When Dinosaurs Roamed America

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For dino lovers of all stripes, this Discovery Channel special delivers an entertaining documentary about what it was like to live in the land of giants. Combining nature photography and computer graphics, the program brings the dinosaurs--all of which lived on the North American continent of yore--to life. The 90-minute showcase explores dinosaurs with a narrative-story style similar to that used in BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs. The program includes quick, informative bits by paleontologists in the field, and shows nifty 3-D cross-sections of a dinosaur muscle and skeleton structures. Although it's quite fun to see what prehistoric America may have looked like (a typical opening slide: "Philadelphia, 300 million years ago"), the film doesn't have the technical expertise or fluidity of its BBC successor. Due to some dinosaur chomping, this program is not suited for children younger than 8. --Doug Thomas

Description

Take a journey back to prehistoric America when mighty dinosaurs ruled the continent. From New York to New Mexico, these powerful animals lived, hunted and died in the very place you call home. Watch millions of years of violent evolution unfold before your eyes. By combining state-of-the-art computer animation with beautiful live-action landscapes, you'll witness these fearsome creatures roar to life. Faster, stronger and fiercer than ever, these dinosaurs are based on the most recent and scientifically accurate research ever assembled. Faithfully recreated, these dinosaurs move, look and sound like you've gone back in time. You'll meet the never-before-seen Zuniceratops, a uniquely North American creature that was first of its kind to have horns over its eyes. You'll also visit all your favorites including the T-Rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and the ferocious Raptor, with a startling new appearance that' ll surprise you. You won't see more authentic and terrifying dinosaurs anywhere...except buried in your own backyard.

Customer Reviews:

very entertaining.......2007-03-25

i enjoyed this DVD very much. i have been watching dinosaur productions over forty years now and i find that this new batch is absolutely amazing. had they been around when i was a kid i most likely would have become a paleontologist.

the CG is good, but there are some scenes that children under 6 or 8 may find scary.

IT'S A SERIOUS EFFORT TO TELL A STORY ABOUT DINOSAURS.......2006-05-10

AND ALL SERIOUS EFFORTS TO TELL STORIES ABOUT DINOSAURS ARE GOOD!

FIRST THOUGHTS: OKAY - IT'S NOT CHASED BY DINOSAURS - BUT!

Having said the above, this is NOT "WALKING WITH DINOSAURS" or "CHASED BY DINOSAURS" but "When Dinosaurs Roamed America" does have a great deal of solid educational content while being both fun to watch and location specific to the United States, which is my backyard too.

IN A NUTSHELL: A DIFFERENT FORMAT FEATURING SOME NEW DISCOVERIES

With John Goodman narrating, this 90 minute fictionalization covers dinosaur natural history in linear fashion from the Triassic Period until the terminal Cretaceaous. Everything they show about dinosaurs is both general [in that it happens everywhere] and specific to various identified locations within the lower 48 states.

Within the story context, detours are taken and explainations regarding some of what we are seeing [like raptors with feathers] are explained by several leading paleontologists. Also, from the field, we are shown fossilized deposits which suggest strikes by Comets [eg. at the end of the Triassic period] and footprints that show the growth in size of dinosaurs between the Triassic and Jurassic Periods. We also see the anatomy of different dinosaurs to illustrate their evolutionary features. Very good stuff and very well done.

Just bear in mind that unlike the BBC's "WALKING WITH" series, this was basically all digital effects WITHOUT the animatronics.

ABOUT THE DVD:

Wonderful digital effects are very well transferred to this DVD in letterbox format.

* -- SPECIAL FEATURES -- *

2 Behind-The-Scenes Shorts [about 4 minutes each - too little]
Dinosaur Facts [interesting read]
Dinosaur Quiz [very short with answers under each question]
Photo Gallery [nice photos - more would have been better]

INTERVIEWS WITH PALEONTOLOGISTS- in print form, 2 of the contributors are asked questions pertaining to the authenticity of the dinosaurs movements and appearances.

BOTTOM LINE: VERY GOOD IF NOT EXCELLENT FICTIONALIZED STORY

Could Have Been Better, But Not Much .......2006-04-22

This was an exellent movie though it could have been better. Some people say that John Goodman sounds really bored, but I just care about the facts. John Goodman mispronounced two dinosaur names. He said anatototitan instead of anatotitan. He also mispronounced Quedzelquatlus. Istead of Kwed-zel-koe-at-lus, he pronounced it Kwed-zell-kwad-elus. Apart from his mispronounciations, it was very good. I liked the fact that it included some new dinosaurs, like dilophosaurus, apatosaurus and ziniceratops. I also noticed the fact that they put feathers on th raptors. Overall, it was very, very good.

Dinos American Style.......2006-04-09

I thought this was better than Walking With Dinosaurs for the following reasons: 1: All CG Dinos of reasonable quality as opposed to fantastic CG dinos and TERRIBLE hand puppets, 2: Animals behave more naturally, more believable, 3: REALLY nice extinction sequence as opposes to just glossing over it, 4: Portraying the animals as SUCCESSFUL as opposed to failures. 5: Claws and talons are SHARP as opposed to blunt.
However, the CG dinos are clearly that - CG, but their attributes (acting, voices, etc) make up for it. Also, in WWD, some of the animals (T-rex especially) did not match up with skeletal data (if you put WWD dino and skeleton next to each other they would not match), but in WDRA, the dinos did. I did like Goodman's narration more than Branaugh. WWD is much more Brittish in style (laid back, "proper", etc) than this (you see more gore/blood, ASTEROID IMPACT!). This and WWD allows the viewer to critically asses what data contradicts the other and make their own vision of Prehistoric Life. Which is the whole point.

Inane and Sometimes Cartoonish but Otherwise Inoffensive.......2006-03-02

The subject of this program is a shallow survey of the great age of dinosaurs in North America. It begins with the Triassic and proceeds through the Cretaceous and a few types are examined in each period. Nothing is presented with much depth and the narration is the type expected of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. You merely follow the critters around and see what they are doing.

Compared to the state of the art when I was a kid, the dinosaurs depicted in this program are a miracle. Compared to recent programs, however, they are somewhat lacking. This is not the high budget animation of Jurassic Park or some of the higher end documentaries but it is still a miracle compared to the Claymation things I saw as a kid. Along with the quality of the animation, I had a few problems with some of the depictions of the creatures themselves. Late in the Cretaceous, some are shown with primordial feathers. That makes sense but the furry looking dinosaurs from early in the Cretaceous do not. Hair is a trait of mammals, not raptors. Furry raptors indeed!

The narration is provided by John Goodman whose voice was pleasant in that role. Unfortunately, his script was rather inane and rarely added anything worthwhile to the program. Most of the statements presented as wonderful revelations are merely common sense. "Plant eating dinosaurs have learned to get along with their environment by eating plants." One would suppose that meat eating dinosaurs learned to get along with their environment by eating meat.

It may seem that I have panned this program but that is not my intention. It is shallow compared to many others and the presentation was lacking but that did not detract from the wonder of seeing the dinosaurs roam the earth. To me, it was worth it.

Discovery Channel - When Dinosaurs Roamed America / Dinosaur Planet - Real Big Stories (2 Pack)

Average customer rating:

Discovery Channel - When Dinosaurs Roamed America / Dinosaur Planet - Real Big Stories (2 Pack)

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Dinosaurs | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000M36XRE

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