Yeah man. Sea Monsters is still awesome to me. I never watched Chased By Dinosaurs but I was excited to see Sea Monsters on cable. Watching it now, it's flaws only make me laugh and love it more. I also feel like it does a better job of depicting animals than Chased even if it isn't perfect.
@@hiattgrey9161 When did he say anything like that about nigel? from what it seems he doesnt blame nigel for any of it and says how he's having fun in the role and how it's the writing that ruins it.
The intro is forever engraved into my mind. Walking With Dinosaurs and Pokémon is what got me into ecology, geography and the natural world in general. Thanks for the video as always.
Casually watching a retrospective on my favourite series and got blindsided when you mentioned me by name an hour in! XD Very surreal. And yeah, the Walking With series was a HUGE inspiration for my Dinosauria series. Probably the no. 1 inspiration.
Thanks for commenting! Similarly never thought you'd watch my content! I absolutely loved your Dinosauria series - small wonder if WWD was it's chief inspiration.
I was about to say "damn, in response to the Prehistoric Planet trailer you whipped out a one and a half hour Walking with retrospective that quickly?"
I really hope they don't use the talking scientist cutaway thing like later documentaries and go full on movie, we have the tech they definitely have the budget and a strong narrarator, there's nothing to stop them from doing this for old times sake and dispense with old flawed habits
@@kennethsatria6607 yea, its one of the most annoying parts of modern dino docs. Put all of that in a making of or maybe at the end of the main story so we have the option to stay and listen or go on to the next episode. Like we don't give a shit get back to the dinosaurs!
One of my favorite musical moments in the trilogy is the climax of Next of Kin, where the tribe saves Blue. It feels both triumphant, but also kind of ominous. It’s satisfying to see the group unite to save one of their own, but it also feels like foreshadowing humanity’s eventually dominance over the world, and how callously we can overpower and destroy the animals around us. Its awesome to see Bartlett get the credit he deserves for his amazing work on the series.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel To me the only one who has reached the level of Bartlett is George Fenton (Planet Earth, Blue Planet). From there, you have to jump to John Williams and Hans Zimmer themselves to find better scores.
@@IceSpoon People praise Zimmer for the BBC documentaries (Planet Earth II & Seven Worlds, One Planet), while he composed only the main themes and the rest was done by composers from Bleeding Fingers. I bet it will be the same with Prehistoric Planet.
One thing I really liked about walking with dinosaurs is how it both somewhat complements and contests Jurassic Park. And this is especially evident in the portrayal of Tyrannosaurus. The Tyrannosaurus Rex in Walking With Dinosaurs is almost the polar opposite to Jurassic Park, WWD Tyrannosaurus is sickly and more passive by comparison to giant tyrant of JP. And it’s not that the Tyrannosaurus isn’t given a chance to be threatening in WWD, the scene where it hunts the anantotitan is given a lot disturbing elements. We can only see brief parts of the hunt and most of the information is given through sound, with cries of fear and pain the anantotitan makes along with sounds of its bones breaking as the T-rex bites into it. And the final sounds it makes sound like genuine terror as the Tyrannosaurus grabs and snaps it’s neck. But by comparison the Tyrannosaurus in “death of a dynasty” feels like a creature to be pitied rather than feared a majority of the time. With being barley able to chase off a group of mammals. To the scene with ankylosaurus where it’s humbled very quickly. It even differs to the JP Tyrannosaurus rex in sound design. With WWD interpretation having a more guttural shout compared to JP’s majestic and iconic roar. All of the design features and subtle hints make WWD Tyrannosaurus really feel special when compared to every other documentaries take on T-rex. Tyrannosaurus Rex isn’t a monster, it’s just a top order carnivore in a world of dying giants.
T.rex wasn't living in a world of dying giants though. It was a rock from space that killed the dinosaurs off, not just a vulcanoe. The Indian vulcanic Traps only happened after, & because of, the Impact of a huge asteroid. So there were no dying giants before the impact. Another bit of misinformation allowed in WWD.
Yep. Jurassic Park made a laudable effort to portray its dinosaurs as animals rather than monsters, but if they don't sometimes act and seem like monsters, you don't have a movie.
Although unfortunately they made the Walking With T. rex really weird looking even for the time for some reason. But at least its behavior was better. Don't know why they got its appearance so inaccurate but you win some and you lose some lol
@@michealtaylor7745 That wasn’t mis information at the time though as the theory was that dinosaurs were in decline before the extinction due to the overall lack of diversity compared to the earlier formations and the fact that Triceratops was unusually common. Of course it’s now believed a lot of that was simply preservation bias but at the time it was a decently sound theory.
The chants are amazing! I personally enjoyed Beasts more than Dinosaurs. Kinda how I find prehistoric mammals and megafauna just as engaging as dinosaurs.
A few months ago I contacted Ben Bartlett and asked him about the unreleased score and he said that he is working on releasing all that music on apple and Spotify but its taking a long time to sort the rights etc.
You know why the gorgonopsid (or inostrancevia) is so damn cool? Visually, it's basically a combination of the most iconic apex predators of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic: tyrannosaurus and smilodon. It's a real shame that Hollywood has such a focus on Mesozoic creatures, because a gorgonopsian would make one awesome-looking predator in a Jurassic Park-esque movie.
I am surprised that Jurassic World Dominion doesn't have one in it. It would be cool to see it combat the T-Rex, since the former was essentially the T-Rex of the Paleozioc Period
@@unicorntomboy9736 Yeah. The T-rex would definitely win that battle. It was much larger and its jaws could crush bone. I don't know how strong the gorgonopsid's jaws were, but it seemed to me from Monsters that it killed with deep slashing wounds rather than crushing bites. On the subject of JW Dominion, I'm glad to see that Lystrosaurus is going to appear. That shows that the series may be starting to broaden its menagerie beyond the Mesozoic era. Another good Jurassic Park-related idea would be a different park that features Cenozoic animals. Why couldn't InGen have made one dinosaur park off the coast of Costa Rica, and one Ice Age park off the coast of Alaska?
@@colinbaldwin313 in addition, Walking with Dinosaurs had that Postocuchus. I wish that Jurassic World Dominion featured that creature, as saw someone once call it 'the tyrannosaurus rex of the Triassic era'
@@unicorntomboy9736 Well, it’d be a very one-sided battle. That’s probably one of the reasons it wouldn’t work. But, Jurassic world dominion did have a dicynodont, so it’d make sense for them to bring back another paleozoic therapsid.
One analogy for this series is it plays like a stage drama. It’s like watching a tragedy. We have a stage and different actors (creatures) enter the stage and leave the stage in dramatic ways. The music really amplifies this. 🎭
“Back across 23 years, as you travel you would see huge changes in the vegetation and climate”. Pretty dark knowing that is such a short period that we’ve drastically altered the Earth and not in a good way. Still an amazing video, loved the walking with series as a kid
20:42 i'd like to add; i think wwd is the only piece of paleomedia i've seen where the lead t-rex isn't glorified to hell. iirc the only kill she makes onscreen is in the first minute, and it's far from a major one. the only time she's shown aggressively is when she's driving threats out of her territory. and, she meets a sudden, untimely demise, offscreen and undramatically. other paleomedia seem to love giving their rexes protagonist syndrome, with a heavy onscreen killcount and a dramatic death in battle (if they even die at all), which is unrealistic at best. another thing i love is how brutal and eerie the extinction scene was. i understand other documentaries making that part dramatic, a huge fuckin space rock hit the earth at mach speed and wiped out over half of all life, but the way wwd portrays it always stuck with me the most.
She actually made two kills. On was the Didelphodon in the opening sequence, the other was an Anatotitan/Edmontosaurus right before we saw her hatchlings for the first time.
@@justusb.plorer8773 you're correct!! i feel as if my point still stands though, as the second one was so inconsequential that i didn't even remember it haha
What a good day, I woke up to the 2 Prehistoric Planet teasers and then you upload a retrospective of one of my favourite documentary series, I’ll enjoy every minute of it lad
Screw the bias against anthropomorphism, present day animals are extremely complex its no wonder they can be compared to humans. Just look at the lives led by lions, they form bands and have strong bonds between males like brothers and sons, they conquer other prides and fight near to death just to support one another, able to care for their cubs and play with them, and even stronger still the bond of females that stick to one location and care for their elderly, even against rivals and aggressive prey animals. Its stupid to ignore such cases in nature, even if we as humans see them as noble/respectable traits it is likely seen the same way by that species as well hence its common occurrence.
