Prehistoric Earth: A Natural History (DVD)

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3) "Land of Giants" (28:46). It's the late Oligocene, approximately 25 million years ago in Mongolia. A baby Indricotherïum, the largest land mammal ever to have walked the earth, is born. The entire program concentrates on the three years the calf spends growing up under the watchful eye and protection of his mother.

4) "Next of Kin" (28:32). 3.2 million years ago in the Pliocene era, we take a close look at a tribe of Australopithecus. Often referred to as the "missing link," these apes are among the earliest known hominids to have walked upright. The episode focuses on their social behavior, hierarchy, and coexistence with other animals such as the massive Deinotherium, an ancestor of the elephant only three times the size.

5) "Sabre-Tooth" (28:37). During the early Pleistocene about one million years ago, we observe a pride of the largest sabre-tooth cats called Smilodon in Paraguay. The dominant male of the pride, Half-Tooth, must face a threat of two male rival brothers challenging his leadership to take over the pack. The episode also features Doedicurus, an armadillo-like creature the size of a car, and Megatherium, a giant ground sloth.

6) "Mammoth Journey" (28:40). The series concludes during the late Pleistocene, 30,000 years ago. This episode follows a herd of Woolly Mammoths as they migrate from the North Sea to the Swiss Alps, overcoming dangers along the way like thin and unstable ice, and of course, man.

"Walking with Cavemen"
The last series included in "Prehistoric Earth" is "Walking with Cavemen," which aired in 2003 and dissects the evolution of our ancestors. The title is somewhat misleading since most of the hominids shown in the program weren't actual cave dwellers at all, but the term "cavemen" is a stereotype that most people recognize so the filmmakers went with it.

Personally, I wasn't expecting too much from this one as it uses actors in make-up and prosthetics to fill in for the different species like Homo habilis and Homo neanderthalensis, but overall it pleasantly surprised me. It wasn't quite in the same boat as the others, and Andrew Sachs replaces Kenneth Branagh as narrator (which was a disappointment), but I found it just as informative as the rest of the collection. Just like the others, it delivers breathtaking scenery such as beautiful sunrises and vast endless salt flats to keep the show visually interesting. In short, it's a great finish to a fantastic set.

"Walking with Cavemen" is presented in two episodes. The first combines "First Ancestors" and "Blood Brothers" from the original televised broadcasts, and the second episode merges "Savage Family" and "The Survivors."

1) Episode 1 (49:07). The first half of the program journeys back 3.2 million years to take a peek at Australopithecus afarenis, one of our earliest ancestors known to walk upright. It re-creates the life of "Lucy," the famous fossilized remains of the species discovered in 1974 in Afar, Ethiopia.

The latter half goes back 2 million years focusing on the herbivore gorilla-like Paranthropus boisei, and also takes a look at the apemen scavengers Homo habilis that used very primitive tools to get at nutritious bone marrow - which was key for outliving its afarenis neighbors. Finally, it touches on Homo rudolfensis, Homo habilis' similar and taller cousins.

2) Episode 2 (49:49). Approximately 2 million years ago in Africa, Homo habilis evolves into the nomadic Homo ergaster. The species is important in evolutionary terms since it's larger brain gave way to communication, the formation of tribes, tracking animals, and developing more complex tools like stone axes, and eventually became Homo erectus in Asia that crossed paths with ancient giant apes known as Gigantopithecus.

The episode concludes about 500,000 years ago with the emergence of Homo heidelbergensis, as they hunt giant elk called Megaloceros using more advanced weaponry such as spears. Changing environmental weather divides Homo heidelbergensis into two separate species. The Ice Age of northern Europe creates the Homo neanderthalensis, skilled hunters of woolly mammoths; and in the droughts of southern Africa, Homo sapiens evolve. It's their imaginative thinking process, like burying stashes of eggshells containing water to save for future use, which allowed them to survive and triumph over the Neanderthals.

Video:
All of the main "Walking with..." features and most of the bonus documentaries are presented in anamorphic widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Images are sharp, colorful, and full of highly detailed textures. Some scenes even had the three-dimensional feel that comes through on high-definition releases. I did notice some heavy grain here and there in a very small number of scenes, but in those cases I think it was actually an intention by the filmmakers to simulate different filming techniques such as night-vision in order to give the illusion of reality. If it wasn't, then it definitely qualifies as a "happy" mistake, that's for sure.

Audio:
The audio for the entire collection features a pretty decent Dolby Digital 2.0. The instrumental music as well as the assortment of sound effects of the creatures accents an exceptionally clean narration. It's easily a top-notch stereo track, even though I still would have preferred having the inclusion one of the 5.1 surround options. English subtitles can be activated for the hearing impaired.

Extras:
I don't normally give a perfect score for bonus features since my general philosophy is that there's always room for more, but I have to make an exception here. "Prehistoric Earth" is packed with so many hearty extras that if one isn't careful, the set could flip over Fred Flintstone's car.

