Customer Reviews

Dinosaur Planet - Real Big Stories

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am now an expert in dinosaur films and film-making, thanks to my son's undying interest in the prehistoric creatures. We have this, and we have the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs (WWD) series. Both are TREMENDOUS EDUCATIONAL AND CINEMATIC ACHIEVEMENTS. But I do think WWD is better than this, which is why this only gets 4 stars. (If aliens from another planet saw WWD, they'd think it was real; hence, it gets 5 stars for its realism.)

PROS
* The storylines are more "personal" than those in WWD: the dinosaurs have names and the stories make us more sympathetic to their plights

* I really like the cut-ins of the paleontologist explaining the evidence they found related to the storyline, the questions that still exist, etc.

* Each story is longer than the stories in WWD, which gives us more time to know the characters

CONS
* THE ANIMATIONS ARE *YEARS* BEHIND THE QUALITY OF THE ANIMATIONS IN WWD; the rendering of the dinosaur movement is choppy; they just don't look as real the landscape they inhabit; they don't leave footprints in sandy soil; etc.

* Some of the stories actually use landscapes with grass and even flowering grass, neither of which existed until after the age of the dinosaurs

* Christian Slater is not Kenneth Branagh (who narrates WWD)

PURCHASING RECOMMENDATION
Buy WWD first. The quality of the production far outweighs any advantages Dinosaur Planet might have. But don't hesitate to buy this. It's good. And honestly, 10 years ago, we'd have all watched this and raved about how great it was. We are spoiled by technology...

This is a REALLY great DVD, a show with four stories about four dinosaurs. The best part is that it is an educational story, not a normal documentry which some childeren may not be interested in.
1. White Tips' Journey:
A female Velociraptors' pack is killed, and must find another one.
Featured dinosaurs and mammals: Velociraptor, Prenocephale, Protoceratops, Oviraptor, Shuvuia and Deltaperidion
2. Pods' Travels:
A male Pyrorptor gets swept into sea, onto an island with mini-sized versions of the animals he is accoustomed to.
Featured dinosaurs, plesiosaurs and crocodiles: Pyrorptor, Titanosaurus, Iguanodon, Tarasctosaurus, Plesiosaurus, Ichthyornis, Apodoxsuchus and Troodon
3. Little Dass' Hunt:
A young male Daspletosaurus keeps ruining his familys' hunting expiditions. Meanwhile, a volcano threatens in the distance.
Featured dinosaurs and pterosaurs: Orodromeus, Quetzalcoatlus, Troodon, Daspletosaurus, Maiasaura and Einiosaurus
4. Alphas' Egg:
Follow a female Saltasaurus as she grows.
Featured dinosaurs and crocodiles: Saltasaurus, Aucasaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Alvarezsaurus and Notosuchus
A note to sensitive parents: there ARE scenes with blood, dead bodies, deaths, predatation etc. If you are sensitive about this, I don't reccomend it for you.

First of all, I would like to point out that this documentary is made by Meteor Studios in Montreal (When Dinosaurs roamed America) and not by Framestore in UK (Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beast, Allosaurus and Chased by Dinosaurs).

I love dinosaurs so I have watched the whole series from Discovery Channel. I was disappointed at first because the animation and the compositing are far from perfect. I don't know what happened to Meteor Studios but the result is even worse then their last documentary on dinosaurs (When Dinosaurs Roamed America). The animation is terrible and the compositing is even less convincing this time. You simply cannot compare this documentary in a technical point of view with Walking with Dinosaurs, a documentary that was made 4 years ago. Even my girlfriend saw the difference in quality. She doesn't usually notice that. Because this is a visual documentary, I think it's important that the CGI has to be good.

It's not that all bad. The stories were interesting enough and I was happy to learn things on new dinosaurs. The dinosaurs (textures and models) look really impressive in still pictures.

Overall, I was happy to see another documentary on dinosaurs and I will buy this DVD when it comes out because I love everything related to dinosaurs. If you are only a casual viewer and looking for the ultimate DVD on dinosaurs, I will definitely recommend "Walking with Dinosaurs" instead.

I knock this one star because the animation isn't nearly as good as the animation in Walking With Dinosaurs (WWD) from the BBC. We certainly are spoiled by good animation these days. From WWD to Gollum in the Rings movies, our expectations have been set very high. WWD is so good that it looks like cameras were stuck in the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. The animation here, made 4 years later, isn't nearly as good.

PROS
* Animation is good enough for kids, and I suppose that's the primary audience
* Character-driven plot-lines seem to be more captivating for my young son
* Cut aways to paleontologist describing the fossil findings around which each of the stories are created are fascinating

CONS
* Animation quality: Hey, at least have the dinosaurs leave footprints!
* There was no grass during the age of the dinosaurs, yet lots of grass exists in these episodes
* Some people won't like Christian Slater's slang-filled narration; it is a sharp contrast with the very proper narration from Kenneth Branagh in WWD

PURCHASING RECOMMENDATION
Really, the biggest knock against this is animation quality, and that's just not an issue for young kids. SO, BUY THIS! BUT BUY WWD FIRST!

WARNING: There are some graphic scenes of carnage. These might disturb young viewers (though they haven't bothered my 5 year old), so parents should screen the episodes first if you are concerned.

These 2 discs are a great value. First off you get four stories about dinosaurs, with lots of drama, action, adventure and even humor. Each disc comes with dino fact sheets, two stories each and Scott Sampson, a Paleontologist, who pops up within the stories to help explain a lot about dinosaurs, much of which is based on new information. Walking With Dinosaurs had better CG, but I think Real Big Stories holds up well.
Also, I think Christian Slater does a good job as the narrator. He reacts to what is going on right before our eyes - he isn't wooden or stale. He really helps us link up with the dinosaurs - giving White Tip, Pod, Das and Alpha a voice. Like the music in any film he helps bring out the drama, humor and tragedy.