I'm quite interested with your take on Chased By and Sea Monsters, personally I never really saw either them to really be connected to the trilogy of life at least thematically, Nigel's stories felt more like typical adventure serials which i felt jelled pretty well. I find it a bit dubious of you mentioning that the carnivores in these instances behave a little more aggressive despite having some instances where they're are just more curious of him then properly agitated *The Nothosaur's spring to mind in that instance and maybe the Coelophysis Cameo if we're stretching* But i will concede that i do very much agree with your statement on both the way Nigel handles the animals and the show being quite a far cry from the trilogy of life in terms of educational value and tone, as much as i love both him and Steve Irwin, animals should be enjoyed as they are and not be fooled around with. Excellent video, can't wait for the MH vid next!
I went to see the Walking With Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular half a decade ago and I will never forget it. Seeing a life sized brachiosaurus walk around, packs of raptors interacting and of course the tyrannosaurus rex all in person was nothing short of magic.
Something about the Ornithocairus' theme got ingrained into 5 year old me. Its just such a haunting track that makes the hairs on my arms stand on end when the first note hits
Weird moment around 10:20 when you're talking about if a new BBC dinosaur documentary was made, putting it at the end to preserve the immersion, when Prehistoric Planet is out and the David Attenborough at the beginning really doesn't do anything to reduce the immersion. A true successor to Walking With Dinosaurs, outclassing it in every respect. What devotion by all the scientists, artists, and everyone else, it's a lovely documentary series.
I love that the walking with dinosaurs/beasts makes all the animals feel like animals, like with the t-rex yes it's model isn't great but how the animal acts makes it feel better then more accurately modelled versions which makes a world of difference also i love how they did the extinction event from the dino's view it makes more terrifying and impactful I think you brought up a lot of great points that many people don't bring up and i loved the video.
Personally, my favorite out of the original trilogy of life would be Walking with Monsters. Although I agree with what you said about Chased by Dinosaurs, I still love it.
I love Walking with Monsters because of how interesting the creatures were even with less time to invest in each episode. The scenes with the hyneria breaching onto land, the inostrancevia scenes in general, the dimetrodon eating its young, and the night migration scene have stuck with me
Takes me back to when I was a kid having watched WWD on air and then buying I believe frosted mini wheats that had the indricotheres on it advertising for WWB, was so excited as that was the only way I had heard about beasts.
This has to be the best and most honest review I have seen about "The Trilogy of Life", in the end, everything that came out of that documentary series was an unprecedented paleoworldwide phenomenon, and we will always have the saga in our hearts.
Started watching as a monster hunter fan and zoo biologist with a nerdy obsession for how nature influences game design.. staying for the great takes on my old favourite paleo media. Keep up the amazing work!
There are still people that think the Jurassic franchise is accurate despite them being fictional movies, it is 100% necessary to make sure your audience knows what you're showing is speculation.
Literally one of the best videos I’ve ever seen. You did such an incredible job explaining what made these documentaries special. Round of applause for you my friend!
Monsters used to be my favorite as a kid but now that I’m older it just leaves me feeling unsatisfied just because of how little time was spent on each era
Love your take on the intro, format and overall the episode was amazing. As someone who was born just before Walking with Dinosaurs and this being my intro into the world of dinosaurs and prehistory, this show was everything it needed to be and more. Thankfully, I can enjoy Dinosaurs, Beasts and Monsters even to this day regardless of the inaccuracies. I truly believe because Walking with Dinosaurs set the standard and amazed the world showing how these creatures could have been, no series afterwards could replicate the formula without the fear the audience would stop watching. At the end of the day, this series is not just my favorite documentary, but has the best music I've ever heard in any media even being better than John William's work or some of Disney's finest soundtracks and also giving prehistory credit and respect. Jurassic Park may be the best dinosaur movie, but the Walking with Series can beat it for me no matter what anyone says. Great video and appreciate the work and research shown in the video. Keep up the amazing content, stay safe and have a great day.
Thank you! That's actually a good point too, that other documentaries may have sank into awesomebro crap as they knew they weren't the next walking with and felt pressured to hold audience attention.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel spot on with that point good sir, your welcome. This series means a lot to me so when people talk about what made the series good, I got to give credit where it's due.
I couldn't agree more with the idea that as the walking with team developed the beast series they really focused less on speculation and wholly covering entire ecosystems that dinosaurs did, and more so on focusing on individual animals/animal families and the impact their presence has on their environment, it feels much more like a contemporary modern day doc. than to the more omniscient sortof feeling walking with dinosaurs had. Both styles can work, but I think for what the Walking With team was aiming for ,Beasts really outperforms Dinosaurs in many ways. Both are fantastic though, and it's definitely a close competition, but as you've broken down so thoroughly, Beasts just 'feels' like the cameras are on the ground, observing these animals as best they can, it pulls you in. ( thank god there's no mieoscene fight club though lol. )
I will however argue that the chased by series, atleast for me, had more of an impact on the viewer. Now ofcourse your arguments are not at all wrong, infact I agree with all of them, but the presence of a human being around these animals typically can put the average, non dinosaur fanatic or nature nut viewer in a more invested position as they can somewhat see themselves in the presenters shoes. If done well, it may be less regressive and more educational than that of a typical doc, if the presentor is more focused on education, and less on entertainment/theatrics ofcourse.
My only real problem is if they try to focus too much on anthropomorphizing the animals or focusing on the spectacle of conflict. I appreciate both methods because setting up a "plot" for the creatures gives a feeling that you are tracking and learning about an animal or herd of animals, while the other method is great for showing the ecosystems as a whole without any "nonsense", but I find the animals and their surroundings inherently interesting as long as I am not interrupted by "floating heads". The Chased By series was super enjoyable because of Nigel Marvin's acting, and I loved the atmosphere of Chased by Sea Monsters
@@genericcatgirl yeah that's definitely valid, as the more you anthropromophise the animals that you're documenting the closer you are to approaching more of a drama, and less of an actual documentary series. Although I do like the talking head kind of doc, it really needs to be" more formatted to be more of a lecture style program with visual aids" persay otherwise yeah like you said it'll just take away from the attention. Lol yeah the chased by series really rides on nigel, he's what makes the series so standout
Something I forgot to mention in my first comment is that I actually really like Dinosaur Planets breaks to explain the speculation of the show, I personally didn't find it weird, and it shows some honestly.
I think the suggestion was not that the content of the cutaways was a problem in and of itself; the highlighted issue is more the way they disrupt the narrative due to their midroll placement. Putting all of the explanation breaks at the close of the episode suits the story flow far better.
I fondly remember walking with Beasts. The episode with the Sabre Tooth Cats was always my favourite one. I would love to see updated versions of these TV series (such as Walking with Beasts) for 2023. I am currently doing an English and Creative Writing Degree, so I would love to do this one day, since I'm specialising in screenwriting and would love to write something revolving around Zoology.
Hopefully, if the first season of prehistoric planet works well, there might be another season which would be like updated versions of walking with beast and walking with monster.
Dimetrodon has actually been found in a highland environment, that being the Tambach Formation of Germany where the WWM episode is set. That being said, this was a small species of Dimetrodon, and that same locality did not feature Edaphosaurus, so it is still highly inaccurate.
I’m watching green planet right now, and I gotta say, they are surprisingly engaging and informative, especially since the crews spent up to a year filming each timelapse segment of the series. (Though that may be because it’s difficult to anthropomorphise plants) On the other hand slow motion is often used for animals since some behaviours can literally be missed in a blink. Though that does sometimes undersell behaviours and it is often used to fill up the runtime. It really goes to show that a lot of effort goes into making these documentaries
These Shows we're my childhood, despite me being a 2000's kid. I watched the Arena Spectacular, and the designs are burned into my brain. Fitting this drops today with the Prehistoric Planet* trailer, which seems to be aiming to catch the lightning in a bottle again. *misremembered the name
i remember first watching walking with dinosaurs when i was around 10, and it was almost like an epiphany for me. i was raised in a christian family but never rlly felt connected to the belief, and after watching these documentaries i remember thinking “oh my god this makes sense to me.” this isn’t to challenge anyone’s belief, it’s just my own experience with this show. i think it was my first real moment of critical thinking, and of course kickstarted my fascination with ancient animals. it’s just so special to me and i will forever appreciate it.
