Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Great Collections of Dinosaur Documentaries



Many companies producing dinosaur documentaries have also released a combo-pack or collection of dinosaur documentaries. These packs have become a popular way to view and/or own a whole series on dinosaurs as opposed to individual episodes or programs. This article includes combo-packs that provide a wider range of information, are well-produced and lack a sense of repetitiveness from one DVD to the next.

*Note: These are not listed in any particular order.

Ultimate Dinosaur Collection. BBC video. (2007)
This collection puts together a popular and informative BBC series of dinosaur documentary . On 3 discs, this set includes "Before the Dinosaurs: Walking with Monsters", "Walking with Dinosaurs", "Allosaurs", "Chased by Dinosaurs" and a bonus program, "Trilogy of Life: The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs, Beasts and Monsters". The dinosaurs in this set are both computer-rendered and animatronic. The "Walking With" dinosaur documentaries are narrated by expert, Kenneth Branagh and the "Chased" series is narrated by zoologist, Nigel Mavens. The Ultimate Dinosaur Collection is an informative and visually appealing dinosaur documentary set, however these discs drop many of the special features released on the original DVD.

Discovery Essential Dinosaur Pack. Discovery Channel. (2008)
This combo-pack combines 7 of Discovery channel's most popular dinosaur documentaries . This is a 2 disc set that includes "Valley of the T-Rex", "T-Rex: New Science, New Beast", "When Dinosaurs Roamed America", "Utah's Dino Graveyard", "Dinosaur Planet", "The Mystery Dinosaur" and " Dinosaurs: Return to Life?". Discovery channel uses computer generated animation of dinosaurs. Narration is not done by experts, but by actors-for example, John Goodman, but there are many interviews with scientists and experts. This set is able to inform a wide audience (children to adults) of the dinosaur research that has occurred, although some of this research has become outdated.

The Complete Walking With...Collection. BBC Video (2000)
BBC provides us with another set of dinosaur documentaries. This one includes the three programs from BBC's Emmy-award winning series. On 5 discs, the complete collection includes "Walking with Dinosaurs", "Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special", and "Walking with Pre-historic Beasts" and also includes many special features such as behind-the-scenes features and interviews with the creators. The DVDs provide more realistic computer generated dinosaurs and uses interesting angles-which usually works well. This series does provide some humor to the narrating scene. This set does not include 2 other documentaries that were part of the Walking with...series-- "Cavemen" and "Life Before Dinosaurs"

Pre-Historic Earth: Natural History. BBC Video (2008).
This disc-set supplies a historical outlook of pre-historic times in BBC's total "Walking with..." series. It's a 6 disc set including "Before the Dinosaurs", "Walking with Monsters", "Walking with Dinosaurs", "Allosaurus", "Walking with Pre-Historic Beasts" and "Walking with Cavemen". This set aims to recreate the dinosaur world with computer-rendered dinosaurs in a natural environment. They are highly informative and take a scientific outlook. However, it has been said that some of the information in this film isn't fully accurate such as showing particular animals living together that may not actually have been possible. All in all, Pre-Historic Earth: Natural History is a comprehensive set of dinosaur documentaries and information.

Prehistoric Collection: From Dinosaurs to the Dawn of Man. History. (2009)
An overview of prehistoric times, History provides us with 4 highly popular dinosaur documentaries. On 8 discs, this set includes, "Jurassic Fight Club", "Prehistoric Mega-storms," "Journey to 10,000 B.C.", and "Clash of the Caveman." Jurassic Fight Club is focused only on dinosaurs and provides really great fight scenes as the name suggests. With decent computer-animation, the exciting fight scenes are also accompanied by expert narration and interviewers who truly love dinosaurs. The other 3 series aren't exactly dinosaur documentaries but they do relate to the prehistoric era. A broad range of knowledge on the pre-historic timeline is given in this DVD but it does use a common documentary film layout which avid documentary watchers may be familiar with. 

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