Rating: 
Summary: The History of Humans
Review: Even though I find evolution to be man made science (and not divinr authority), this show was amazing. The scholarship behind it can not be denied and the narration is so good.
Rating:
Summary: Our ancestors - the way you've never seen them.
Review: Ever wonder what your ancestors were like 100 years ago? Or perhaps wonder what your geneological tree looked like in the middle ages? Ever ponder what your forefathers were doing back in the time of the Greeks & Romans of a few thousand years ago? Or, back even further, what they were like a few million years ago?Well, it is the latter epoch that is covered by this DVD. It is an overview of human evolution, 7 million years in the making. It takes us from the dawn on man all the way up to about 140,000 years go; long time ago for us, but mere seconds ago on a cosmic timescale. Along the way the documentary displays diverse humanoids, some of whom make it, some of whom don't. It also demonstrates their interaction with long-extinct species of animals that were around the same time they walked the earth. I must caution that the DVD pulls no punches when it comes to showing the animalistic traits of primitive man. The rites of courtship, hunting, eating and gutting of animals are all shown with uncompromisingly graphic demonstrations. I would not recommend this video for young videos, nor would I suggest that anyone watch it while eating. Some of it is not the most appetizing of images in the world. That said, it is quite remarkable to identify just how much we modern humans have in common with these early products of evolution. If we look closely, we will see a lot of ourselves in them. The late astronomer Carl Sagan once remarked that, if the history of the universe were shrunk to the scale of a calendar year, all of humanity exists would exist in the last 10 seconds of that year. This scientific expose is a glimpse into those 10 seconds. As Stephen J. Gould once said, "We stood up first and got smart later." Here is OUR story of how our ancestors stood up, got smart and began their long, slow and tenuous march towards civilization.
Rating:
Summary: Our ancestors - the way you've never seen them.
Review: Ever wonder what your ancestors were like 100 years ago? Or perhaps wonder what your geneological tree looked like in the middle ages? Ever ponder what your forefathers were doing back in the time of the Greeks & Romans of a few thousand years ago? Or, back even further, what they were like a few million years ago? Well, it is the latter epoch that is covered by this DVD. It is an overview of human evolution, 7 million years in the making. It takes us from the dawn on man all the way up to about 140,000 years go; long time ago for us, but mere seconds ago on a cosmic timescale. Along the way the documentary displays diverse humanoids, some of whom make it, some of whom don't. It also demonstrates their interaction with long-extinct species of animals that were around the same time they walked the earth. I must caution that the DVD pulls no punches when it comes to showing the animalistic traits of primitive man. The rites of courtship, hunting, eating and gutting of animals are all shown with uncompromisingly graphic demonstrations. I would not recommend this video for young videos, nor would I suggest that anyone watch it while eating. Some of it is not the most appetizing of images in the world. That said, it is quite remarkable to identify just how much we modern humans have in common with these early products of evolution. If we look closely, we will see a lot of ourselves in them. The late astronomer Carl Sagan once remarked that, if the history of the universe were shrunk to the scale of a calendar year, all of humanity exists would exist in the last 10 seconds of that year. This scientific expose is a glimpse into those 10 seconds. As Stephen J. Gould once said, "We stood up first and got smart later." Here is OUR story of how our ancestors stood up, got smart and began their long, slow and tenuous march towards civilization.
Rating:
Summary: What's left to say?
Review: Having now seen both verisons I have to say the uncut BBC two part production is the best. Longer, doesn't spoon feed you and the DVD has LOTS of extras - fact files, photo gallery, storyboards, post-production interviews and even 'on location' interviews with actors, the movement director and the effects supervisor. Why buy hamburger when you can get steak?
Seems much longer than just 100 minutes - lots of details and solid story telling.
Rating:
Summary: What's left to say?
Review: Having now seen both verisons I have to say the uncut BBC two part production is the best. Longer, doesn't spoon feed you and the DVD has LOTS of extras - fact files, photo gallery, storyboards, post-production interviews and even 'on location' interviews with actors, the movement director and the effects supervisor. Why buy hamburger when you can get steak?
Seems much longer than just 100 minutes - lots of details and solid story telling.
Rating: 
Summary: Best DVD on this subject
Review: Having watched the tv debut of this series, then the purchased DVD I would have to complement the final product as a better effort, especially from the choice of narration. This topic is very difficult to do, especially with animation of human-like animals where we can be more critical than with dinosaurs. The story lines are a bit tedious but interesting. Still it is difficult to believe we can reconstruct the behavior of the apes and human predecents based on our current database. I still think the effort is worthy. The graphics are very well done, possible not appropriate for a young viewer. In one scene the "cavemen" kill a hooved animal and then degut and eat it. My wife sent our 7 year old out of the room on that one! Perhaps it is such realism that makes the Walking With series so well received. Overall a good effort and worthy purchase for such a difficult and challenging subject.