I first saw "Walking With Beasts" when I was seven and my dad HATED "Next of Kin", but it ended up being my favourite episode. I'm still a Christian but I don't let it stop me from enjoying scientific perspectives on human origins and my dad actually doesn't mind me watching human evolution content now that I'm an adult.
My grandpa introduced me to dinosaurs though this series before I could even speak full sentences. Its a shame he passed before he could experience the other prehistoric documentaries beyond that like Beasts and Monsters.
There’s one piece missing here mate: Walking With Cavemen. Or is that considered officially part of the Walking With series? It took Walking with Dinosaurs and Chased by Dinosaurs narrative styles to go further into detail about our ancestors. It’s got some fascinating elements but overall isn’t the most enthralling. A series on Megafauna was something I would’ve to see as the Walking With Cavemen did briefly show us a Gigantopithicus.
I remember when I was a kid I only had Dinosaurs, Monsters and Cavemen (yes, I was aware of the others, I just didn't have them), and since I was obsessed with human evolution, I would always rewatch Walking With Cavemen
1:00:42 The only reason IMO why the Cenozoic isn’t as popular. As the Mezoioc and the era of Dinosaurs. Is because other movies based on the Ice Age. Most people don’t have a Jurassic Park for Prehistoric Mammals.
Watching this series and Jurassic park has made me love dinosaurs my entire life, I watched walking with dinosaurs as a kid. Thank you for the retrospective.
I ironically got into the Walking With franchise because of the 2013 movie. It had so much going for it, beautiful backgrounds, good cgi, good soundtrack and mostly accurate dinosaurs. That voice over is what dragged it down. It would have done better in a documentary style.
I was going to make a relatively poorly thought out comment saying that _Walking With Dinosaurs_ isn’t necessarily what got me into the more paleontological side of things, but it and a whole collection of other paleomentaries. However, upon second thought, I’ve realized that without it, all that other media inarguably wouldn’t exist. So, when you get down to the root of things, such a premise proves wholly inaccurate.
One thing from the show that still makes a bit of sense is the idea that predatory insects like dragonflies and carnivorous beetles or predatory crickets for example using dinosaurs as giant feeding platforms where they possibly fed on any parasites like mosquitoes, fleas and ticks or anything else trying to feed off the dinosaurs blood. It was probably a common sight to see larger dinosaurs with various predatory insects perched on or following them close behind feeding off any parasitic invertebrates as a free meal though it wasn’t a true symbiosis but instead just sheer confidence as these insects were not offered any protection and would most likely also end up as food for larger predators.
I liked walking with beast more then walking with dinosaurs even as a kid. I was always interested in the prehistoric life other then dinauors as no one talks about it . I remember the part with the rediculessly hard to kill HELL PIG. That blow my mind.
i can get every criticism about chased by dinosaurs and nigel marvin in general, but god damn i cant not love how absolutely stupidly dumb and fun it is. Its a fantastic programme to watch drunk with friends
I can still remember way back in 2nd grade for show-and-tell my teacher let me bring in my copy of WWD for the class to watch. We only got a little ways into the first episode but she was pretty impressed by my choice.
I actually watched JP much later than WWD, not least because even as a kid I was never a fan of mixing humans and dinosaurs, I was much more interested in seeing them in their natural habitat
I was introduced to you via the Future Predator video, and was immediately hooked. I loved the in depth and mature discussion on fictitious/past creature ecology. As well as how these media and their more "inaccurate" or "fanciful" parts in palaeo media, came to be due to IRL circumstances and how they've in turn affected the real world going forth after its release. More often than not people like to bash what the past had without bothering to ask or answer the "whys" and see past its flaws to assess how it truly stands. I've only known Walking With Series through the South Korean dub with no extended media (books, games, websites. etc) besides the docus themselves. Even then the marketing didn't sell WWM under the same brand name and had a completely different narrator (ofc dub specific) so I didn't know it was even part of the same series until way later. The trilogy of life seems to go weirdly under the radar especially around the USA's cultural sphere. It feels odd to me having WWD be my first dip into pondering prehistory as a "real life thing that actually happened", while most people spout Jurassic Park whenever anything extinct is mentioned. Having binged both your Monster Hunter analyses showing well thought out ideas as well as educating folks on real ecology, I didn't really 'get' Monster Hunter until your vids (Obviously knowing there's much more to MH, and ecology isn't its mainstream appeal)
Thank you so much! And as some others have said too, Walking With seems to have been a very UK-centric thing as it was enormously popular here and that can't be stressed enough.
Monsters has a special place in my mind. The weird animals lived in my brain for like 14 years cause we watched it in class when i was little. I wish it had more budget cause it features my favorite prehistoric life. I love hearing other ppl talk about it! Great vid!
OMG, memories unlocked. I was completely obsessed with dinosaurs when I was a kid. I remember running back home from basketball training in order to see the new episodes. I loved these series and they were a big reason for why I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew older,. In the end I studied biology, which is relatively close I suppose, so they really had a big impact on my life.
Thank you for creating a video about Walking with Prehistoric Life; they are my favourite paleodocumentary, with Walking with Beasts as my favourite out of the three. Because it got me more interested in prehistoric mammals and birds of the Cenozoic as in dinosaurs and other animals of the Mesozoic era. You should do more videos about prehistoric animals as you did with monsters from Monster Hunter and other fictional creatures.
One thing I found kind of weird about Monsters is the constant theme of elevating human ancestor species while putting down everything else. Unlike Dinosaurs and Beasts where, "main character syndrome" aside for the sake of storytelling, the whole ecosystem is portrayed as a balanced setting with each species going about their own way, Monsters is effectively going "This species won't give rise to humans, therefore it's lame and inferior to this other species"
Yes and no. It's true that Monsters goes out of its way to focus on human ancestors as the "protagonists". _HOWEVER,_ the documentary still goes out of its way to show that our ancestors were flawed and feeble creatures. Haikouichthys? Doesn't even get a singular representative and they only get one scene where they annoy an Anomalocaris. Cephalaspis? The ocean's free protein and they only get to their breeding grounds via sheer numbers instead of any unique advantage. Hynerpeton? Devoured by a giant fish after just mating, and barely any unique traits aside from being a big salamander. The only human ancestor species that really receive extended _positive_ focus are Gorgonopsid (which is already not really a human ancestor) and Lystrosaurus. All the other "protagonist" species are shown struggling for survival just like any other animal, and almost all of them have grisly fates at the end of their stories. If anything, Monsters is effectively going *"This species will give rise to humans, but it's still a work-in-progress and not anything to write home about."* One of the three episodes is literally titled "Reptile's Beginnings", for crying out loud. Heck, at the very end of Monsters, it's not the human ancestors who end off with a high note... it's the DINOSAURS' ancestors who are ultimately the triumphant heroes. Our protagonist Lystrosaurus finish their migration and dominated the world, but the narration goes out of its way to show that the dinosaurs ultimately triumphed in the Early Triassic, with their representative tiny Euparkeria rapid-evolving into the gigantic Allosaurus. The documentary doesn't even directly show any true mammals (you know, OUR close relatives) despite mammals already existing in the Mesozoic era shown in the closing shot of Allosaurus' time period. Just because Monsters put a focus on human ancestor species did not mean that human ancestors were depicted as "superior"... if anything, it just reminded us of how we came from such small beginnings.
I remember getting the box set of Walking with Dinosaurs, Beasts, Monsters and Cavemen when I was a kid and man, this video reminded me of the good times I've had watching them. Good stuff.
I'd personally recommend Prehistoric Planet when it comes out. If the person doesn't have Apple TV, just tell them to get their asses on the high seas.
The nostalgia I felt watching this really hit home for me. The Walking with series is probably what got me into prehistoric life in the first place. I will admit that when I was young, I actually thought that the animals were actually there and begin filmed, that's how convincing it was. Although it's not as good as it used to be, it'll always hold a place in my heart, and I really hope that the upcoming Prehistoric Planet will become the Walking with Dinosaurs of the next generation. I also have to admit that I tried emulating the Walking with trilogy in my own book series on wattpad, 24 Hours in the Past. I'll definitely never be as good as the originals, but the simple fact that it inspired me to do that should show how deeply the trilogy of life impacted me. By the way, I must thank you a ton for existing Unnatural History Channel, your monster hunter videos have helped me a ton with my ongoing wattpad book of trying to see how monsters from monster hunter could exist and evolve in our own reality, for that I thank you very deeply.