On disc one, "Trilogy of Life" (28:28) is a documentary on the making of "Walking with Dinosaurs" trilogy. The filmmakers explain how they got the ball rolling to create the series, what kind of show they wanted it to be, and provides a look behind the scenes of production. What I was most impressed with was how the filmmakers took the time to address some of the negativity the series was receiving from a few hard-nosed critics. The documentary features narration by Mark Halliley.

The third disc has four more additional documentaries. "Big Al Uncovered" (29:01) is a companion documentary to "Allosaurus" that takes a look behind the scenes of the discovery and fossil excavation of Big Al, and digs deeper into the science behind his story. I found it informative and was surprised that it even incorporates a bit of humor to explain certain facts. Kenneth Branagh reprises his narrator role.

The "Making of Walking with Dinosaurs" (51:09) is a behind-the-scenes look at the production of "Walking with Dinosaurs." It covers the paleontology aspect, choosing appropriate locations for the period, bringing the dinosaurs to life using animatronic and virtual models, and much more. Kenneth Branagh narrates this documentary as well.

"Extreme Dinosaurs: The Science of Giants" (48:51) is narrated by Paul Brightwell. It presents some of the largest dinosaurs ever to walk the planet discovered by paleontologist Rodolfo Coria's team in the Patagonia region of South America. The discovery sends paleontologist Phil Currie on a long quest to disprove the theories that large meat-eating dinosaurs were entirely solitary creatures.

David Attenborough narrates "Living with Dinosaurs" (48:00), another interesting documentary that covers the meteor strike that caused the extinction of most of the dinosaurs, and the few survivors such as crocodiles and turtles that are still with us today.

Disc four contains a bunch of bonus features associated with "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts." First up are two featurettes: "Triumph of the Beasts" (49:03) studies how mammals survived through the ages, and "The Beasts Within" (49:02) focuses on the evolution of primates. Both are packed with useful knowledge and are narrated by Kenneth Branagh.

There's a "Photo Gallery" featuring colored images of the animals, and "Storyboards" for all six "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts" episodes.

"Beast Fact Files" are educational facts for pretty much all of the creatures shown in "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts" and include informative details like size, weight, diet, closest living relative, where the fossils were found, and much more.

Rounding out the disc is a set of "Production Interviews" (23:52). It spotlights executive producer Tim Haines, series producer Jasper James, lead animator Max Tyrie, Jeremy Gibson Harris from Crawley Creatures and Associates responsible for the animatronics, and researcher Alex Freeman.

The final disc is loaded with extras for "Walking with Cavemen." First we have a series of brief interviews and behind-the-scenes clips that were filmed on location during production. "Series Producer" (2:24) with Peter Georgi, "Movement Director" (7:08) featuring Wendy Allnutt, "Physical Effects" (2:18) with Nicolette Van Wyck, "Actor" (2:44) with Florence Sparham, and "Lunch with the Boisei" (1:56) featuring Florence Sparham and Rachael Essex trying to overcome the difficulties of eating while in full Boisei prosthetics.

Three additional interviews include: "Executive Producer and Director, Series Producer" (15:04) with filmmakers Richard Dale and Peter Georgi, "Series Actor" (3:38) features David Rubin who played eight different humanoid creatures, and "Director Animated Extras" (4:22) spotlights Nick Williams, the head of the Prosthetic and Animatronic Department.

There are two more storyboards: "The Kill" and "Mammoth Task" in concept drawing form, more "Fact Files," and another "Photo Gallery."

"Storyboard to Animatics to Film" enables viewers to see the storyboards, rough computer animatics, and completed scenes simultaneously in three separate windows for "The Kill" and "Mammoth Task."

"Animatics" (5:16) is a short soundless clip of the hunt sequences still in very rough computer-generated form.

There's even a section where viewers can listen to pieces of orchestral music from the original score of "Walking with Cavemen." The tracks are: "Title Music," "A Journey through Time," "Finding Our Ancestors," "All's Well, Or Is It?" "A Peaceful Day, But Danger Lurks," "Time Travel," "A New World," "Watch Out Lucy!" and "Lucy's Dead."

Finally, there's a bunch of trailers on startup: "Planet Earth" and "BBC America" (disc one),"Building the Great Pyramid" (disc two), "loveearth.com" (disc three), "Doctor Who: Series Three" (disc four), "Torchwood: Season One" (disc five), and "The Blue Planet" (disc six).

The Final Cut:
Every now and then the Discovery Channel has what they call "Shark Week," but I just did one better by having my own marathon "Prehistoric Week." It took me about that long to go through everything squeezed into "Prehistoric Earth," and it was worth every minute of it. There's enough scientific thought and stunning visuals here to satisfy practically everyone, although some younger children may find some of scenes frightening and it's probably worth mentioning that there is some brief nudity in "Walking with Cavemen."

If I had to rank each of the main documentaries individually, I'd give "Monsters" an 8, "Dinosaurs" a 10, "Allosaurus" a 10, "Beasts" a 9, and "Cavemen" a 7. I just hope those Geico guys don't take offense.

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