Walking with Dinosaurs

Movie review by Scott G. Mignola, Common Sense Media
Walking with Dinosaurs Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 9+

Top-notch education (and entertainment) for dino fans.

NR 2000 230 minutes
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Parents say

age 6+

Based on 7 reviews

Kids say

age 8+

Based on 11 reviews

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this movie.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that, although they're presented in matter-of-fact, scientific fashion, some of the dramatizations in this stunning nature documentary may be too much for younger or more sensitive kids. Dinosaurs are shown attacking and eating one another, as well as peeing and pooping. Sauropods and others are discreetly shown coupled; mating rituals and habits are discussed.

Community Reviews

Feathered One
Feathered One Adult
April 15, 2015
age 8+

Science has marched on, but the visuals haven't

The most frustrating of all dinosaur documentaries, WWD could've been the perfect media source for paleo-education. Unfortunately, it is plagued with an astonishing amount of errors that could've been rectified in the time it wa s being developed (the late nineties). Please do not let your kids view this as a reliable source: it isn't. For example, the T. rex has a badly deformed skull, shortened tail, the Dromaeosaurus lacks feathers (we knew that dinosaurs had feathers back then), Australovenator is improperly referred as a 'polar allosaur' (chalk that one up to time; Australovenator wasn't named back then) among other things. As for aesthetics, it's perfect. The visuals convince the viewers these are real animals, with a well done blend of life-size puppetry and computer-generated graphics. As for kid-appropriateness, there is a rather copious amount of breeding and gore, and the episode Cruel Sea is extremely scary, with the beefed-up (I say beefed-up because the real creature wasn't as big) Liopleurodon constantly savaging the camera at every turn, and Spirits of the Ice Forest has, for a documentary, an incredible feeling of surrealism and ominosity (and a brief decapitation scene) that may invoke anxiety in younger views. However, it should be noted that this is THE dino-doc, the one that started it all, and, surprisingly, is one of the best despite being fifteen years old.
brandelyn
brandelyn Adult
May 7, 2014
age 3+

My preschooler's favorite!

This is my dinosaur-obsessed three-year-old's very favorite show - she loves to watch them one episode at a time or to binge-watch them when sick. She definitely snuggles into us and we have to explain things in matter-of-fact language (the sauropods getting burned alive is a rough part for her, as is everytime a baby gets eaten), but she continues to request it and enjoys it. Know your kid - I certainly wouldn't show this to ANY three year old - but it works well for mine!
See all 7 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Like a straightforward nature documentary, this ambitious production combines stunning photography and state-of-the-art digital effects to bring the evolution and demise of the dinosaurs to life. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh, the series' six episodes chronicle the 155-million-year reign of the dinosaurs. Sites in Chile, Tasmania, New Caledonia, and elsewhere furnish natural landscapes for the realistic, digitally created creatures. The series opens with the evolution of the first known dinosaurs and proceeds through the "Time of the Titans," "Giants of the Skies," and others to the "Death of a Dynasty" 65 million years ago, when a giant meteor changed the face of the earth and brought an end to the age of reptiles.

Is It Any Good?

Somebody had a great idea, which was to make a documentary series about dinosaurs, but with a twist. The aging ornithocheirus on a desperate final flight to his mating grounds, the sauropod hatchlings struggling for survival in the late Jurassic, the migrating herds and the undersea life of 150 million years ago would all seem as real as a nature program about polar bears or snow monkeys. Employing the talents of the Emmy Award-winning FrameStore Group and the latest digital technology, The Discovery Channel did just that. Paleontological discoveries from fossil remains and preserved footprint groupings provide the framework; the rest is best-guess speculation and a lot of imagination.

Dinosaur lovers will see some of their favorites here, and nature lovers will get what they've come to expect from well-produced BBC programs, namely beautiful scenery and footage of large animals fighting, killing, evacuating themselves (number one and number two), mating, sleeping, and playing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the limitations of documentaries, especially those about animals we've never observed directly

  • What sorts of things did the filmmakers have to guess at in order to create this film? Do we really know what color dinosaurs were? Do you think this was exactly the way they walked? Sounded? Cared for their young? Fought one another?

  • How could you go about sorting out what's known about dinosaurs from the fiction and speculation?

Movie Details

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