33:54 gonna need medical treatment for that burn 🔥 🔥 🔥. But seriously this was a very well made video on this series, I personally didn’t grow up watching it but I did later on when I was older, back when it was on Netflix. Btw have you seen the trailer for Prehistoric Planet? It looks amazing. The baby T. rex with tiger stripes is something I’ve always wanted to see in paleo media.
The baby Rex is great! The CGI looks so real! I could imagine the baby Rex just running around in a zoo right in front of me. I’m particularly geeking over that adult T. Rex. It’s so accurate. Not too feathery, not too scaly. Instead, it’s smooth with a keratinous face. It’s a perfect representation of what we know of T. Rex today. The crew working on it is also impressive. Darren Naish, one of the people behind the book All Yesterdays, is the leading paleontological consultant. I think he’s an amazing choice. Jon Favreau is producing. Hans Zimmer is doing the score. David Attenborough is narrating. I haven’t been so excited for a piece of dinosaur media in…forever.
Very informative and thought-provoking video. I love the deviation from talking about hard science to speak more about filmmaking. I still look upon this series fondly and I’m happy to see your analysis of it!
Amazing stuff! Really really cool to listen to! Walking With is just the best palaeo thing that has ever been on television. Prehistoric Planet will be a close second I think but I'm glad this franchise still has so much love. Thank you for the mention btw I'm only doing what I can really.
Alan Grant staring at the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park while John Williams' score was on fire, and the Diplodocus walking above the camera in Time of Titans while Ben Bartlett was on fire...those two moments shaped my life. So yes, it is outdated and it's honestly not recommended from a scientific perspective. But back then, it changed history. March of the Dinosaurs is to me the first time someone said "hey, what if we make a CGI documentary about dinosaurs like WWD, but this time they don't kill each other all the time?". It was a necessary change and I think we're slowly going back into that direction. Leaps in Evolution and Amazing Dinoworld (at least its first episode) also tried that route. I won't deny I'm hyped over Prehistoric Planet either lol
I have absolutely loved the Walking with... series since 2018, and I would never have learned anything profound about paleontology, evolution, or biogeography without it. I know there have been so many videos like this one, but thank you for making it anyway and for perpetuating the love and respect it deserves for what it did in the realm of paleontology as well as its amazing music, stories, and visuals. (I first watched this video when it came out, but decided to see it again after binge watching the original series earlier today.)
Personally I can't agree with the idea that the Nigel docus were low quality. They got me into palaeontology, and they're still pretty good in my opinion
A nice and enjoyable video. I hope you do more like this. Especially if you do something like what you did for 2005 s King Kong, but for the Monsterverse or anything Godzilla related.
There's nothing I can say about how amazing WWD was that everyone else hasn't already said. I never got into Beasts because I tend to lose interest once we get to the Cenozoic. But Monsters was almost as much my jam as Dinosaurs. Sadly I wasn't aware of any of the other specials until the last few years when it became so hard to find legally at least in the US.
The only thing I remembered liking about the Scott Sampson segments of Dinosaur Planet was seeing the full sized models of the Einiosaurus and other ceratopsians because MAN I wanted them as toys.
What made them great was the cgi. The practical effects. The narration. The behaviour of the animals. In a way, this was some of the best Dino cgi ever, because it was just as gritty as the real video around it. It is the only dinosaur documentary (I’m looking at you, prehistoric planet) that I can watch while fully immersed
I'd like to add something about the scene where the polar allosaur hunting the Muttaburrasaurus herd. I like how the polar allosaur roars in frustration when he can't get a successful kill from the Muttaburrasaurus herd. It's a nice detail that gives it personality.
I'll admit I do feel like some of the tyrannosaur's other relatives of other large therapods should get the spotlight as well, but it's hard to deny that the tyrannosaurus is a iconic dinosaur.
awesome work! i wouldn't mind seeing more videos about actual dinosaur things, like how there was a paper about how T-Rex should be divided in three species or something like that
Nobody ever seems to remember Walking with Cavemen also existed. Its so often ignored I genuinely wondered if I had miss remembered. I thought it might be a Mandela effect type thing but it was definitely real 😆
Definitely a video worth waiting for and when I saw said video, it wasn't what I expected, but in a good way. It gave me some food for thought and ideas to keep on board for my comic. It's more Pokemon than Walking with Dinosaurs, but I put a lot of effort to strike a balance between accurate and stylized with purpose of telling a story. It may no be the next Walking with Dinosaurs or Jurassic Park, but it doesn't need to be. It shouldn't be. I just hope that what I make does well at least enough to justify making multiple issues of it. If nothing else, it's currently a hobby I enjoy and drives me to learn more about prehistory and discuss lesser known aspects like maturity ages and why some small dinosaurs lack feathers while other have a lot of them. It truly has been a wonderful journey I don't intend end any time soon.
One thing about WWD is that while a lot of the anatomy are quite iffy (largely due to the consultants TBF), a lot of times their conservative approach to dinosaur behaviour (parental care for the large theropods, Allosaurus mobbing in Big Al, etc.) aged pretty well as opposed to say, tyrannosaurid packs operating as a family unit in WDRA and DP, ironically due to the same consultants. Minor correction: The therocephalian Euchambersia was found likely to have venom, though it has the different problem of being placed in the wrong time (it should be the late Permian instead). There's actually a Dimetrodon species (D. teutonis) found in Bromacker Germany, but it was way too big in WWM, and Edpahosaurus is still out of place.
Sea Monsters is such a guilty pleasure of mine. This insane man grabing and attempting to ride every poor animal he came across
I used to love Nigel Marven as a child, especially in Prehistoric Park
Yeah man. Sea Monsters is still awesome to me. I never watched Chased By Dinosaurs but I was excited to see Sea Monsters on cable. Watching it now, it's flaws only make me laugh and love it more. I also feel like it does a better job of depicting animals than Chased even if it isn't perfect.
Sea Monsters has a lot of nostalgic value for me and was one of the major factors that got me interested in prehistoric life.
Grew up watching Nigels real documentaries, so as a kid seeing im in sea monsters made me obsessed, its such a silly yet entertaining piece of media
@@hiattgrey9161 When did he say anything like that about nigel? from what it seems he doesnt blame nigel for any of it and says how he's having fun in the role and how it's the writing that ruins it.
The intro is forever engraved into my mind. Walking With Dinosaurs and Pokémon is what got me into ecology, geography and the natural world in general. Thanks for the video as always.
I wonder what dipictions of dinosaurs were like in 1868
@@unicorntomboy9736 scaly kangaroos
You're welcome! Walking With also lives forever in my head.
Prehistoric Planet: *Noted*
Pokemon?
Casually watching a retrospective on my favourite series and got blindsided when you mentioned me by name an hour in! XD Very surreal. And yeah, the Walking With series was a HUGE inspiration for my Dinosauria series. Probably the no. 1 inspiration.
Thanks for commenting! Similarly never thought you'd watch my content! I absolutely loved your Dinosauria series - small wonder if WWD was it's chief inspiration.
I was about to say "damn, in response to the Prehistoric Planet trailer you whipped out a one and a half hour Walking with retrospective that quickly?"
Seeing you here is a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
Cracked it out in a day 👌🏻
I really hope they don't use the talking scientist cutaway thing like later documentaries and go full on movie, we have the tech they definitely have the budget and a strong narrarator, there's nothing to stop them from doing this for old times sake and dispense with old flawed habits
@@unnaturalhistorychannel what a Chad
@@kennethsatria6607 yea, its one of the most annoying parts of modern dino docs. Put all of that in a making of or maybe at the end of the main story so we have the option to stay and listen or go on to the next episode. Like we don't give a shit get back to the dinosaurs!
One of my favorite musical moments in the trilogy is the climax of Next of Kin, where the tribe saves Blue. It feels both triumphant, but also kind of ominous. It’s satisfying to see the group unite to save one of their own, but it also feels like foreshadowing humanity’s eventually dominance over the world, and how callously we can overpower and destroy the animals around us.
Its awesome to see Bartlett get the credit he deserves for his amazing work on the series.
I'll never stop praising Bartlett's amazing work on these docus. Never been beaten as far as I'm concerned.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel To me the only one who has reached the level of Bartlett is George Fenton (Planet Earth, Blue Planet). From there, you have to jump to John Williams and Hans Zimmer themselves to find better scores.
@@IceSpoon People praise Zimmer for the BBC documentaries (Planet Earth II & Seven Worlds, One Planet), while he composed only the main themes and the rest was done by composers from Bleeding Fingers. I bet it will be the same with Prehistoric Planet.
