The Dinosaurs
I was never one of those kids who devoured everything about these creatures. Yes, I grew up in an extreme dinosaur age and family would get me those hard rubber toys, and I was familiar with the more famous ones like tyrannosaur and brontosaur and stegosaur. But I’ve only ever had a passing interest in them for some reason. The science behind them has grown tremendously since I was a kid, which I think is great. Scientists somewhere along the way in all these decades have begun putting the pieces together when teaching about these creatures, in a more Nexialist approach. It just makes all the parts more fun when tied to other parts, I think.
The documentary is narrated by Morgan Freeman and his deep, dramatic voice. The drama is needed because the show is not like a typical dino-tour. Right up front they humble brags that it shows their story “as it has never been told before”. What this means is that key animals are targeted, beginning with those on Pangea, Earth’s first continent 235 million years ago. Thankfully, the show skips years by the millions when needed, or I’d be way too old to finish watching. With state of the art animation and a lot of scientific work, the animals look more realistic than us kids could ever imagine. The skins are realistic looking, with the occasion tuft of hair and eventually feathers, and their movements are amazing. That’s because the filmmakers use modern animals to inform their work, rather than Hanna Barbera’s imagination. Sound is great, with different animals releasing their own bleats and growls and whatever rather than only roars. The animals’ behavior is drawn from observations of modern creatures, one of the pieces that make the whole.
An interesting piece is using the history of the Earth itself as part of the puzzle, for instance teaching about the formation of continents and a period of time where it rained for a million years. Mind blowing. Major themes are the destructive transformations of the Earth itself and tremendous competition for resources as impetus for change in the fauna. There are insects and proto-spiders shown but never commented on. There is also one brief moment of showing glimpses of ancient sea creatures. I was disappointed about that, because aren’t those creatures a part of the puzzle?
It doesn’t take long to notice that the actual information dump is very quick and shallow. Everything looks fantastic, and of course the narrator voice is stellar. The show is a series of plotted stories featuring somewhat anthropomorphic characters that slowly drags from one epoch to another. As an adult, I barely made it through the Triassic Era because this is essentially equivalent to a small child’s science book. The ones with extra thick covers.
I was disappointed that, while the spiky tail end of the Stegosaurus is named, there isn’t even a video footnote on the origin of the word. Here it is:
No, really. This is where that came from. And that, folks, is the definition of history without context.
This documentary series is beautifully rendered and backed by many decades of science that has been well mixed together. The credits listed about thirty scientists, so the little information gleaned comes from good sources. If you have or know a child in love with dinosaurs show this to them, if they’re able to deal with animals dying of carnivores or starvation or volcanic eruption. There is absolutely no gore, but the show doesn’t totally sugarcoat the concept of death.
Triggers: animal deaths with no gore
Available on: Netflix
LINKS
CFR: In Addition
I love dinosaurs. I knew how to spell paleontolosgist when I was six because that is what I said I wanted to be in first grade on an assignment. I hear that is normal for all children. Good.
I will probably watch this. I am after all a kid at heart and I so want to see the dinosaurs.
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