Walking with Cavemen (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-On Location (5) Interviews-Cast & Crew-3 Storyboard Comparisons-Sstoryboards to Animatics to Film (2) Featurette-Animatics Storyboards-2 Audio-Only Track-Original Score (9) Notes-Fact Files Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	177:00 (Case: 185)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Richard Dale
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Professor Robert Winston
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Alan Parker

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Perhaps one of the biggest problems facing the producers of this third Walking With series must have been viewer/concept fatigue, as I'm sure there would be many of you thinking that by the time we get to this third series we have perhaps seen it all before by now. You may even be tempted to pass this one up, thinking that the novelty is starting to wear off a bit and that this third series is probably just more of the same, cashing in on the well-earned reputations of the first two. I can happily report that this is far from the truth. This third series definitely meets the high expectations set by the first two and stands up on its own as a brilliant piece of documentary-making. In fact, as far as sequels go, I will admit that I found this series surpassed my expectations and I would even go as far as to say that I found Cavemen to be perhaps the most interesting and successful of all three Walking With concepts.

    Just like the previous two series, Walking With Cavemen achieves its objective of educating you at the same time as it entertains you. Just like the previous two series, this one will also shed much light and provide accurate insight into a period of the animal kingdom's evolution that was perhaps well known on the surface, but not well known in detail for most. And just like the previous two series, this one will go further and dispel some previously incorrect theories and misinformation along the way. But what makes Cavemen even more compelling than its predecessors is that this new series has the added bonus of shedding light on a specific period of the animal kingdom's evolution that is much more directly relevant and near and dear to our heart - the story of man. It not only presents the history of man in a dramatic fashion that can be more easily assimilated than other documentaries, but it explains exactly how and why it was that homo sapiens evolved from the apes, and explains through what specific species this evolution was to occur. (One interesting thing to note here is that the director of this series readily admits himself that "Walking With Cavemen" is in fact a bit of a misnomer of a title, as it will be shown that humans didn't actually start living in caves until towards the very end of the evolutionary process portrayed in this series.)

    It is interesting to note that this third series breaks away from the tradition of its two predecessors in several key respects, so helping to keep it fresh. Cavemen is not directed by Tim Haines, is not narrated by Kenneth Branagh and is not scored by Ben Bartlett. Of these, the most immediately obvious change lies in the different narration and presentation style. Whilst Kenneth Branagh did a distinctive job narrating the first two series, this time around the BBC turned to a veteran presenter, Professor Robert Winston, who is probably most famous for the BBC's brilliantly conceived documentary series The Human Body (1998). Those who saw and loved The Human Body will recall Professor Winston's gentlemanly and personable manner and his use of interesting metaphors as a means of describing hard scientific facts in a readily understandable way. It is perhaps no secret why the BBC turned to Professor Winston for Cavemen then, as given the more personal subject matter this time around they wanted someone who was capable of emphasising the human angle in this series, rather than a simple detached, scientific description of the events. Professor Winston is the perfect choice as presenter.

    Another key aspect where this series deviates from the Dinosaurs and Beasts concept is that it takes the previously adopted concept of 'travelling back in time' further. In Cavemen, the story is not just narrated by an unseen narrator all the time, but the presenter is actually on screen in front of us, as if describing a real life documentary. The presenter then hops into his Jeep, as if on his way across country to present a normal nature documentary, and then travels 'back' in time to 'observe' the action himself and present it to us as if he was actually there in front of the creatures of the day. The effect is sort of like a real-life David Attenborough documentary, but with a bit of extra levity thrown in!  Now this gimmick could have very easily backfired on the BBC and made Walking With Cavemen laughable - it was a big gamble. But thankfully this technique is not over-used and actually works quite well; so much so that after a while you do have to keep reminding yourself that you are not watching a real-life documentary.

    The four half-hour episodes in this series are:

• First Ancestors (29:13):  travels back 8,000,000 years ago to explain exactly what it was that drove our original Aferensis ancestors to become the first bi-pedal apes, so taking the first monumental step towards an evolutionary path that would ultimately lead to man.
• Blood Brothers (29:11):  set in Africa 2,000,000 years ago, this episode introduces several competing species existing at this time, including the vegetarian Parathopus boisei, the meat-eating Homo habilis and their larger cousins, the Rudolfensis. The episode explains which of these three species would go on to make stone tools, and so take that next big step in our evolution, surviving at the expense of the others.
• Savage Family (29:16):  set in southern Africa 1,500,000 years ago, this episode introduces Homo ergaster, a much more human-looking species, boasting a different body design to its predecessors. The episode explains why this unique body design gave this species natural advantages over its competitors, giving rise to an ability to command the natural environment around them, and so again enabling one particular species to evolve and distinguish itself from the rest of the animal kingdom.
• The Survivors (29:20):  this final episode is set between the Southern England of 500,000 years ago and the relative yesteryear of the Europe, Asia and Africa of 30,000 years ago, where our story of human evolution for all intents and purposes ends and effectively brings us right up to the present day, despite the fact that neither the wheel nor writing had even been invented yet!  This final episode charts the progress of three species,  the Heidelbergensis, the Neanderthals and Homo erectus and explains what led to the final defining moment in the history of human evolution that would set us permanently and irrevocably apart from all other animals on the planet; the ability to use imagination.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    All aspects of luminance in the transfer is exemplary, with only one minor and probably deliberate exception noted in a second. The transfer is razor sharp for virtually all scenes, with brilliantly detailed foreground/background resolution and shadow detail on display. The transfer is completely devoid of any noticeable grain or noise issues, with the only caveat to these comments being a couple of night-time/dusk scenes, in which grain is apparent. I note that this same comment was made in respect of the Walking With Beasts video transfer and it is repeated here. The grain in these night time scenes could well be just an issue of filming in low light with high speed film, however it appears to me as if this effect has in fact been intended by the series producer, in order to draw the viewer's attention to the fact that the scene has been shot in low light and so promote the "reality documentary" effect of the piece. Whenever these odd scenes do crop up, they stand in stark contrast to the scenes immediately before and after, and the effect of this is to jolt you into appreciating just how razor sharp the rest of the transfer really is. If anything, I also found this video transfer to be more natural looking than the Dinosaurs and Beasts transfers, and I'm sure this is in no small part due to the fact that the vast majority of the images in this series have been filmed in-camera. There is a lot less CGI used in this series than was needed in the previous series, as the principal subjects of Cavemen are all real actors in suits. Sure, there is CGI for other animals the apes interact with, but CGI is used a lot less here than in the previous series. Whereas the previous two series excelled for their use of CGI, this third series shines prominently for a seamless use of prosthetics, makeup and animatronics effects.