One thing I really liked about walking with dinosaurs is how it both somewhat complements and contests Jurassic Park. And this is especially evident in the portrayal of Tyrannosaurus. The Tyrannosaurus Rex in Walking With Dinosaurs is almost the polar opposite to Jurassic Park, WWD Tyrannosaurus is sickly and more passive by comparison to giant tyrant of JP.
And it’s not that the Tyrannosaurus isn’t given a chance to be threatening in WWD, the scene where it hunts the anantotitan is given a lot disturbing elements. We can only see brief parts of the hunt and most of the information is given through sound, with cries of fear and pain the anantotitan makes along with sounds of its bones breaking as the T-rex bites into it. And the final sounds it makes sound like genuine terror as the Tyrannosaurus grabs and snaps it’s neck.
But by comparison the Tyrannosaurus in “death of a dynasty” feels like a creature to be pitied rather than feared a majority of the time. With being barley able to chase off a group of mammals. To the scene with ankylosaurus where it’s humbled very quickly. It even differs to the JP Tyrannosaurus rex in sound design. With WWD interpretation having a more guttural shout compared to JP’s majestic and iconic roar. All of the design features and subtle hints make WWD Tyrannosaurus really feel special when compared to every other documentaries take on T-rex.
Tyrannosaurus Rex isn’t a monster, it’s just a top order carnivore in a world of dying giants.
T.rex wasn't living in a world of dying giants though. It was a rock from space that killed the dinosaurs off, not just a vulcanoe. The Indian vulcanic Traps only happened after, & because of, the Impact of a huge asteroid. So there were no dying giants before the impact. Another bit of misinformation allowed in WWD.
Yep. Jurassic Park made a laudable effort to portray its dinosaurs as animals rather than monsters, but if they don't sometimes act and seem like monsters, you don't have a movie.
Although unfortunately they made the Walking With T. rex really weird looking even for the time for some reason. But at least its behavior was better. Don't know why they got its appearance so inaccurate but you win some and you lose some lol
@@michealtaylor7745 That wasn’t mis information at the time though as the theory was that dinosaurs were in decline before the extinction due to the overall lack of diversity compared to the earlier formations and the fact that Triceratops was unusually common. Of course it’s now believed a lot of that was simply preservation bias but at the time it was a decently sound theory.
@@michealtaylor7745The Indian Volcanic Traps were ongoing for much of the Cretaceous, prior to the Chicxulub impact
Walking with beast intro opening was one of the most *BADASS* OPENING SERIES I'VE EVER SEEN
That first episode with the giant ants eating the baby bird still lingers in my memory
The chants are amazing!
I personally enjoyed Beasts more than Dinosaurs.
Kinda how I find prehistoric mammals and megafauna just as engaging as dinosaurs.
That song unironically slaps.
Amen. They really milk its sequel status for all its dramatic worth. Great special effects, too.
@@colinbaldwin313 Eh I’d disagree Beasts cgi has not aged as well as WWDs in my opinion.
The pitch for WWD was something like "Jurassic Park, but for Television" and I love that.
A few months ago I contacted Ben Bartlett and asked him about the unreleased score and he said that he is working on releasing all that music on apple and Spotify but its taking a long time to sort the rights etc.
Hot damn that’s awesome if he can manage it!
@@unnaturalhistorychannel Is he involved with prehistoric planet in anyway?
Jesus Christ... After all those years...!
Awesome! I hope he succeeds!
Very nicely timed release in light of Prehistoric Planet trailer.
You know why the gorgonopsid (or inostrancevia) is so damn cool? Visually, it's basically a combination of the most iconic apex predators of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic: tyrannosaurus and smilodon. It's a real shame that Hollywood has such a focus on Mesozoic creatures, because a gorgonopsian would make one awesome-looking predator in a Jurassic Park-esque movie.
I am surprised that Jurassic World Dominion doesn't have one in it. It would be cool to see it combat the T-Rex, since the former was essentially the T-Rex of the Paleozioc Period
@@unicorntomboy9736 Yeah. The T-rex would definitely win that battle. It was much larger and its jaws could crush bone. I don't know how strong the gorgonopsid's jaws were, but it seemed to me from Monsters that it killed with deep slashing wounds rather than crushing bites. On the subject of JW Dominion, I'm glad to see that Lystrosaurus is going to appear. That shows that the series may be starting to broaden its menagerie beyond the Mesozoic era. Another good Jurassic Park-related idea would be a different park that features Cenozoic animals. Why couldn't InGen have made one dinosaur park off the coast of Costa Rica, and one Ice Age park off the coast of Alaska?
@@colinbaldwin313 in addition, Walking with Dinosaurs had that Postocuchus. I wish that Jurassic World Dominion featured that creature, as saw someone once call it 'the tyrannosaurus rex of the Triassic era'
@@unicorntomboy9736 That would have been cool, even if only in a brief cameo.
@@unicorntomboy9736 Well, it’d be a very one-sided battle. That’s probably one of the reasons it wouldn’t work. But, Jurassic world dominion did have a dicynodont, so it’d make sense for them to bring back another paleozoic therapsid.
One analogy for this series is it plays like a stage drama. It’s like watching a tragedy. We have a stage and different actors (creatures) enter the stage and leave the stage in dramatic ways. The music really amplifies this. 🎭
“Back across 23 years, as you travel you would see huge changes in the vegetation and climate”. Pretty dark knowing that is such a short period that we’ve drastically altered the Earth and not in a good way. Still an amazing video, loved the walking with series as a kid
20:42 i'd like to add; i think wwd is the only piece of paleomedia i've seen where the lead t-rex isn't glorified to hell. iirc the only kill she makes onscreen is in the first minute, and it's far from a major one. the only time she's shown aggressively is when she's driving threats out of her territory. and, she meets a sudden, untimely demise, offscreen and undramatically. other paleomedia seem to love giving their rexes protagonist syndrome, with a heavy onscreen killcount and a dramatic death in battle (if they even die at all), which is unrealistic at best. another thing i love is how brutal and eerie the extinction scene was. i understand other documentaries making that part dramatic, a huge fuckin space rock hit the earth at mach speed and wiped out over half of all life, but the way wwd portrays it always stuck with me the most.
She actually made two kills. On was the Didelphodon in the opening sequence, the other was an Anatotitan/Edmontosaurus right before we saw her hatchlings for the first time.
I agree.
@@justusb.plorer8773 you're correct!! i feel as if my point still stands though, as the second one was so inconsequential that i didn't even remember it haha
@@deathofadynasty3453 Oh, your point definitely still stands. It's one of WWD's most charismatic and well-made elements
What a good day, I woke up to the 2 Prehistoric Planet teasers and then you upload a retrospective of one of my favourite documentary series, I’ll enjoy every minute of it lad
Woke up where?
Love from Finland.
Screw the bias against anthropomorphism, present day animals are extremely complex its no wonder they can be compared to humans.
Just look at the lives led by lions, they form bands and have strong bonds between males like brothers and sons, they conquer other prides and fight near to death just to support one another, able to care for their cubs and play with them, and even stronger still the bond of females that stick to one location and care for their elderly, even against rivals and aggressive prey animals.
Its stupid to ignore such cases in nature, even if we as humans see them as noble/respectable traits it is likely seen the same way by that species as well hence its common occurrence.
I believe there might be a chance that some species of animals inspect our actions and behaviors just like we do to them in documentaries.
@@karlazeen Not to mention the fact that dinosaurs lived millions of years. Many bizarre and strange events would have no doubt occurred.
I'm quite interested with your take on Chased By and Sea Monsters, personally I never really saw either them to really be connected to the trilogy of life at least thematically, Nigel's stories felt more like typical adventure serials which i felt jelled pretty well. I find it a bit dubious of you mentioning that the carnivores in these instances behave a little more aggressive despite having some instances where they're are just more curious of him then properly agitated *The Nothosaur's spring to mind in that instance and maybe the Coelophysis Cameo if we're stretching* But i will concede that i do very much agree with your statement on both the way Nigel handles the animals and the show being quite a far cry from the trilogy of life in terms of educational value and tone, as much as i love both him and Steve Irwin, animals should be enjoyed as they are and not be fooled around with. Excellent video, can't wait for the MH vid next!
I went to see the Walking With Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular half a decade ago and I will never forget it. Seeing a life sized brachiosaurus walk around, packs of raptors interacting and of course the tyrannosaurus rex all in person was nothing short of magic.