Rating:
Summary: Best DVD on this subject
Review: Having watched the tv debut of this series, then the purchased DVD I would have to complement the final product as a better effort, especially from the choice of narration. This topic is very difficult to do, especially with animation of human-like animals where we can be more critical than with dinosaurs. The story lines are a bit tedious but interesting. Still it is difficult to believe we can reconstruct the behavior of the apes and human predecents based on our current database. I still think the effort is worthy. The graphics are very well done, possible not appropriate for a young viewer. In one scene the "cavemen" kill a hooved animal and then degut and eat it. My wife sent our 7 year old out of the room on that one! Perhaps it is such realism that makes the Walking With series so well received. Overall a good effort and worthy purchase for such a difficult and challenging subject.
Rating:
Summary: Walking into Humanity's pre History...
Review: I am a fan of Professor Robert Winston and his "Walking with..." series of documentaries. This is in the process of being shown on TV at this moment in the UK and all I can say it is better than I expected. Using real actors and actresses, amazing make-up and special effects, Professor Winston takes us through the lives and times of our remote caveman ancestors, starting with "Lucy" who was more ape than human and ending at a pathway that would eventually lead to us, Homo Sapiens. It is a fascinating insight to what might have been. Of course a lot of what you will see on this DVD is supposition, mixed in with fact, fiction and a healthy dose of imagination. We will never really know the whole truth of our Caveman ancestors as we only have bones, and cave paintings to rely on but to a certain extent this is enough and Professor Winston does try to give a plausible explanation as to how and why the human race left the trees and evolved into the people we are today. There are four episodes, First Ancestors, Blood Brothers, Savage Family and finally, The Survivors and each half hour includes a "time-lapse" so that we can rush through pre-history to the next journey of our evolving ancestors. Professor Winston is a pragmatic narrator who is able to put across a point without being condescending to the watcher, his humour is subtle and his understanding of the human mind is quite staggering. Roll on the next "Walking with..." series; I wonder what it will be called? "Walking with Astronauts?"
Rating:
Summary: Discover the superior version of Walking With Cavemen
Review: I hate to criticize the Discovery Channel, but what programming executive ape decided they needed to dumb-down and Americanize this excellent documentary? The original BBC version, which is what you get here,is vastly superior to the Discovery Channel broadcast of June 15th, 2003. The different vignettes are longer, better narrated (by a British narrator, not Alec Baldwin) and have a real cinematic kind of feeling almost totally missing from the rushed along, tightly edited version we saw on tv. In fact, after viewing this DVD, the Discovery broadcast seems like a mere infomercial for this longer, better version. If you liked what you saw on Discovery, I highly recommend this DVD. It's like watching WWC again for the first time.
Rating: 
Summary: hope the DVD is better- TV is DISAPPOINTING
Review: I haven't seen the DVD version, but if Alec Baldwin is narrating it I won't bother buying it. He is living proof that every village does indeed have its own idiot, and that he should count for 2. He is living proof that devolution does indeed occur! For the money that he was paid, one would think that he would at least try to sound 1) interested and 2) somewhat able to pronounce the words he is paid to say into the camera. Why couldn't Kenneth Branagh narrate this episode of the Walking series? We know that he is an actor, and not a scientist, but he 1) sounds interested and 2) correctly pronounces the names of the creatures he is talking about. Branagh's entertainment background makes the series much more palatable and enjoyable. Baldwin comes across like the village idiot trying to read a primer aloud when he is known to be totally illiterate. His narration is tawdry and strained. Baldwin makes Branagh look like a Rhodes Scholar. What is so hard about saying "Australopithecus Afarensis" correctly? Apparently it was past Baldwin's obviously limited skills. At least he isn't reprising Hamlet! I really liked the material presented, even though Bobo the Chimp could have done it better than blithering Baldwin, and was quite pleasantly surprised that the BBC has made an often esoteric subject interesting and approachable. Both my children (both under 7) loved the previous Walking DVD's and I am looking forward to purchasing the latest one. My only other minor disappointment is that the producers seem to have rushed through this installment as it was only 2 hours in length. I think that when dealing with such an important area of the past of our species, more should be covered and in greater depth, and without the distraction of a has-been actor who hasn't enough professionalism to do his homework beforehand, and who appears as though he is narrating some seedy reality show rather than well researched and produced programming that directly reflects the past of humankind. As a teacher, I have used the previous Walking videos extensively, but am really leery about using this one, as I will have to narrate over the blithering one to correct his mispronunciation of every faintly relevant scientific term.
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