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When Dinosaurs Roamed America
Artisan // Unrated // August 15, 2001
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The comparison is inevitable, so I'll deal with it right off the bat. Is When Dinosaurs Roamed America as good as Walking with Dinosaurs? No, it's not, but it is an informative and interesting documentary in its own right. There's plenty of ground left to explore on the subject of dinosaurs, making When Dinosaurs Roamed America well worth watching for its own merits.
Starting with the Permian Extinction, which set the stage for the emergence of dinosaurs as the dominant land species, When Dinosaurs Roamed America takes a fast-paced, 90-minute trip through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, focusing on the types of dinosaurs that inhabited various regions of the North American continent, such as the areas that form modern-day Pennsylvania and New Mexico. I felt that the documentary was a little unfocused in the first half hour or so, since it wasn't clear whether it was going to focus on just one time period or provide a general overview, but the structure of the piece became evident a bit further in. I thought that it was a nice touch that the documentary makes it clear that there were several major extinctions caused by asteroids hitting the Earth, not just the most famous one that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
The tight focus on one geographic region (North America) enables the documentary to provide some interesting details, such as the geologic changes that the continent experienced during these eras. On the other hand, it would have been nice to get a bit more world context for the dinosaurs.
For the most part, When Dinosaurs Roamed America consists of computer-animated pieces showing various species of dinosaurs in their natural habitat. The animations are quite good, though not up to Walking with Dinosaurs standards; they're realistic-looking on the surface, but the movement isn't quite right, and it's fairly apparent in some scenes that the CGI dinosaurs have been matted onto the filmed backgrounds. I suspect that more attention was paid to getting the dinosaurs right than to the landscapes they inhabit; some of the plant life looks distinctly modern, and there's often not a much sense of scale, making it difficult to visualize the real size of the dinosaurs. I'm holding the animation to a pretty high standard here, of course. All in all, the graphics look good, and the animators get high marks for their attention toward making the dinosaurs' appearance reflect the very latest in scientific findings.
One area where When Dinosaurs Roamed America stands out is in the short pieces that are interspersed into the main CGI sections. In some of these segments, paleontologists explain the evidence for the material that had just been presented, or display fossil bones or footprints to provide additional insights. There are also several segments making excellent use of computer modeling to show details of a particular dinosaur's muscular or skeletal system, explaining how the dinosaur moved, ate, and in general was adapted to its environment. These formed only a small part of the overall documentary, but they were very interesting and offered something that Walking with Dinosaurs doesn't.
Narration is supplied by actor John Goodman, whose voice is more interesting than that of "generic voice-over man," but doesn't have the richness or clarity of the best documentary narrators.
Picture
I was pleasantly surprised to find that When Dinosaurs Roamed America is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen, even though the Amazon listing describes it as full-screen. It will be great if more documentaries follow the widescreen trend; visually, it provides more opportunity for interesting vistas (like the herd of migrating apatosauruses strolling across the screen!) and natural-looking shots.
The image quality won't knock your socks off, but it's reasonably good. While the picture isn't particularly sharp, it is clear and free of noise or print flaws.
Sound
If the makers of When Dinosaurs Roamed America are right, then dinosaurs were a noisy bunch indeed. The CGI creatures roar, hiss, and snarl at the drop of a hat... most likely because the filmmakers wanted something to fill out the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. The vocal effects are pretty good, though there's really not much use made of the surround sound to create ambient effects.
Extras
The DVD's menus are attractive and easy to navigate... after you sit through an irritating, long forced introduction to the Discovery Channel.
While the DVD lists a substantial number of special features, the content is nothing to write home about. Two behind the scenes featurettes plus a music video add up to about six minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, total. The special features also include text-only paleontologist and animator interviews, as well as dinosaur facts, quiz, and graphics, and biographies.
Final thoughts
If you haven't bought Walking with Dinosaurs yet, I suggest that you do so right away. After you've seen it, if you're intrigued and want to learn more, then definitely pick up When Dinosaurs Roamed America. It's a worthwhile addition to the documentary shelf.
Starting with the Permian Extinction, which set the stage for the emergence of dinosaurs as the dominant land species, When Dinosaurs Roamed America takes a fast-paced, 90-minute trip through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, focusing on the types of dinosaurs that inhabited various regions of the North American continent, such as the areas that form modern-day Pennsylvania and New Mexico. I felt that the documentary was a little unfocused in the first half hour or so, since it wasn't clear whether it was going to focus on just one time period or provide a general overview, but the structure of the piece became evident a bit further in. I thought that it was a nice touch that the documentary makes it clear that there were several major extinctions caused by asteroids hitting the Earth, not just the most famous one that ended the age of the dinosaurs.
The tight focus on one geographic region (North America) enables the documentary to provide some interesting details, such as the geologic changes that the continent experienced during these eras. On the other hand, it would have been nice to get a bit more world context for the dinosaurs.
For the most part, When Dinosaurs Roamed America consists of computer-animated pieces showing various species of dinosaurs in their natural habitat. The animations are quite good, though not up to Walking with Dinosaurs standards; they're realistic-looking on the surface, but the movement isn't quite right, and it's fairly apparent in some scenes that the CGI dinosaurs have been matted onto the filmed backgrounds. I suspect that more attention was paid to getting the dinosaurs right than to the landscapes they inhabit; some of the plant life looks distinctly modern, and there's often not a much sense of scale, making it difficult to visualize the real size of the dinosaurs. I'm holding the animation to a pretty high standard here, of course. All in all, the graphics look good, and the animators get high marks for their attention toward making the dinosaurs' appearance reflect the very latest in scientific findings.
One area where When Dinosaurs Roamed America stands out is in the short pieces that are interspersed into the main CGI sections. In some of these segments, paleontologists explain the evidence for the material that had just been presented, or display fossil bones or footprints to provide additional insights. There are also several segments making excellent use of computer modeling to show details of a particular dinosaur's muscular or skeletal system, explaining how the dinosaur moved, ate, and in general was adapted to its environment. These formed only a small part of the overall documentary, but they were very interesting and offered something that Walking with Dinosaurs doesn't.
Narration is supplied by actor John Goodman, whose voice is more interesting than that of "generic voice-over man," but doesn't have the richness or clarity of the best documentary narrators.
Picture
I was pleasantly surprised to find that When Dinosaurs Roamed America is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen, even though the Amazon listing describes it as full-screen. It will be great if more documentaries follow the widescreen trend; visually, it provides more opportunity for interesting vistas (like the herd of migrating apatosauruses strolling across the screen!) and natural-looking shots.
The image quality won't knock your socks off, but it's reasonably good. While the picture isn't particularly sharp, it is clear and free of noise or print flaws.
Sound
If the makers of When Dinosaurs Roamed America are right, then dinosaurs were a noisy bunch indeed. The CGI creatures roar, hiss, and snarl at the drop of a hat... most likely because the filmmakers wanted something to fill out the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. The vocal effects are pretty good, though there's really not much use made of the surround sound to create ambient effects.
Extras
The DVD's menus are attractive and easy to navigate... after you sit through an irritating, long forced introduction to the Discovery Channel.
While the DVD lists a substantial number of special features, the content is nothing to write home about. Two behind the scenes featurettes plus a music video add up to about six minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, total. The special features also include text-only paleontologist and animator interviews, as well as dinosaur facts, quiz, and graphics, and biographies.
Final thoughts
If you haven't bought Walking with Dinosaurs yet, I suggest that you do so right away. After you've seen it, if you're intrigued and want to learn more, then definitely pick up When Dinosaurs Roamed America. It's a worthwhile addition to the documentary shelf.
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