10:13 Watching this from 2022, as Prehistoric Planet is airing, and it’s crazy that he accurately predicted the documentary’s format
Something about the Ornithocairus' theme got ingrained into 5 year old me. Its just such a haunting track that makes the hairs on my arms stand on end when the first note hits
The cameraman should get a raise for going back in time and filming dinosaurs
Also worth noting that Kenneth Branagh did a great job with the narration
Weird moment around 10:20 when you're talking about if a new BBC dinosaur documentary was made, putting it at the end to preserve the immersion, when Prehistoric Planet is out and the David Attenborough at the beginning really doesn't do anything to reduce the immersion. A true successor to Walking With Dinosaurs, outclassing it in every respect. What devotion by all the scientists, artists, and everyone else, it's a lovely documentary series.
It is - at somepoint I’ll be making a video on it
I love that the walking with dinosaurs/beasts makes all the animals feel like animals, like with the t-rex yes it's model isn't great but how the animal acts makes it feel better then more accurately modelled versions which makes a world of difference also i love how they did the extinction event from the dino's view it makes more terrifying and impactful
I think you brought up a lot of great points that many people don't bring up and i loved the video.
Personally, my favorite out of the original trilogy of life would be Walking with Monsters. Although I agree with what you said about Chased by Dinosaurs, I still love it.
I love Walking with Monsters because of how interesting the creatures were even with less time to invest in each episode. The scenes with the hyneria breaching onto land, the inostrancevia scenes in general, the dimetrodon eating its young, and the night migration scene have stuck with me
I listen to the entire walking with monsters documentary at work today, it's truly brilliant
Takes me back to when I was a kid having watched WWD on air and then buying I believe frosted mini wheats that had the indricotheres on it advertising for WWB, was so excited as that was the only way I had heard about beasts.
We had similar childhoods!
This has to be the best and most honest review I have seen about "The Trilogy of Life", in the end, everything that came out of that documentary series was an unprecedented paleoworldwide phenomenon, and we will always have the saga in our hearts.
It'll certainly live forever in mine. Thank you!
Started watching as a monster hunter fan and zoo biologist with a nerdy obsession for how nature influences game design.. staying for the great takes on my old favourite paleo media. Keep up the amazing work!
Thank you! Stay tuned!
I still dont understand why Netflix has the WWD movie and not the Show
This is amazing! I think this era of palaeo-media is one of the more fascinating times to be alive in.
There are still people that think the Jurassic franchise is accurate despite them being fictional movies, it is 100% necessary to make sure your audience knows what you're showing is speculation.
Literally one of the best videos I’ve ever seen. You did such an incredible job explaining what made these documentaries special. Round of applause for you my friend!
Thank you so much!
Everyone is hoping that Prehistoric Planet make a great job just like WWD
Monsters used to be my favorite as a kid but now that I’m older it just leaves me feeling unsatisfied just because of how little time was spent on each era
An hour and a half retrospective about the walking with series! Just what I needed!
Love your take on the intro, format and overall the episode was amazing. As someone who was born just before Walking with Dinosaurs and this being my intro into the world of dinosaurs and prehistory, this show was everything it needed to be and more. Thankfully, I can enjoy Dinosaurs, Beasts and Monsters even to this day regardless of the inaccuracies. I truly believe because Walking with Dinosaurs set the standard and amazed the world showing how these creatures could have been, no series afterwards could replicate the formula without the fear the audience would stop watching. At the end of the day, this series is not just my favorite documentary, but has the best music I've ever heard in any media even being better than John William's work or some of Disney's finest soundtracks and also giving prehistory credit and respect. Jurassic Park may be the best dinosaur movie, but the Walking with Series can beat it for me no matter what anyone says. Great video and appreciate the work and research shown in the video. Keep up the amazing content, stay safe and have a great day.
Thank you! That's actually a good point too, that other documentaries may have sank into awesomebro crap as they knew they weren't the next walking with and felt pressured to hold audience attention.
@@unnaturalhistorychannel spot on with that point good sir, your welcome. This series means a lot to me so when people talk about what made the series good, I got to give credit where it's due.
I couldn't agree more with the idea that as the walking with team developed the beast series they really focused less on speculation and wholly covering entire ecosystems that dinosaurs did, and more so on focusing on individual animals/animal families and the impact their presence has on their environment, it feels much more like a contemporary modern day doc. than to the more omniscient sortof feeling walking with dinosaurs had. Both styles can work, but I think for what the Walking With team was aiming for ,Beasts really outperforms Dinosaurs in many ways. Both are fantastic though, and it's definitely a close competition, but as you've broken down so thoroughly, Beasts just 'feels' like the cameras are on the ground, observing these animals as best they can, it pulls you in. ( thank god there's no mieoscene fight club though lol. )
I will however argue that the chased by series, atleast for me, had more of an impact on the viewer. Now ofcourse your arguments are not at all wrong, infact I agree with all of them, but the presence of a human being around these animals typically can put the average, non dinosaur fanatic or nature nut viewer in a more invested position as they can somewhat see themselves in the presenters shoes. If done well, it may be less regressive and more educational than that of a typical doc, if the presentor is more focused on education, and less on entertainment/theatrics ofcourse.
My only real problem is if they try to focus too much on anthropomorphizing the animals or focusing on the spectacle of conflict. I appreciate both methods because setting up a "plot" for the creatures gives a feeling that you are tracking and learning about an animal or herd of animals, while the other method is great for showing the ecosystems as a whole without any "nonsense", but I find the animals and their surroundings inherently interesting as long as I am not interrupted by "floating heads". The Chased By series was super enjoyable because of Nigel Marvin's acting, and I loved the atmosphere of Chased by Sea Monsters
@@genericcatgirl yeah that's definitely valid, as the more you anthropromophise the animals that you're documenting the closer you are to approaching more of a drama, and less of an actual documentary series. Although I do like the talking head kind of doc, it really needs to be" more formatted to be more of a lecture style program with visual aids" persay otherwise yeah like you said it'll just take away from the attention. Lol yeah the chased by series really rides on nigel, he's what makes the series so standout
Something I forgot to mention in my first comment is that I actually really like Dinosaur Planets breaks to explain the speculation of the show, I personally didn't find it weird, and it shows some honestly.
I think the suggestion was not that the content of the cutaways was a problem in and of itself; the highlighted issue is more the way they disrupt the narrative due to their midroll placement. Putting all of the explanation breaks at the close of the episode suits the story flow far better.
I had the massive Walking With Dinosaurs VHS box set when I was a kid and absolutely destroyed those tapes watching them over and over.
I fondly remember walking with Beasts. The episode with the Sabre Tooth Cats was always my favourite one.
I would love to see updated versions of these TV series (such as Walking with Beasts) for 2023. I am currently doing an English and Creative Writing Degree, so I would love to do this one day, since I'm specialising in screenwriting and would love to write something revolving around Zoology.
Hopefully, if the first season of prehistoric planet works well, there might be another season which would be like updated versions of walking with beast and walking with monster.
@@hugobellet4950 An example would be correctly and accurately portraying the Gastornis as a herbivore/omnivore rather than purely a predetor
@@unicorntomboy9736 I agree, and if they redo an episode on the Messel site, don't put the ambulocetus back on it.
@@hugobellet4950 I agree. They should have had crocodiles there.
Dimetrodon has actually been found in a highland environment, that being the Tambach Formation of Germany where the WWM episode is set. That being said, this was a small species of Dimetrodon, and that same locality did not feature Edaphosaurus, so it is still highly inaccurate.
This man made me nostalgia hard for the 90s. Fantastic video man.
I’m watching green planet right now, and I gotta say, they are surprisingly engaging and informative, especially since the crews spent up to a year filming each timelapse segment of the series. (Though that may be because it’s difficult to anthropomorphise plants)
On the other hand slow motion is often used for animals since some behaviours can literally be missed in a blink. Though that does sometimes undersell behaviours and it is often used to fill up the runtime.
It really goes to show that a lot of effort goes into making these documentaries
These Shows we're my childhood, despite me being a 2000's kid. I watched the Arena Spectacular, and the designs are burned into my brain. Fitting this drops today with the Prehistoric Planet* trailer, which seems to be aiming to catch the lightning in a bottle again.
