The DVD extra, the Trilogy of Life, talks about the history of the THREE shows, Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts and Walking with Monsters to show how the first series produced the next and so on.
I really enjoyed this series and wanted more - I think dinosaurs get too much of the spotlight and would like to know more about life before and after them.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great...but could have been much better, April 1, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Before the Dinosaurs: Walking With Monsters (DVD)

this special was amazing. i am really 16, and have always been a fan of creatures from before dinosaur supremacy. however, i think 90 minutes is far too short for such a huge amount of life. most of the time periods up until the early Permian were skimmed over, and the Ordovician period was completely passed over, without a word said.

also, there were many creatures that i was disapointed not to see get re-created in this special. a few apperences, such as Gorgonops, Dimetrodon, Edaphosaurus, Euparkeria, Pterygotus, etc, i was happy to see. however, i was dissapointed when i did not see Icthyostega, Estemmenosuchus, Protorosaurus(earliest known archosaur), and many more creatures that i would like to know more about.

it is good, for 90 minutes, but if the creators were to re-create it as a four hour special, it could become something truly spectacular.