Walking with Dinosaurs
Encyclopedia
Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary
television miniseries
that was produced by BBC
, narrated by Kenneth Branagh
, and first aired in the United Kingdom
, in 1999. The series
was subsequently aired in North America
on the Discovery Channel
in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that of Avery Brooks
. It is the first entry of the Walking with...
series and used computer-generated imagery
and animatronics
to recreate the life of the Mesozoic
, showing dinosaur
s and their contemporaries in a way that previously had only been seen in feature films. The programme's aim was to simulate the style of a nature documentary and therefore does not include "talking head" interviews. The series used paleontologists
such as Michael Benton
, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., Peter Dodson
, Peter Larson and James Farlow as advisors (their influence in the filming process
can be seen in the documentary The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs). The Guinness Book of World Records reported that the series was the most expensive documentary series per minute ever made. A £40 million 3D movie
based on the series is currently being produced by BBC Worldwide
and 20th Century Fox
.
drawn up by the British Film Institute
in 2000, voted on by industry professionals, Walking with Dinosaurs was placed 72nd. The series won three Emmy Award
s: Outstanding Animated Program
, Outstanding Special Visual Effects and Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Programming - Sound Editing. CommonSense Media greatly praised the program, giving it 5 stars out of 5 and saying that, "Somebody had a great idea, which was to make a documentary series about dinosaurs, but with a twist. The aging Ornithocheirus on a desperate final flight to his mating grounds, the sauropod hatchlings struggling for survival in the late Jurassic, the migrating herds and the undersea life of 150 million years ago would all seem as real as a nature program about polar bear
s or snow monkeys." This technique of narrating the prehistoric life as though it were current proved to have a lasting impact, and has been used several times since, for example in the BBC's 2011 Planet Dinosaur
series.
to accompany the first screening of the series in 1999. The settings of some of the six episodes were changed between the time the book was written and the screening of the television series, and some of their names were changed: 'New Blood' is set at Ghost Ranch
; 'Cruel Sea' is set at or near Solnhofen
in Germany
near what then were the Vindelicisch Islands. The book elaborated on the background for each story, went further in explaining the science on which much of the program is based, and included descriptions of several animals not identified or featured in the series.
in January 2007 (as Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience), and toured North America
in 2007–2010, Europe
in 2010, and returned to North America until 2011. It also toured Asia beginning in December 2010. In 2011 the show came to its final destination, New Zealand, and the show has now ended.
are currently working on a CGI/live-action film adaptation of the original TV series. It is being directed by Neil Nightingale
and Pierre De Lespinios, and it will be released on October 11, 2013.
urinates copiously. However, Benton notes that nobody can prove this was a real mistake: copious urination is the primitive state for tetrapods (seen in fishes, amphibians, turtles, and mammals), and perhaps basal archosaurs did the same. He believes many other claims of "errors" identified in the first weeks fizzled out, as the critics had found points about which they disagreed, but they could not prove that their views were correct.
Ornithocheirus
was depicted as far larger than it actually was. In the book based on the series, it was claimed that several large bone fragments from the Santana Formation
of Brazil
possibly indicate that Ornithocheirus may have had a wingspan reaching almost 12 metres and a weight of a hundred kilogrammes, making it one of the largest known pterosaurs. However, these specimens have not been formally described. The largest definite Ornithocheirus specimens known measure 6 metres in wingspan. The specimens which the producers of the program used to justify such a large size estimate are currently undescribed, and are being studied by Dave Martill and David Unwin. Unwin stated that he does not believe this highest estimate is likely, and that the producers likely chose the highest possible estimate because it was more "spectacular." However, no other Early Cretaceous pterosaurs reached its size.
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
television miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
that was produced by BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, narrated by Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
, and first aired in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, in 1999. The series
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
was subsequently aired in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that of Avery Brooks
Avery Brooks
Avery Franklin Brooks is an American actor, television director, jazz musician, opera singer and college professor. Brooks is perhaps best known for his television roles as Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as Hawk on Spenser: For Hire and its spinoff A Man Called Hawk, and in the...
. It is the first entry of the Walking with...
Walking with...
The Walking with... series is a collection of shows that are produced by the BBC and are made by Impossible Pictures. The aim of the series and specials, along with its books, is to recreate extinct animals and presents them as a wildlife documentary...
series and used computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
and animatronics
Animatronics
Animatronics is the use of mechatronics to create machines which seem animate rather than robotic. Animatronic creations include animals , plants and even mythical creatures...
to recreate the life of the Mesozoic
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...
, showing dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s and their contemporaries in a way that previously had only been seen in feature films. The programme's aim was to simulate the style of a nature documentary and therefore does not include "talking head" interviews. The series used paleontologists
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
such as Michael Benton
Michael Benton
Michael J. Benton is a British paleontologist, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol....
, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., Peter Dodson
Peter Dodson
Peter Dodson is an American paleontologist who has published many papers and written and collaborated on books about dinosaurs. An authority on Ceratopsians, he has also authored several papers and textbooks on hadrosaurs and sauropods, and is a co-editor of The Dinosauria, widely considered the...
