Customer Reviews

Chased by Dinosaurs

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My 6-year old son has 4 of the recent dino DVDs created with computer-generated graphics:

* Chased by Dinosaurs (BBC)
* Allosaurus (BBC)
* Walking With Dinosaurs (BBC)
* Dinosaur Planet (Discovery Channel)

I have reviewed all the others, too.

The BBC productions are all far better quality than Dinosaur Planet. But Dinosaur Planet has longer stories, and the dinos are given names and more personality, which appeals to kids.

Of the BBC productions, Chased by Dinosaurs is the best. They are all exceptional. You'd think somebody managed to go back in time and shoot film of real dinosaurs. In fact, that is the plot of Chased by Dinosaurs. The host, Nigel Marvin, is something of a "dinosaur hunter", ala the Crocodile Hunter series. He goes back in time and interacts with marvelous dinosaurs in 3 long episodes. The animation is brilliant! In one moment, Nigel captures a small bird-like dinosaur. In another, a T-Rex nearly back into Nigel, who is hiding in the bushes. The animation is just mind-blowing.

This is absolutely my son's favorite. He's old enough to know that Nigel Marvin didn't really go back in time. But he's young enough to be absolutely delighted by the possibility.

If mankind ever invented a real time travel machine this is just the type of documentary the BBC would make. Two episodes of Chased by Dinosaurs plus three episodes of Chased by Sea Monsters make this DVD a real deal. It also has lots of extras and Nigel Marvin is the zoologist who is sent back in time to explore the past. Because he is a real zoologist he knows just how to deal with the predators and their prey, but sometimes he DOES get in over his head and even lost his temper once. 150 minutes, with English subtitles for the deaf or hard of hearing, I have to give the BBC, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben a big two-thumbs up. Because of the predator-prey interaction I would not suggest this DVD for really young kids.

When I first saw this DVD at the store, I knew it was going to be a blast. When I watched it, I was blown away! The special effects were some of the best that I have ever seen! Of course, this was made by the same people who made Walking With Dinosaurs, so I am not surprised. As a true dinosaur fan, I like to see many different species of dinosaurs brought to life on screen. This is exactly what I had hoped for. They used all sorts of different species, some of them I have not even heard of!!! They used Giganotosaurus, a carnosaur that is larger than Tyrannosaurus, Argentinosaurus, the only land animal that comes close in size to the blue whale, Tarbosaurus, a large predatory dinosaur that is very closely related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and many,many,many more prehistoric creatures that will both amaze, and frighten! Best of all, they used a guy named Nigel Marven to show us the dinosaurs in a Crocodile Hunter-like fashion. Not only that, but when Nigel walks up close to the prehistoric fauna, he gives us a very good idea of scale. I just wanted to let you know something before I wrap things up. The producers of the "Walking With..." series just released a "sequal" to this fun fest. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of Prehistoric Park. Prehistoric Park is basically the same formula, except this time, Nigel (yes he returns in this series) gets to meet our old friend the Tyrannosaurus Rex. And best of all, there are still all new prehistoric creatures featured in this series. However, this kind of formula is still new to television, so make sure you watch Chased by Dinosaurs first, before you see Prehistoric Park. Chased by Dinosaurs keeps it simple, but Prehistoric Park takes this new genre a step further. Overall, if you are a dinosaur fan, then you most certainly will not be disappointed. Oh and by the way, keep your eyes peeled for Prehistoric Park. If I liked that show so much, I'm sure any other dino-fan would too. Thanks for reading!!!

Why stray from a successful formula?

First off, hats off to Framestore, the animation company behind Chased by Dinosaurs, their work is truly first rate, especially the intergration of human and CG elements. At times there work is so good it's totally real, just take a look at the Megaladon episode to see some of the best CG work anywhere in the world IMO. Flawless intergration, far better than ILM in the recent JP movies IMO. There are some pretty complex shots in this series and one could imagine they took a lot longer to animate than in the original series of Walking with Dinosaurs.

The problem, and it's a big one... only around 1/3 of each episode is animation, the rest is Nigel Marvin talking or pretending to follow these obviously 'imaginery' animals Crocodile Hunter style. The novelty quickly wears off. Now each Walking with Dinosaurs episode felt short at 30 minutes of animation, now that they've reduced that by 60 percent to effectively 10 or so minutes an episode, the series really loses much of it's appeal and rewatchibility value. Nigel is entertaining enough and a decent actor, but let's face, we want to see the dinosaurs and this form of 'cheating' doesn't go unnoticed. It's akin to the trick's Spielberg used in Jurassic park - 3 seconds of animation - 1 minute of someone's face going 'wow'. It's not fooling anyone. The only good thing about this is that you can see the size of the dinosaurs relative to a human now, but again, I would have swapped that for an episode full of animation.

