<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Deceptive Cover Art, but still a decent documentary
Review: Go in knowing what to expect and this DVD is a rewarding experience. If (like the cover art would make you believe) you approach this DVD thinking that it will be a "CG-documentary" that imagines it is taking place in the Ice Age, replete with 100% CG and animatronics, then you will be sorely disappointed. About 10% of the footage is of CG creatures (Mastodons, Mammoths, Sabre-Tooth Lions, etc.). Most of this documentary concentrates on the living Ice Age relic species (Musk Ox, Arctic Ground Squirrel) or the living relatives of extinct species (African elephant substitutes for Mammoth; Prewalski's horse substitutes for ancient horse; modern bison substitute for Long-horned Bison, etc.)The three documentaries on this DVD are intended to depict what this continent's flora & fauna were like prior to the widespread changes brought about by the Homo-Sapien arrival. In this respect, it is interesting and fairly well-done. Since the CG is not very good (on par with "Walking With Dinosaurs" but nowhere near as realistic as feature films such as "Jurassic Park") I was pleased that the vast majority of footage was of living species. I suspect I will be in the minority.
Rating:
Summary: Deceptive Cover Art, but still a decent documentary
Review: Go in knowing what to expect and this DVD is a rewarding experience. If (like the cover art would make you believe) you approach this DVD thinking that it will be a "CG-documentary" that imagines it is taking place in the Ice Age, replete with 100% CG and animatronics, then you will be sorely disappointed. About 10% of the footage is of CG creatures (Mastodons, Mammoths, Sabre-Tooth Lions, etc.). Most of this documentary concentrates on the living Ice Age relic species (Musk Ox, Arctic Ground Squirrel) or the living relatives of extinct species (African elephant substitutes for Mammoth; Prewalski's horse substitutes for ancient horse; modern bison substitute for Long-horned Bison, etc.) The three documentaries on this DVD are intended to depict what this continent's flora & fauna were like prior to the widespread changes brought about by the Homo-Sapien arrival. In this respect, it is interesting and fairly well-done. Since the CG is not very good (on par with "Walking With Dinosaurs" but nowhere near as realistic as feature films such as "Jurassic Park") I was pleased that the vast majority of footage was of living species. I suspect I will be in the minority.
Rating: 
Summary: Repetitive and tedious.
Review: I loved the Walking With Dinosaurs/Allosarus/Prehistoric Beasts series so I ordered this based on the Amazon Editorial Review.It does not compare favorably. It appears there wasn't enough animal diversity in America to do a six part series so this series chose to come up with variations on a formula script set in different locals featuring basically the same animals over and over again. Making it even worse is that CGI budget must have been very limited. Shots are reused so often that by the mid point of episode two you are expiriencing deja vue. After that it's like watching stock footage.And speaking of stock footage, there's way too much footage of modern day counterparts to the prehistoric animals. I found my self fast fowarding through the last three episodes looking for something interesting.There wasn't much! The two additional Full length programs weren't much better.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Dissapointment.
Review: Obviously Computer Generated. Fades from modern to ancient times to increase length without having to computer generate animals, which I found exceptionally anoying. Limited on the number of animals shown over and over again. They even used animals that died out here but not in other places of the world. That was fine with me. At least those looked real. Don't waste your time or money on this one. I expected something more like "Walking with Dinosaurs". Boy was I wrong.
Discovery channel made this longer version. They sell a shorter version for almost twice the price with half the footage. I unfortunately purchased both. I won't buy anything from the Discovery Channel any more. No way. I was extremely dissapointed. Especially with the more expensive but shorter version they sell. They are the same program. I expected much more from them. This was a waste of time and money. You would never guess they are the same program. This version comes in a case and contains 2 DVDs with two, 50 minute programs each. The other has 3 DVDs with about 1 hour each and has a case for each DVD. Who would have guessed they were the same program. Even the covers and titles of the programs are different. Never again. Even if they are able to make real looking animals in the future.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Dissapointment.
Review: Obviously Computer Generated. Fades from modern to ancient times to increase length without having to computer generate animals, which I found exceptionally anoying. Limited on the number of animals shown over and over again. They even used animals that died out here but not in other places of the world. That was fine with me. At least those looked real. Don't waste your time or money on this one. I expected something more like "Walking with Dinosaurs". Boy was I wrong.
Discovery channel made this longer version. They sell a shorter version for almost twice the price with half the footage. I unfortunately purchased both. I won't buy anything from the Discovery Channel any more. No way. I was extremely dissapointed. Especially with the more expensive but shorter version they sell. They are the same program. I expected much more from them. This was a waste of time and money. You would never guess they are the same program. This version comes in a case and contains 2 DVDs with two, 50 minute programs each. The other has 3 DVDs with about 1 hour each and has a case for each DVD. Who would have guessed they were the same program. Even the covers and titles of the programs are different. Never again. Even if they are able to make real looking animals in the future.
<< 1 >>
| 