, Peter Larson and James Farlow as advisors (their influence in the filming process
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
can be seen in the documentary The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs). The Guinness Book of World Records reported that the series was the most expensive documentary series per minute ever made. A £40 million 3D movie
3D Movie
3D Movie may refer to:*A 3-D film, a type of film projected to create the illusion of depth*3D Movie , computer file for a software product by Microsoft...
based on the series is currently being produced by BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
and 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
.
Reception
In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
drawn up by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
in 2000, voted on by industry professionals, Walking with Dinosaurs was placed 72nd. The series won three Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s: Outstanding Animated Program
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More)
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually to an animated series or special which is judged to have been the best...
, Outstanding Special Visual Effects and Outstanding Achievement in Non-Fiction Programming - Sound Editing. CommonSense Media greatly praised the program, giving it 5 stars out of 5 and saying that, "Somebody had a great idea, which was to make a documentary series about dinosaurs, but with a twist. The aging Ornithocheirus on a desperate final flight to his mating grounds, the sauropod hatchlings struggling for survival in the late Jurassic, the migrating herds and the undersea life of 150 million years ago would all seem as real as a nature program about polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
s or snow monkeys." This technique of narrating the prehistoric life as though it were current proved to have a lasting impact, and has been used several times since, for example in the BBC's 2011 Planet Dinosaur
Planet Dinosaur
Planet Dinosaur is a six-part documentary television series produced by the BBC, narrated by John Hurt, first aired in the United Kingdom in 2011, produced by VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures. It is the first major dinosaur-related series for BBC One since Walking with Dinosaurs...
series.
Companion book
A companion book was written by Tim HainesTim Haines
Tim Haines is a screenwriter, producer and director who is best known for his work on the BBC popular science shows Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts, and Walking with Monsters...
to accompany the first screening of the series in 1999. The settings of some of the six episodes were changed between the time the book was written and the screening of the television series, and some of their names were changed: 'New Blood' is set at Ghost Ranch
Ghost Ranch
Ghost Ranch is a retreat and education center located close to the village of Abiquiu in Rio Arriba County in north central New Mexico. The conference center and lodgings at Ghost Ranch are run by the Presbyterian Church but open to the general public.-History:Ghost Ranch is part of Piedra...
; 'Cruel Sea' is set at or near Solnhofen
Solnhofen
Solnhofen is a municipality in the district of Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen in the region of Franconia in the Land of Bavaria in Germany. It lies within the Altmühl valley....
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
near what then were the Vindelicisch Islands. The book elaborated on the background for each story, went further in explaining the science on which much of the program is based, and included descriptions of several animals not identified or featured in the series.
The Arena Spectacular
Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular is a live adaptation of the series that originated in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in January 2007 (as Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience), and toured North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in 2007–2010, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 2010, and returned to North America until 2011. It also toured Asia beginning in December 2010. In 2011 the show came to its final destination, New Zealand, and the show has now ended.
Film adaptation
BBC Earth and 20th Century Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
are currently working on a CGI/live-action film adaptation of the original TV series. It is being directed by Neil Nightingale
Neil Nightingale
Neil Nightingale is a senior producer at the BBC's Natural History Unit, the largest wildlife film-making production unit in the world, and was its Head from February 2003 until January 2009...
and Pierre De Lespinios, and it will be released on October 11, 2013.
Scientific inaccuracies
Michael J. Benton, a consultant to the making of the series (and Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at Bristol University), notes that a group of critics gleefully pointed out that birds and crocodiles, the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs, do not urinate; they shed waste chemicals as more solid uric acid. In the first episode of Walking with Dinosaurs, PostosuchusPostosuchus
Postosuchus, meaning "crocodile from Post ", was a basal archosaur that lived in what is now North America during the middle through to the late Triassic period...
urinates copiously. However, Benton notes that nobody can prove this was a real mistake: copious urination is the primitive state for tetrapods (seen in fishes, amphibians, turtles, and mammals), and perhaps basal archosaurs did the same. He believes many other claims of "errors" identified in the first weeks fizzled out, as the critics had found points about which they disagreed, but they could not prove that their views were correct.
Ornithocheirus
Ornithocheirus
Ornithocheirus was a pterosaur from the Cretaceous period of Europe and South America...
was depicted as far larger than it actually was. In the book based on the series, it was claimed that several large bone fragments from the Santana Formation
Santana Formation
The Santana Formation is a geologic Lagerstätte in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin where the states of Pernambuco, Piauí and Ceará come together. The geological formation, named after the village of Santana do Cariri, lies at the base of the Araripe Plateau...
of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
possibly indicate that Ornithocheirus may have had a wingspan reaching almost 12 metres and a weight of a hundred kilogrammes, making it one of the largest known pterosaurs. However, these specimens have not been formally described. The largest definite Ornithocheirus specimens known measure 6 metres in wingspan. The specimens which the producers of the program used to justify such a large size estimate are currently undescribed, and are being studied by Dave Martill and David Unwin. Unwin stated that he does not believe this highest estimate is likely, and that the producers likely chose the highest possible estimate because it was more "spectacular." However, no other Early Cretaceous pterosaurs reached its size.
List of episodes
| # | |Time | |Original air date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|