Product Details

• Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Avery Brooks
• Writers: Kate Bartlett, Michael Olmert
• Producers: Mick Kaczorowski, Tim Haines
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Warner
• DVD Release Date: September 16, 2003
• Run Time: 29 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000AN4GH
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,829 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Prehistoric Planet/Allosaurus - A Walking With Dinosaurs Special" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

PREHISTORIC PLANET/ALLOSARUS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Top 100 Reasons We're Glad They're Extinct - The Special, July 14, 2003

By 

TastyBabySyndrome "Matthew Lewis, author of M... ("Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Little Tendril Baseball Team, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Allosaurus: Walking with Dinosaurs Special (DVD)

When I was a little kid, I used to dream of a world teeming with dinosaurs. I used to imagine what it would have been like when those skeletons I saw on exhibit lived, and how someone needed to play tour guide to that realm and how I should twist the handle. Sadly, no matter how I tried that doorway, it always remained closed, my time machine not quite working the way I would have intended, and dinosaurs were left either in bone formation or in the movies as monsters.
There was never an in-between.

With the creation of the Walking With Dinosaurs series, however, everything began to change and I, still that boy with an interest in that hobby, found myself addicted. The key that separated this series and made it "unique" - a word I try to use sparingly - is in the way the dinosaurs, our main actors and actresses, are portrayed. Instead of turning then into a depiction of a colossal, toothy menace or dryly discussing their lifespan in the way one discusses ancient relics, the series showcases dinosaurs by allowing one to walk with them through their terrain. From the flora and the fauna, the insect life and dinosaurs themselves, a depiction of CGI effects, prosthetics, and of "dinosaur knowing" comes to life. Here, you see the landscape the way it would have been, the animals roaming free and observed naturalistically, and the experience is incredible because it looks so vibrantly realistic.

In Allosaurus: A Walking With Dinosaurs Special, the Allosaurus "Big Al" is showcased as he struggles from the cradle while trying to grow into something fearsome. In sixty minutes, the fifteen years from the egg to the eventual demise it faces are depicted, showing a person that going to the head of the class wasn't easy in that age. Here, other dinosaurs walk as well, and the efforts of one of the top predators of its age seem a tad on the hard side - making me rethink the allure of being the biggest kid on the block. Survival while growing, it is dramatic and enlightening experience, and its pretty interesting how harrowing an introduction can be and how brutal it can be.

For anyone that has yet to watch this series, I'd recommend tuning in as soon as possible and catching up on all those moments you missed out on. I would recommend starting with Walking With Dinosaurs, however, and moving on from there. Still, that is far from being a bad thing. Besides this video that focuses on Big Al and a few of species, other DVDs house other forms of life that are entrancing. Wonderfully fast predators, Megladons swimming the high tides and eating enough to be interesting, and other strange species await you. And they, all the DVDs released thusfar in this series, simply look fantastic.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A big bite from the Jurassic, April 7, 2001

By 

"grrreg" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Allosaurus - A Walking With Dinosaurs Special [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A follow-up from BBC's wonderful 'Walking with Dinosaurs' series, this two part video looks at the life of Big Al, a fossil allosaurus from the Jurassic era. Here in Australia, this was called 'The Ballad of Big Al'.

The first episode looks at the life of Big Al over his life of seven years - from birth to death. Al leads a full life, but it certainly isn't an easy one. You get to see all aspects of Al's life, both as predator and prey, eating, sleeping and trying to have sex. It was a little frustrating in that it doesn't run as long as I would have liked.

The second episode details the science upon which Al's life was based. The fossil is described, and what it tells us about events in Al's life are pointed out. In addition from the specific evidence of Al's fossillised skeleton, some general assumptions about allosauruses and their lives are shown, with reference to the modern day descendants of dinosaurs. This episode explains why the previous didn't go as long as I would have liked - because they only showed what could be justified. If they'd made things up, there could have been more - but everything in the first episode is justified in this.

The recreation of dinosaurs is better in this show is better than its predecessor - certainly in regard to their interaction. In the original series, we either had groups of dinosaurs carrying out similar activities or small number interacting. In this one, for example, the scene of several allosuruses attacking a herd of diplodicuses is wonderful, and I think better than could have been achieved in the original.

If you like 'Walking with Dinosaurs', this may suit you - always provided, of course, that you are happy to deal with a smaller focus.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walking with Dinasaurs special, March 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Allosaurus: Walking with Dinosaurs Special (DVD)

It is up to the amazing standard of the first lot. It looks so good, that it could have been filmed in real life!

Again the BBC had to make "best guesses" on several things, such as the colour of it's skin, how it hunted etc, but it is simply brillant!

If you liked or loved Walking with Dinasaurs - you will love this as well.