Dinosaur Planet is fun to watch especially if you have kids. The dinosaurs CGI looked good and the sound effects of their roars were well done. I also enjoyed the different stories it told with each dinosaur. I watched all episodes straight through in the Discovery Channel. It does have it's faults. The CGI looked good but didn't animate well. The dinosaurs just seemed to have unatural looking motions when walking, running or eating. The most annoying thing in the whole series was the narrator's voice; Christian Slater. Although I respect Christian Slater as an actor, he is a horrible narrator. His voice doesn't match along with the story telling of the series and since he has a bit of slang when he talks, it just sounds moronic. Walking With Dinosaurs is still the best documentry out there, but Dinosaur Planet is still fun to watch and kids will like it as well.

What I was expecting from this was new information delivered in an entertaining way. And I got what I wanted. New Dinos and "old friends updated", with the information delivered in an interesting format. The DVD will find a place in my library with previous installments (Walking with dinos/cavemen etc.) It was a surprise that Christian Slater was narrator, but this was pleasant, as I did like the sarcasum that went with his commentary. I am expecting, as in the past, that when the DVD is received, it will be a different narrator (Kevin B. replacing Stockard Channing, etc.) The annimation, alas, I was too into the 'story' to watch for other than how realistic the animal itsself appeared, not the ground behind it, under it, correct shadows etc. I tend to watch for entertainment/information, not to critique.

So, if you are simply interested in updated information about new and updated old dinosaurs in a observational fashion, the by all means aquire the DVD!

The latest entry in the post-"Walking with Dinosaurs" craze, "Dinosaur Planet" follows "When Dinosaurs Roamed America". Composed of four hour-long episodes - White Tip's Journey, Pod's Travels, Alpha's Egg, and Little Das' Hunt - this series is better in both animation and story telling than its predecessor, though it is still no "Walking with..."

What most people might find interesting about this series is that all of the episodes feature dinosaurs that most people probably never hear of. Most everyone is familiar with Velociraptor, Iguanodon and Maiasaurus, but how many passing dino fans have heard of Shuvia, Daspletosaurus, Saltasaurus, or Pyroraptor? This series opens up the world of dinosaurs that most people have never heard of.

The Episodes are:
White Tip's Journey - a young female Velociraptor travels the Gobi desert searching for a new pack. Along the way she must dodge rival Oviraptors and angry Protoceratops.

Pod's Travels - a male Pyroraptor looses his two sisters in a tsumami and ends up on and island populated by smaller versions of the animals he's used to.

Alpha's Egg - a Saltasaur's life is followed from birth to her first egg clutch. It's a bumpy ride to adulthood, especially with all the predators about. Alpha's chief rival, though, is Dragonfly, a hungry carnosaur that's got her in his crosshairs.

Little Das' Hunt - Little Das, a juvenile Daspletosaurus, tries his hardest to help his older sisters and mother in the hunt, but he always seems to mess things up! But just as he's on the verge of proving himself, a volcanic eruption changes the balance of power.

Despite the animation quaility and good narration, there is a glaring flaw in this series. The producers appear to have been less selective in where they put their dinosaurs than the "Walking with Dinosaurs" team. The dinosaurs in "Planet" are shown wandering about in grass filled landscapes, a plant that did not exist in that age. The "Walking with..." creators were more careful, and this laziness on the part of the "Planet" producers prevents this series from getting five stars.

Overall, a good series, but with flaws that could have been easily avoided.

Granted I'm fascinated with dinosaurs, but I thought the series was fairly good. I liked the animation, I liked the characters and the backdrops weren't bad. There were some glaring flaws, such as predators who advertise their presence almost contstantly and tiny, noisy squeeky babies (surrounded by much larger and hungrier adults). Just keep in mind this was created for the braindead masses and the "extras" were added to make it more interesting and the series was fairly good. I particurlarly liked pod and the teeny, parrot colored dromeosaurids.

Firstly, this series isn't animated by Framestore - the same folks who did Walking with Dinosaurs, it's made by Meteor Studios, who made 'When Dinosaurs Roamed America' this should be pretty evident from the quality of the animation, which whilst at times not bad, is certainly considerably below the efforts of Framestore and the BBC, and this is 4 years on from 'Walking with'... (Check out the lastest 'Chased by Dinosaurs' episodes from the BBC to see just how far Framestore have come since WWD - Spectacular, albiet with annoying talking heads now in the form of Nigel Marvin)

When Dinosarus Roamed America was quite a bad series, but this is a big improvement. Most of the Dinos are very well textured and built, the problem, is the animation, sadly animation is the most critical factor in conveying realism, the human eye only needs a little bit of visual movement information to believe something is real, but that movement has to be spot on, so whilst these textures are first rate the movement ruins their impact. All the same, a big improvement on When Dinosaurs Roamed.

I wasn't particularly keen on the fur on the Raptors, but nevermind. One small nitpick, lots of scenes with grass - there was no grass back then, these locations can be found, just look at what the Walking With Dinosaurs crew did.

But hey, there aren't exactly a lot of these types of series on the market apart from Walking with Dinosaurs, so I'm glad they made it all the same, and I hope they make more, because they are improving. I'm sure the budget here was smaller, and it's comendable that they severly curtailed the 'talking heads' and stayed with the action. The stories are generally quite interesting (especially Pod's Journey), Christian Slater sounds pretty nasal but he's bearable.

All up 3 out of 5. Check it out in High-Definition if you get the chance. I hope the next effort is on par with the BBC's efforts!