Anyway, apart from that, this is first rate stuff, a must buy all the same for any dinosaur fan, these are the most realistic dinos and sea creatures created to date, and include some fascinating specimens such as the massive Gigantosaurus and the biggest Sauropod of recent times, the Argentinosaurus, fascinating creatures, i just wish they'd made the series in the form of 'Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts', rather than introduce the talking head theatrics.

This "Walking with dinosaurs" special DVD is full of information about the great predators that thrived before our existence and even before dinosaurs. It's exciting and new and Nigel Marvin does an awesome job taking you through time on his adventure to get up close and personal with everything on land, in the air, and under water. He brings you to the largest land animal to ever exist(Argentinasaurus), to the biggest predator to ever walk the Earth(Giganotosaurus). Nigel dives into the the seven deadliest seas of all time from over 400 million years ago with the Giant Orthocones to as close as a million years ago with Carcharodon Megalodon, the greatest shark of all time, and all the way to hell's aquarium. This DVD is a must have. There are few other prehistoric documentaries that can get better this.

My now 4-yr-old son has watched this movie over and over and over again in the last year and a half. He absolutely LOVES Nigel Marvin...and was later thrilled to see him on a real show about some other animal. Apparently he really IS a zoologist, which is amazing because he is a great actor, as well. You really think that he is seeing the dinosaurs and sea monsters that you are seeing on the screen! I guess the addition of a real human being to the mix on this video has really made it more interesting for him. I purchased the Walking with Dinosaurs set at the same time as this video and he almost never asks for anything but Nigel Marvin. The adventures are quite real and you actually find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat when Nigel is being chased (at least, for the first half dozen times that you watch it). Thank goodness it is equally entertaining for adults and children! My son knows all of the names of all of the animals and knows exactly which scene he wants to go to each time we turn this on. I highly recommend it for dinosaur fans of all ages!

My six year old son can't get enough of this DVD. We don't have cable so we don't get to watch these great shows on TV when they actually debut.

This is fun, exciting, and sparks the imagination of not only the little one in our family. Nigel Marvin is great and the special effects are wonderful. After watching this DVD when we rented it, we went to the BBC website and played games that had to do with this program. It was lots of fun and we got to catch sea monters of our own.

If you or your little ones love dinosaurs and creative shows, this is the one for you. Money well spent. A good investment for both entertainment value and educational value as well.

PUT SIMPLY -- AN AWESOME WONDROUS ESCURSION INTO THE DANGEROUS UNKNOWN!

OVERVIEW --

"Chased By Dinosaurs",starring Nigel Marven is the most compelling and satisfying program about dinosaurs ever! Wondrous and awesome are just too small to describe this excursion into the dangerous unknown. This program has just one small problem, 218 minutes is just much too short for this program. I have seen this program frequently, but always in one sitting! AWESOME & WONDROUS JUST WON'T DO!

Where "Walking With Dinosaurs" and "Prehistoric Beasts" were awesomely realistic educational tools, "Chased by Dinosaurs" adds the two elements already present in the series, but now in the Mega-doses that Dinosaurs deserve -- EXCITEMENT & JOYOUS ENTERTAINMENT.

FOR PARENTS: there's NO CLOCK-WATCHING while this program is running.

-*- SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL?
-*- HOW IS THIS PROGRAM DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS IN THE SERIES?

The other "Walking With" programs are empirical, educational tools that have no equal, but young children, who traditionally are the biggest dinosaur enthusiasts, find them a bit difficult to stay focused on. This time travel format hosted by Nigel Marven is especially valuable for children, though I found it for myself to be the most compelling of the entire series.

The first episode [28 minutes] - "THE GIANT CLAW" serves notice that man and dinosaur will be sharing the same world and even the same frames on film. In the first 3 minutes, Nigel Marven is almost eaten several times in what look to be real man-meets-dinosaur encounters. It's just the beginning!

