Walking with Dinosaurs/Walking with Monsters (1999)

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    This is a slightly odd release in that it includes the first and third series in a set of three, rather than all three. Officially, the Walking With... trilogy consists of the original plus Walking With Beasts from 2001 and this latest documentary series from 2005, Walking With Monsters. This set omits the middle one. Annoyingly, for those who already have the first one, you cannot purchase this new series in Region 4 without re-buying Walking With Dinosaurs. Walking With Dinosaurs is the same as it was previously on two DVD5 discs. The packaging has been redone with a three-disc amaray case for the discs, housed in a sturdy cardboard slipcover, which opens to reveal a chart about the key dinosaurs in each episode of the original series. As before, the first disc in Dinosaurs contains all six episodes and the second disc contains a making of documentary. Bizarrely, the discs themselves indicate that each disc contains three episodes. I cannot say whether this was true of the original release. These are quality documentaries on well produced DVDs but they have been strangely combined into a set which doesn't really make sense.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Walking with Monsters (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Introduction-City Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of-"Trilogy Of Life"
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	87:07
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tim Haines
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Kenneth Branagh
Case	Slip Case
RPI	Box	Music	Ben Bartlett

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

    Back in 1999, Walking With Dinosaurs  made a global impact on television audiences and was hugely popular. Accordingly, it was followed by a number of direct sequels and some spin-offs. Officially, the Walking With... trilogy consists of the original, plus Walking With Beasts from 2001 and this latest documentary series from 2005, Walking With Monsters. While the first two focused on the age of the dinosaurs and the period between then and now, this one goes back to before both of those, beginning 500 million years ago to show the evolution of life before dinosaurs walked the earth. It uses the same approach as the other two, being computer animated creatures in their natural habitats, both below and above the surface of the oceans which used to cover most of the planet. The creatures here are certainly strange and wonderful. Giant sea scorpions, the first amphibians, giant spiders, millipedes as long as a car, giant mammal-like reptiles and early crocodiles can be seen. It covers the first movement of creatures onto the land, the development of hunting techniques and defence mechanisms.

    As with the other series, the narration is provided by Kenneth Branagh who does an excellent job. This series consists of three episodes, each of just under half an hour. The subject matter is certainly interesting but I think somewhat more academic in focus than the first series, which obviously was a subject matter which could appeal to nearly all ages. Another concern which I have, this is actually discussed in the extras, is how much of what is presented is verifiable fact and how much speculation. You could argue that it doesn't matter because there is no better way to bring this subject to the masses, however it certainly provides food for thought. One thing I did enjoy was the technique of getting the camera involved in the action, either as something to bump into or spray blood on. This certainly increases the feeling of this being a live-shot documentary rather than a made-up, CGI experience.

    Strangely, rather than release a trilogy set of all three series, Roadshow have chosen to release the first series as a set with this latest series. You cannot buy Monsters separately which will certainly annoy those who already have the original series. A box set review will appear separately.

    An interesting series.

Video

    The video quality is excellent.

    The series is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was very sharp and clear with incredible detail in the animation. A uniformly high bitrate certainly assists in this regard. There was no evidence of low level noise. I did notice some very minor macro-blocking under the water at 15:43 but this is a very minor issue.

    The colour was excellent throughout with no issues to report.

    There was one grainy passage at 2:40.

    There are English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired, which are clear and easy to read.

    The layer change was not noticeable during playback.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Narration was clear and easy to understand. The sound effects were excellent.

    The score of this series is by Ben Bartlett and was very dramatic and well suited to the program.

    The surround speakers added some mild atmosphere when played with Pro Logic II.

     The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu included motion, music and the ability to choose episodes.

Trilogy of Life (28:34)

    This is a high quality making of documentary, which covers all three series in the trilogy despite only two being included in this set. The director and major crew are interviewed and they discuss making the six minute pilot to get it funded, the process, success, the criticism and some detail of how they did the animation. Excellent.

     This series is available separately in Region 2, which to my mind makes that the best choice, especially for those who already own the first series .

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is very good.

    An excellent making of documentary is included.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Walking with Dinosaurs (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Dolby Digital Trailer-City Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio-Visual Commentary-Director Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	223:05 (Case: 230)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tim Haines
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Kenneth Branagh
Case	Village Roadshow New Style
RPI	$4.95	Music	Ben Bartlett

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	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, narration in credits

• New Blood
• A Time Of Titans
• Cruel Sea
• Giant Of The Skies
• Spirits Of The Ice Forest
• Death Of A Dynasty

    One last note: this discs are presented in a double-button case of a newer variety. Essentially, what this means is that two button-cases were simply glued together on one side to fit the two discs. This is a horrible arrangement, and one that has caused quite a lot of consternation on forums, which is understandable given how hard the disc is to extract from the button-shaped holder found inside this case. I strongly urge Village Roadshow to consider abandoning the use of this case, as even the style of packaging used with the Alien Legacy disc is preferable to this.