*misremembered the name
I found it off that Walking with Beasts skipped the Miocene period for some reason
It's funny I'm watching this when the new walking with dinosaurs series was announced for 2025.
i remember first watching walking with dinosaurs when i was around 10, and it was almost like an epiphany for me. i was raised in a christian family but never rlly felt connected to the belief, and after watching these documentaries i remember thinking “oh my god this makes sense to me.” this isn’t to challenge anyone’s belief, it’s just my own experience with this show. i think it was my first real moment of critical thinking, and of course kickstarted my fascination with ancient animals. it’s just so special to me and i will forever appreciate it.
I first saw "Walking With Beasts" when I was seven and my dad HATED "Next of Kin", but it ended up being my favourite episode. I'm still a Christian but I don't let it stop me from enjoying scientific perspectives on human origins and my dad actually doesn't mind me watching human evolution content now that I'm an adult.
Here just so I can happily say we finally got that spiritual successor, and it’s narrated by none other than the legend himself David Attenborough
My grandpa introduced me to dinosaurs though this series before I could even speak full sentences.
Its a shame he passed before he could experience the other prehistoric documentaries beyond that like Beasts and Monsters.
There’s one piece missing here mate: Walking With Cavemen. Or is that considered officially part of the Walking With series?
It took Walking with Dinosaurs and Chased by Dinosaurs narrative styles to go further into detail about our ancestors.
It’s got some fascinating elements but overall isn’t the most enthralling.
A series on Megafauna was something I would’ve to see as the Walking With Cavemen did briefly show us a Gigantopithicus.
Cavemen you a definitely part of the Walking With series…but someone else can cover that one. Hominids aren’t my jam unfortunately!
I remember when I was a kid I only had Dinosaurs, Monsters and Cavemen (yes, I was aware of the others, I just didn't have them), and since I was obsessed with human evolution, I would always rewatch Walking With Cavemen
eh
All hominids suck
Now I wanna see a prehistoric zombie movie. The Walking Dead Cavemen. Or Zombie Dinosaurs From Space! Am I high? Maybe...
@@blablabla82a yes.
And I want some of what you're on cause that sounds amazing.
1:00:42 The only reason IMO why the Cenozoic isn’t as popular. As the Mezoioc and the era of Dinosaurs. Is because other movies based on the Ice Age. Most people don’t have a Jurassic Park for Prehistoric Mammals.
I still LOVE all of the Walking with (And even Chased by) series. They are still fun and full of nostalgia and enjoyment for me.
Watching this series and Jurassic park has made me love dinosaurs my entire life, I watched walking with dinosaurs as a kid. Thank you for the retrospective.
"And it doesn't really seem likely that they'll be repeated."
Well, boy, do I have a surprise for you!
I ironically got into the Walking With franchise because of the 2013 movie. It had so much going for it, beautiful backgrounds, good cgi, good soundtrack and mostly accurate dinosaurs. That voice over is what dragged it down. It would have done better in a documentary style.
I was going to make a relatively poorly thought out comment saying that _Walking With Dinosaurs_ isn’t necessarily what got me into the more paleontological side of things, but it and a whole collection of other paleomentaries. However, upon second thought, I’ve realized that without it, all that other media inarguably wouldn’t exist. So, when you get down to the root of things, such a premise proves wholly inaccurate.
One thing from the show that still makes a bit of sense is the idea that predatory insects like dragonflies and carnivorous beetles or predatory crickets for example using dinosaurs as giant feeding platforms where they possibly fed on any parasites like mosquitoes, fleas and ticks or anything else trying to feed off the dinosaurs blood. It was probably a common sight to see larger dinosaurs with various predatory insects perched on or following them close behind feeding off any parasitic invertebrates as a free meal though it wasn’t a true symbiosis but instead just sheer confidence as these insects were not offered any protection and would most likely also end up as food for larger predators.
I liked walking with beast more then walking with dinosaurs even as a kid. I was always interested in the prehistoric life other then dinauors as no one talks about it . I remember the part with the rediculessly hard to kill HELL PIG. That blow my mind.
i can get every criticism about chased by dinosaurs and nigel marvin in general, but god damn i cant not love how absolutely stupidly dumb and fun it is. Its a fantastic programme to watch drunk with friends
I can still remember way back in 2nd grade for show-and-tell my teacher let me bring in my copy of WWD for the class to watch. We only got a little ways into the first episode but she was pretty impressed by my choice.
I agree with your critiques of the Chased By series, but Chased by Sea Monsters is one of my favorites because of the tension and atmosphere
I think this series played more of a part in my love of paleontology than Jurassic park
I actually watched JP much later than WWD, not least because even as a kid I was never a fan of mixing humans and dinosaurs, I was much more interested in seeing them in their natural habitat
@@wietomeiborg1934 well that’s no fun
Who's here in 2024 after the Walking With Dinosaurs sequel got announced?
I was introduced to you via the Future Predator video, and was immediately hooked. I loved the in depth and mature discussion on fictitious/past creature ecology. As well as how these media and their more "inaccurate" or "fanciful" parts in palaeo media, came to be due to IRL circumstances and how they've in turn affected the real world going forth after its release. More often than not people like to bash what the past had without bothering to ask or answer the "whys" and see past its flaws to assess how it truly stands.
I've only known Walking With Series through the South Korean dub with no extended media (books, games, websites. etc) besides the docus themselves. Even then the marketing didn't sell WWM under the same brand name and had a completely different narrator (ofc dub specific) so I didn't know it was even part of the same series until way later.
The trilogy of life seems to go weirdly under the radar especially around the USA's cultural sphere. It feels odd to me having WWD be my first dip into pondering prehistory as a "real life thing that actually happened", while most people spout Jurassic Park whenever anything extinct is mentioned.
Having binged both your Monster Hunter analyses showing well thought out ideas as well as educating folks on real ecology, I didn't really 'get' Monster Hunter until your vids (Obviously knowing there's much more to MH, and ecology isn't its mainstream appeal)
Thank you so much! And as some others have said too, Walking With seems to have been a very UK-centric thing as it was enormously popular here and that can't be stressed enough.
Monsters has a special place in my mind. The weird animals lived in my brain for like 14 years cause we watched it in class when i was little. I wish it had more budget cause it features my favorite prehistoric life. I love hearing other ppl talk about it! Great vid!
OMG, memories unlocked. I was completely obsessed with dinosaurs when I was a kid. I remember running back home from basketball training in order to see the new episodes. I loved these series and they were a big reason for why I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew older,. In the end I studied biology, which is relatively close I suppose, so they really had a big impact on my life.
Thank you for creating a video about Walking with Prehistoric Life; they are my favourite paleodocumentary, with Walking with Beasts as my favourite out of the three. Because it got me more interested in prehistoric mammals and birds of the Cenozoic as in dinosaurs and other animals of the Mesozoic era.
You should do more videos about prehistoric animals as you did with monsters from Monster Hunter and other fictional creatures.
You might have forgotten I think one of the most undercover walking with series and that's Walking with Cavemen
My family has walking with dinosaurs on dvd, and I remember whenever I was sick that was what i was watching
One thing I found kind of weird about Monsters is the constant theme of elevating human ancestor species while putting down everything else. Unlike Dinosaurs and Beasts where, "main character syndrome" aside for the sake of storytelling, the whole ecosystem is portrayed as a balanced setting with each species going about their own way, Monsters is effectively going "This species won't give rise to humans, therefore it's lame and inferior to this other species"
Yes and no. It's true that Monsters goes out of its way to focus on human ancestors as the "protagonists". _HOWEVER,_ the documentary still goes out of its way to show that our ancestors were flawed and feeble creatures. Haikouichthys? Doesn't even get a singular representative and they only get one scene where they annoy an Anomalocaris. Cephalaspis? The ocean's free protein and they only get to their breeding grounds via sheer numbers instead of any unique advantage. Hynerpeton? Devoured by a giant fish after just mating, and barely any unique traits aside from being a big salamander.
The only human ancestor species that really receive extended _positive_ focus are Gorgonopsid (which is already not really a human ancestor) and Lystrosaurus. All the other "protagonist" species are shown struggling for survival just like any other animal, and almost all of them have grisly fates at the end of their stories. If anything, Monsters is effectively going *"This species will give rise to humans, but it's still a work-in-progress and not anything to write home about."* One of the three episodes is literally titled "Reptile's Beginnings", for crying out loud.