Episode 2 [28 minutes] - "LAND OF THE GIANTS" introduces us to the recently discovered, largest dinosaurs [so far]. In the world of dinosaurs, bigger is always more interesting. The Argentinasaurus weighs in at 92 tons and we see Nigel actually put the scales under the dinosaur, as a herd of Argentinasauruses passes by. You don't have to be a child to get excited over this!

The last part, "Chased By Sea Monsters", is ther real treat on this DVD. Because its scope and requisite length is larger, it is broken into 3 segments [28 minutes each]. Basically, using a time machine [a device that we don't see except for its results], Nigel Marven and his brave crew check out the 7 most dangerous oceans of all time. These are shown in order of ascending danger, the 7th most dangerous ocean shown first and the most dangerous shown last. The timeline goes back and forth, but it allows a very effective building of tension. Each paleo-ocean is filled with exotic and dangerous denizens of the deep that are more menacing with each new ocean. Young children can't keep their eyes off this segment and frankly neither can I.

-----*- BONUS DOCUMENTARY: "THE SCIENCE OF GIANTS" --

This 50-minute special feature is about as good as it gets when it comes to dinosaur documentaries. "Science of Giants" examines a relatively new and previously unproven theory regarding the herding tendencies of the largest carnivores, previously assumed to be solitary creatures. We witness the efforts of paleontologist Philip Currie in his coordinated efforts to prove that "megacarnivores" actually hunted and lived in packs.

"Fact Files" are also included within the Special Features that provide quick, basic info about the dinosaurs that are included in the series.

This is very interesting and it is quick and easy reference.


THE VERDICT -- MORE PLEASE! --

It doesn't get any better than this! Throughout the five-part, time machine sequences we have Nigel Marven in the same frames as the dinosaurs and every moment is spent entertainingly, usefully, and educationally.

FOR FURTHER VIEWING:

"Walking With Dinosaurs" and "Walking With Prehistoric Beasts" are the most educationally significant videos of their kind. However, "Prehistoric Beasts" deals primarily with huge mammals and human ancestors making it inherently interesting to me. The lives of huge mammals are also followed, many of which are as large as dinosaurs.

There is also "Allosaurus-A Walking With Dinosaurs Special", based on a recent find. An extrapolation of "Big Al's" life and death is the focus of this treat, along with a documentary which explains how that extrapolation was made. For these, Kenneth Branagh is the narrator and he is very well-suited for the role.

"Walking with Monsters - Life Before Dinosaurs DVD" hosted by Kenneth Branagh has recently been released, and I have just seen it. The special effects are the best yet, but intrinsically these are basically pre-dinosauric animals which are inherently less interesting. I would still give this program 5 stars, but it is not in the same class as "Chased By Dinosuars" when it comes to generating viewer excitement.

-----*- LAST THOUGHTS --

"CHASED BY DINOSAURS" hosted by Nigel Marvin is a sort of Jurassic Park for Dino-education, and is simply the best program of its kind that have ever seen, by a very long margin.

Educational AND entertaining. Every aspect of this production is top notch (even the music ). Considerably more credible and accurate than the Jurassic Park movies. Contrary to one reviewer's opinion in this section, the "speculative" aspects of their recreations are reasonable within current paleontological knowledge.

"Walking with Dinosaurs" was a technical marvel, and the BBC keeps spitting them out. This latest offering, "Chased by Dinosaurs", is no exception. This time, the narrator takes a back seat to our host, Nigel Marven.

The DVD is split into five episodes, each taking on a different time in history. In "The Giant Claw", Nigel tries to track down the owner of a huge claw in Cretaceous Mongolia, and what he finds is nothing like what he expected. "Land of Giants" finds our host in Cretaceous Argentina, where he witnesses a true clash of titans. And in the three part "Sea Monsters", Nigel takes to the water to observe the worst the prehistoric oceans had to offer.

Each episode is well written and well done, and as one reviewer mentions, the animation has truely improved since "Walking with Dinosaurs". Perhaps the best of the offerings is "Sea Monsters", where each episode ends with Nigel and crew facing a peril of some kind, and the viewer wondering, "What happens next?" As with the previous video releases, this is the original BBC airing, with no cuts.

Included with this DVD are trailers for "Walking with Dinosaurs", "Walking with Beasts", "Walking with Cavemen", and "Blue Planet". There are also fact files for each of the animals encountered in the series, as well as an extra program, "The Science of Giants", from the BBC series "Horizons". All in all, an must have for your "Walking with..." collection.