Video

    While this transfer is excellent overall, it is denied reference status by some extremely small problems that would mostly escape the attention of all but the most serious viewer. The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced, in direct contrast to the double-VHS version, which is only available in the Pan & Scan format. Incidentally, such a version is not available on this DVD presentation, automatically-encoded or otherwise. The transfer is razor-sharp most of the time, except for the few shots that were accomplished with real locations. A few backgrounds were blurred, with their subjects appearing slightly less defined than their foreground counterparts, but this appears to be a source-material issue. Shadow detail was excellent, as you would expect from a more-or-less entirely computer-generated series of television episodes that were only produced last year. Low-level noise was not a problem except in certain shots, which were also accomplished using real-life subject matter such as the polar skyline. Among the worst examples were some shots in the area around a Cynodont nest from 24:50 to 25:30, but this is sadly not the only example. Since the rest of the transfer is so good, I am prepared to give this section the benefit of the doubt and assume that this is a problem with the way the footage was shot rather than a transfer problem. It is hard to determine whether these slips in sharpness are deliberate or not.

    The colour saturation was spot-on from start to finish, with each and every subtle feature of the landscape being rich and deeply textured to add to the life-like feel. Dinosaur skin tones were faithfully reproduced, and the myriad of stony, dirty, or bushy tones that form the environment were so life-like that it made me want to crawl into my screen and join the picture, except for the frightening reptiles that appeared on-screen at most of these moments. MPEG artefacts did not appear to be a problem most of the time, but some shots of water seemed to suffer from loss of detail in the background at inopportune moments, particularly during the third episode. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some aliasing in minute areas of the picture, and the problems with detail in the backgrounds of some shots may in fact be aliasing as well. Some shimmering in the entirety of the picture became evident at moments such as 96:00, which I believe would be a problem inherent in the conversion of the digital picture to celluloid form. Film artefacts were almost completely absent from the transfer, although I could swear I saw small white marks in the occasional frame.

    The packaging claims that subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Finnish are available during the main feature. Only the first of these options is available, and the subtitles in question are rather variant from what Kenneth Branagh is actually saying at most points in the feature.

    The first of the two discs in this set is presented in the RSDL format, with the layer change placed in the same manner as with The Black Adder, Series 1, in between episodes. As the layer change is placed between episodes, it is totally undetectable, and therefore completely non-disruptive.

Audio

    The score music presented with the documentary was composed by Ben Bartlett, and it is quite striking and powerful, with a certain marriage to the onscreen events that John Williams would certainly be proud of. Indeed, the themes for the Pterosaurs have a certain wandering feel to them that make the onscreen action seem all the more life-like, and the first-person shots from the perspective of the migrating Pterosaur seem utterly convincing to say the least. The tragic, minor sound of this creature's final journey is haunting to say the least, as are many themes used when a Dinosaur is forced into a situation that would seem tragic and wasteful to we modern humans. This is a score that is definitely worth owning on compact disc, as it has a sort of power that I would normally associate with such films as Star Wars or Robocop. The only complaint this brings me to is that an isolated score was not provided, as the combination of the music and the onscreen action without the narration or sound effects would be quite entertaining to say the very least.

    Being that this is a straight stereo mix, there was no activity to speak of out of the surrounds, which is a bit of a disappointment when you consider the amount of opportunities for a frightening surround experience this subject matter presents. A Tyrannosaurus Rex thundering from the rears to the fronts as he wanders across the screen would have been a truly magnificent thing to hear. The stereo channels had a great deal of ambient and heavy sounds pouring through them with presence being emphasized over direction. Some splitting of the stereo channels was noted after a listen through a pair of headphones, but this is hardly a good substitute for some well-placed directional effects. The subwoofer had a whale of a time supporting most every sound in the mix, from the Dinosaurs' footsteps and growls, through to the bass-heavy music. There was scarcely a moment when the subwoofer had time to sit still, and its thuds could be heard throughout the room (and most of the house).

Menu

Picture-In-Picture Commentary

Disc Two - The Making Of Walking With Dinosaurs (48:57)

• Television spots
• Booklet
• Better packaging

    The video quality is excellent, but could have been slightly better. It would be interesting to see what this DVD looks like on a progressive-scan player.

    Considering that this is only a stereo mix, the audio quality is quite brilliant.

    The extras are reasonable considering that there is a whole disc dedicated to the making of the series.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall