In short, Prehistoric Planet is exactly what I expected and hoped for. However, there still remained a few missing elements left to be desired.
– Peter Hortensius, Head Writer @ Crude-Mirror.com
In 1999, BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs [WWD] premiered to the public. It was a groundbreaking documentary for its day utilizing the latest CGI, combined with practical effects and numerous location shoots to bring back dinosaurs in a way no media has presented before. Instead of portraying them as movie monsters or curiosities, dinosaurs were portrayed as everyday animals living their everyday lives – shot less like a science show and more like a nature documentary. Although some elements of the miniseries were outdated, it grew a massive following among dinosaur enthusiasts.
Over the past 20 years, both science and technology have come a long way. Now a new generation has grown up and now we are living in a golden age of dinosaur discovery. More species have been discovered in the past decade than in the past century. In more recent times there have been calls for new WWD series that puts the science into account. The BBC has already produced installments of Planet Earth and Blue Planet 2 based on human impact, so it makes sense for them to revisit the “Walking With” series. We’ve even written out an outline about what that could look like…
Interestingly enough I mentioned that the work Jon Favreau did with the Disney remakes with Jungle Book and Lion King can easily be applied to other works only to realize this year he was already working on such a project.
Upon its announcement, there was already so much hype from dinosaur enthusiasts. It has not just Jon Favreau producing, but also narrated by the great David Attenborough, and Hans Zimmer conducting the score. The pieces are all there for an updated take on the beloved miniseries
In short, Prehistoric Planet is exactly what I expected and hoped for. However, there still remained a few missing elements left to be desired.
The Filmmaking
It is important to stress that this work has more in common with documentaries like Planet Earth than WWD. It combined elements from both the Walking with series Cinematography with the episode layout of Planet Earth. While WWD has each episode on a different timeline in one location, Prehistoric planet focuses on different environments – including coastlines, forests, and deserts. Many of these were on-location shots with some CGI enhancements for a few scenes. As advanced CGI has become, some landscapes can’t be replicated on a computer.
The Dinosaurs Themselves
No doubt the most fantastic work done on this series is the effects done to bring these creatures to life. Just like the original series. They captured every single detail of these animals to a T. every bit of fletch scale and feathers was done with meticulous detail. They even appeared to us practical props in some close-up shots to make them even more convincing.
What’s more, They make a great effort to make the dinosaurs as scientifically accurate as possible. These are not the blood-thirsty monsters that other media make them, but living breathing animals. For instance, the skin-wrapped muscular T-Rex from Jurassic Park is replaced with a chunky stocky appearance but is no less powerful.
An interesting change compared to other media is carnivorous dinosaurs possess lips since is widely accepted that most land animals including those with large teeth have lips to protect their jaw from the elements.
Another key element the dinosaurs don’t make loud roaring sounds like those in other media. Because the closest relatives of Dinosaurs are birds and crocodiles, it makes sense that their vocals would go along those lines. For example the T-Rex instead of a lion-like roar, the filmmakers give this giant more of a hissing bellowing sound like that of a crocodile that happens to be walking on land. While we do not know for certain what dinosaurs sounded like, the effort to create a sound that is fitting to their species is nothing short of astounding.
Speculative Behaviour
Just like WWD Prehistoric Planet borrowed a lot of speculative behavior and design. One scene that was heavily advertised is a T-rex swimming in the open sea. Is there direct proof that T-rex could swim no, but there are numerous creatures that are bizarrely sized and fully capable of traveling miles in water like elephants and Komodo Dragons today?
Considering that soft tissues don’t fossilize, the animators and paleontologists alike have to be creative with several species – most notably in the “Dreadnaughts in the Deserts” episode, which features air sacks as matting displays. There is no evidence of sauropods possessing such features, however, there is no evidence to dispute them either. It has been confirmed that sauropod necks have a light air-filled skeleton that allows their movement in their bodies. Since these animals display it’s not unreasonable to believe that Sauropods didn’t have fleshy attachments on their necks.
Indeed a lot of speculative scenes were inspired by other footage From other documentaries. An ornithomimid steeling branches from other nests is just like the scene from Planet Earth where penguins were stealing each other’s rocks, the Triceratops going through a cave is the same as elephants going through a cave in Mt Elgon Kenya. Even the Raptor Attack on the cliffs is echoing footage of a snow Leopard chasing mountain goats.
A Few Problems
For a show with this amount of effort, it must be stressed it’s not perfect. My issues are less to due with its accuracy and more about its structure. I feel that they could have made a little more time to dedicate a proper story for some of these animals instead of 5-minute skits. It is a clear move to the Planet Earth formula. However, Because you are jumping to a new continent or landscape it doesn’t allow enough time for you to make a connection to these animals. I understand that it is not trying to be a complete repeat of the “Walking With” series, but a little more focus would be appreciated.
I also have a problem that the episodes end very abruptly including the final episode. Where it just ends With Attenborughs narration referring to the title right before the credits roll and then telling us to look at the bonus content (which is barebones). In comparison, WWD knew how to end each episode on the right note. From ending with diplodocus Or a dying pterosaur on a beach often the last shot is what makes an impact in a way Prehistoric Planet lacks.
You can’t get a more powerful beginning and end like this with this theme
I also wished the soundtrack could have left a bigger hit. Incredibly, they got the great Hans Zimmer to help compose the soundtrack. While the Trailer music was indeed powerful there was nothing in the show that could match up to the epicness of “Time of the Titans” or the sadness of “Giant of the Skies”
Conclusion
It may not be completely fair to compare the Prehistoric Planet to Walking With Dinosaurs, but there has been a very good reason for this. WWD has set a large standard to what all prehistoric education should be presented, only to sadly seep away from memory over the past few decades of advancements in both science and cinematic CGI. Subsequent shows such as Jurrasic Fight Club focus overly on violence and gore, whereas other documentary-style pieces overly rely on scientific interviews and bones. This in turn has given a false perception from the public of them as blood-thirsty killers. Prehistoric Planet brought back this spirit of these animals no different from the ones we have today. They can be graceful, and ugly, nature is not good or evil but life itself.
The intent of the series is not to tell a monster series but to provide a glimpse into the everyday lives of these creatures. It is a depiction that has been missing in recent years. It is uncertain if there will be a season 2 or a spinoff, but if there is a strong enough following for more works such as this.