Heck, at the very end of Monsters, it's not the human ancestors who end off with a high note... it's the DINOSAURS' ancestors who are ultimately the triumphant heroes. Our protagonist Lystrosaurus finish their migration and dominated the world, but the narration goes out of its way to show that the dinosaurs ultimately triumphed in the Early Triassic, with their representative tiny Euparkeria rapid-evolving into the gigantic Allosaurus. The documentary doesn't even directly show any true mammals (you know, OUR close relatives) despite mammals already existing in the Mesozoic era shown in the closing shot of Allosaurus' time period. Just because Monsters put a focus on human ancestor species did not mean that human ancestors were depicted as "superior"... if anything, it just reminded us of how we came from such small beginnings.
I remember getting the box set of Walking with Dinosaurs, Beasts, Monsters and Cavemen when I was a kid and man, this video reminded me of the good times I've had watching them. Good stuff.
This series raised an entire generation of Dino lovers
I'd personally recommend Prehistoric Planet when it comes out. If the person doesn't have Apple TV, just tell them to get their asses on the high seas.
Oh this was very well timed. Will you do retrospectives on other Dino Documentaries?
Discovered your channel through this video and please keep up the good work my man! The internet was made for niche content like this.
More to come!
Who knew this channel would get so popular
The nostalgia I felt watching this really hit home for me. The Walking with series is probably what got me into prehistoric life in the first place. I will admit that when I was young, I actually thought that the animals were actually there and begin filmed, that's how convincing it was. Although it's not as good as it used to be, it'll always hold a place in my heart, and I really hope that the upcoming Prehistoric Planet will become the Walking with Dinosaurs of the next generation.
I also have to admit that I tried emulating the Walking with trilogy in my own book series on wattpad, 24 Hours in the Past. I'll definitely never be as good as the originals, but the simple fact that it inspired me to do that should show how deeply the trilogy of life impacted me.
By the way, I must thank you a ton for existing Unnatural History Channel, your monster hunter videos have helped me a ton with my ongoing wattpad book of trying to see how monsters from monster hunter could exist and evolve in our own reality, for that I thank you very deeply.
Great analysis! probably the best one I've heard of this series so far
33:54 gonna need medical treatment for that burn 🔥 🔥 🔥. But seriously this was a very well made video on this series, I personally didn’t grow up watching it but I did later on when I was older, back when it was on Netflix. Btw have you seen the trailer for Prehistoric Planet? It looks amazing. The baby T. rex with tiger stripes is something I’ve always wanted to see in paleo media.
I think Prehistoric Planet looks very promising indeed!
The baby Rex is great! The CGI looks so real! I could imagine the baby Rex just running around in a zoo right in front of me. I’m particularly geeking over that adult T. Rex. It’s so accurate. Not too feathery, not too scaly. Instead, it’s smooth with a keratinous face. It’s a perfect representation of what we know of T. Rex today.
The crew working on it is also impressive. Darren Naish, one of the people behind the book All Yesterdays, is the leading paleontological consultant. I think he’s an amazing choice. Jon Favreau is producing. Hans Zimmer is doing the score. David Attenborough is narrating. I haven’t been so excited for a piece of dinosaur media in…forever.
Very informative and thought-provoking video. I love the deviation from talking about hard science to speak more about filmmaking. I still look upon this series fondly and I’m happy to see your analysis of it!
Amazing stuff! Really really cool to listen to! Walking With is just the best palaeo thing that has ever been on television. Prehistoric Planet will be a close second I think but I'm glad this franchise still has so much love. Thank you for the mention btw I'm only doing what I can really.
And thank you for doing your best to get us the scores! Very grateful for your kind words too
Alan Grant staring at the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park while John Williams' score was on fire, and the Diplodocus walking above the camera in Time of Titans while Ben Bartlett was on fire...those two moments shaped my life. So yes, it is outdated and it's honestly not recommended from a scientific perspective. But back then, it changed history.
March of the Dinosaurs is to me the first time someone said "hey, what if we make a CGI documentary about dinosaurs like WWD, but this time they don't kill each other all the time?". It was a necessary change and I think we're slowly going back into that direction. Leaps in Evolution and Amazing Dinoworld (at least its first episode) also tried that route.
I won't deny I'm hyped over Prehistoric Planet either lol
good thing that Prehistoric planet comes out this year, but it will probably eventually see the same fate as walking with dinosaurs
As will happen to most reconstructions of prehistoric life. Only natural as we learn more
@@unnaturalhistorychannel indeed
I got to see a live performance of Walking with Dinosaurs as a child. It was breathtaking. Still have those tickets
I will always adore and respect this series. It’s a huge inspiration for me when writing about animals. I love it warts and all.
I have absolutely loved the Walking with... series since 2018, and I would never have learned anything profound about paleontology, evolution, or biogeography without it. I know there have been so many videos like this one, but thank you for making it anyway and for perpetuating the love and respect it deserves for what it did in the realm of paleontology as well as its amazing music, stories, and visuals.
(I first watched this video when it came out, but decided to see it again after binge watching the original series earlier today.)
Personally I can't agree with the idea that the Nigel docus were low quality. They got me into palaeontology, and they're still pretty good in my opinion
A nice and enjoyable video. I hope you do more like this. Especially if you do something like what you did for 2005 s King Kong, but for the Monsterverse or anything Godzilla related.
There's nothing I can say about how amazing WWD was that everyone else hasn't already said.
I never got into Beasts because I tend to lose interest once we get to the Cenozoic. But Monsters was almost as much my jam as Dinosaurs. Sadly I wasn't aware of any of the other specials until the last few years when it became so hard to find legally at least in the US.
The only thing I remembered liking about the Scott Sampson segments of Dinosaur Planet was seeing the full sized models of the Einiosaurus and other ceratopsians because MAN I wanted them as toys.
Same
What made them great was the cgi. The practical effects. The narration. The behaviour of the animals. In a way, this was some of the best Dino cgi ever, because it was just as gritty as the real video around it. It is the only dinosaur documentary (I’m looking at you, prehistoric planet) that I can watch while fully immersed
Some of my first childhood memories were watching Walking with Dinosaurs. The Walking With series made my love paleo-media.
The tone used for the "thank god" after the utterance of "Miocene Fight Club" really does sell how much of a shitshow that was
I'd like to add something about the scene where the polar allosaur hunting the Muttaburrasaurus herd. I like how the polar allosaur roars in frustration when he can't get a successful kill from the Muttaburrasaurus herd. It's a nice detail that gives it personality.
This was my childhood, oh who am I kidding I still love it.
I'll admit I do feel like some of the tyrannosaur's other relatives of other large therapods should get the spotlight as well, but it's hard to deny that the tyrannosaurus is a iconic dinosaur.
awesome work! i wouldn't mind seeing more videos about actual dinosaur things, like how there was a paper about how T-Rex should be divided in three species or something like that
Nobody ever seems to remember Walking with Cavemen also existed. Its so often ignored I genuinely wondered if I had miss remembered. I thought it might be a Mandela effect type thing but it was definitely real 😆
It didn’t have Kenneth Branagh, therefore it doesn’t matter.
Obvious /s
Definitely a video worth waiting for and when I saw said video, it wasn't what I expected, but in a good way. It gave me some food for thought and ideas to keep on board for my comic. It's more Pokemon than Walking with Dinosaurs, but I put a lot of effort to strike a balance between accurate and stylized with purpose of telling a story. It may no be the next Walking with Dinosaurs or Jurassic Park, but it doesn't need to be. It shouldn't be. I just hope that what I make does well at least enough to justify making multiple issues of it. If nothing else, it's currently a hobby I enjoy and drives me to learn more about prehistory and discuss lesser known aspects like maturity ages and why some small dinosaurs lack feathers while other have a lot of them. It truly has been a wonderful journey I don't intend end any time soon.
Sea Monsters is my ultimate relax series. I just love it all so much and it makes me feel all those nostalgic warm fuzzies.
One thing about WWD is that while a lot of the anatomy are quite iffy (largely due to the consultants TBF), a lot of times their conservative approach to dinosaur behaviour (parental care for the large theropods, Allosaurus mobbing in Big Al, etc.) aged pretty well as opposed to say, tyrannosaurid packs operating as a family unit in WDRA and DP, ironically due to the same consultants.
Minor correction: The therocephalian Euchambersia was found likely to have venom, though it has the different problem of being placed in the wrong time (it should be the late Permian instead). There's actually a Dimetrodon species (D. teutonis) found in Bromacker Germany, but it was way too big in WWM, and Edpahosaurus is still out of place.