    Colour saturation cannot be faulted in this transfer at any point. There are solid blacks and well balanced colours across the entire spectrum, with colours at no time tending to over-saturation. Check out the oranges and greys on display in the close-ups of the Boisei creatures, for good example.

    I noted absolutely zero MPEG artefacts, film-to-video artefacts or film artefacts throughout. The one and only issue to note is what appears as a very strange and blocky digitised effect on screen for about one second at 8:42 during episode 2. However, judging by the artistic nature of this scene and what it leads up to (a POV falling to the ground very quickly), I'm positive that this is not a digitisation artefact at all, but simply an intended artful transition effect, as if a camera had been filming that POV and been damaged on hitting the ground.

    The only subtitle stream available is an English for the Hearing Impaired one. It is very clear, unobtrusive and entirely accurate.

    The disc is RSDL formatted, however no layer transition was noted and I am assuming that the layer change has been placed logically, between episodes 2 and 3.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    You couldn't ask any more from the audio transfer either. As before, we are presented with one track only, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mix (at 192Kb/s). Again, whilst notionally billed as only a 2.0 mix, there is plenty of redirected surround activity imbedded in the track.

    Dialogue quality is clear and solid throughout, even when Professor Winston resorts to some quiet speak, so as not to "disturb the subjects" at various times. Audio sync is never problematic.

     The music score this time around is by Alan Parker and it is just as grand and bold as Ben Bartlett's previous efforts. The new score is stirring, appropriately themed and mixed in very well. The DVD's audio transfer delivers with a rich range - tight brass and bass and a warm mid-range.

    Make sure you have your Dolby Pro-Logic decoder turned on. There is ample redirected surround activity here, employed most effectively to provide good balance and impact for the score, as well as handle various surround sound ambience effects. A full 5.1 mix this isn't, but you certainly couldn't want for more for a documentary.

     The subwoofer gets moderate use for redirected bottom-end effects, like the obligatory thunder clap, bass in the music and various animal growls and grunts.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    We don't get the 50-minute detailed making-of documentary extra this time, but we do get a series of comprehensive interview featurettes that combined give a similar level of insight into the making of this series. Even minus the fillers, the extras package on this disc stacks up well.

Menu

    Other than the exception of the first extra detailed below, all the extras on this disc come in 1.78:1 16x9 enhanced video and with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio (non-surround this time). The quality of all these extras is high, with crisp, clean and well coloured video and clear audio.

"On Location" Crew Interview Featurettes (5)

Production Interview Featurettes (3)

    These are more serious interview snippets with the crew most responsible for the conceptualisation and realisation of the series. The interviews are:

• Executive Producer (Richard Dale) and Series Producer (Peter Georgi) (15:07): provide great insight into the filming process and the problems faced.
• Series Actor (David Rubin) (3:41): this actor played 8 different characters in the series and far from being boring, his anecdotes are in fact interesting and well articulated.
• Director Animated Extras (Nick Williams) (4:25): explains in detail how the suits for the various creatures worked, describing the interaction between the prosthetics and the animatronics. I found this featurette to be the most interesting and insightful of all.

Storyboard to Animatics to Film Comparison (2 scenes)

    This is a real time run-through of two separate scenes, each played with the screen split into three sections, so you can watch simultaneously how the scenes were realised from original rough storyboards to acting around the rough animatics to the final rendered scene with the completed animatics. This type of real-time run through works well and is probably the best way to show this type of extra, I think. A small complaint is that it would have been a bit more effective if the second split showed the actors acting around an empty space, i.e. prior to any rough animatics being added, as you get to see the final finished effect with the animatics in the third screen split anyway. Still, the three-screen split presents well.

Animatics (5:16)

    This extra is a filler. It is basically just a repeat of the previous extra, walking through the exact same two scenes, but this time just concentrating on the second screen split (the actors acting around rough animatics). Interesting, but repetitive.

Storyboards

    Another filler. Another run-through of the same two scenes just discussed, this time showing the storyboards in isolation. Do we really need to see this again when we've already seen it? I don't think so. A completely useless inclusion as a separate extra, given it was covered above.

Original Score (9 segments)

    This extras menu gives you the option to listen to 9 separate segments of isolated music score. A great extras inclusion, but as each score extract is relatively short, the obvious thing missed here is a "play all" option.

Fact Files (20 text pages)

    A great extra, as was included for the other two DVDs in the Walking With series. The information provided in these text pages is, as you would expect, well researched and written and so provides a great educational tool to recap or jump straight to the relevant facts on any of the particular species covered.

Photo Gallery (35 shots)

    These stills are provided with captions and are relatively interesting.

    Razor sharp video, great audio and comprehensive extras round off the disc. Nice work again, BBC.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall