I'd like to give this outstanding series a 10, but two things hold me back.One is that the animals' behavior -- including how they hunt, and their social organization -- are portrayed as facts. This is no disclaimer of "we think this is the way it might have been". This is bad science.The other is a horrendous error that I see over and over again in nature programs (regardless of their source). Pit vipers have two organs especially sensitive to infrared that help them locate warm-blooded prey. Yet every nature program portrays them as actual eyes that render what's in front of the snake as a false-color infrared image! Apparently, the scientific advisers didn't catch this, or didn't care.There are other minor points, such as the failure to explain why dinosaurs -- though reptiles -- could be warm-blooded, or how scientists know that a skeleton is of a mammal, not a reptile.With these two qualifications, the series is strongly recommended.

When I was 6 I received Walking with Dinosaurs, The Ballad of Big Al, and Walking with Beasts on VHS cassette tapes. It was the kindling for my fascination with dinosaurs and prehistoric life, and now, 12 years later, I still am as crazy about them as I was back then, thanks to this.Most documentaries featuring prehistoric animals are composed of about 75% talking scientist heads and shots of paleontologists digging in the desert, and 25% brief and repeated clips of CG dinosaurs. Walking with Dinosaurs takes this one step forward – and beyond. It chooses to portray the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures in the same format as a documentary about animals one would expect to find on Animal Planet (or at least that's how it used to be, before it turned into Pets and People Planet). Using spectacular (for its budget and time it was shot) CGI and animatronics and puppetry, it brings these long-extinct creatures back to life as realistic flesh- and-blood animals. The focus of each episode is on the dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs only, with no inclination of modern-time influence, with the exception of a well-written narration by Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), who delivers the lines in a soothing, professional voice, flawlessly articulating complex dinosaur names with impeccability. Six episodes make up this series, covering different times in the Mesozoic from the genesis of the dinosaurs, to their inevitable extinction. The behavior of the animals (did I say animals? I meant computer graphics and puppets – I forgot they were fake) is so realistic and confidently portrayed one would think the filmmakers were actually there. If I had any qualms with this, it's that sometimes the CGI can look a bit hokey, and it's (sometimes) painfully obvious when puppetry is utilized in placement of special effects (the puppetry is reserved for heads and necks 99% of the time, so that can be a bit jarring too) . I can let this pass because this was made in 1999, and for television.Another thing I may mention is that the dinosaurs are portrayed as actual living animals, and it is a documentary format, so there is a lot of blood and violence and killings and the spilling of guts, and yes, dinosaur coitus. And a particularly bizarre scene where a sauropod lays her eggs Alien Queen-style. Walking With Dinosaurs is a fantastic example of a television documentary, plain and simple. 10/10

SPOILER WARNINGI got this dino-documentarie on DVD at Christmas 2004. I had longed to see it and was by no means disappointed. The score is memorable ( myfavourites were the "Sauropod" theme song and the "Winters Coming" song ). The effects were dazzling, you could almost believe they were there. You actually learn something too ; Stegosaurs MAY have been able to pump their plates with blood. Female T-Rexes MIGHT have gone on a killing spree before laying their eggs. I know there's a lot of people who thought this was based too much on speculation, but there will always be questions that we can only guess at. And there is a lot of hard-core, undeniable FACT as well. We KNOW that some dinosaurs travelled in herds, we KNOW that Diplodocus swallowed stones to grind up vegetation in their stomaches. Despite this "speculation" the series did extremely well. So well in fact, that it spawned a followup, a prequel and several specials. If you're a dino-fan, then this IS for you. It makes Jurassic Park look small and weedy.

Today computer-generated special effects are used quite frequently. In my opinion, seeing 3D animation on screen has lost its novelty. Everything has been done. It is very hard to find something that is truly unique these days and I was very pleasantly surprised to come across a copy of Walking with Dinosaurs at the video store. The box describes this documentary special to be truly unique so I decided to give it a shot. I was very happy with what I saw and I would strongly recommend this production to those film buffs out there that have lost all faith in the integration of 3D animation and live action.Walking With Dinosaurs magnificently captures the feel of the typical nature documentary shown on the Discovery Channel today. In fact I actually have forgotten numerous times that I'm watching a bunch of 3D polygons modeled and animated by a team of artists and animators! The dinosaurs have a very realistic feel about them and they were very well animated to look like they were really caught in the wild by wilderness videographers. Another thing I enjoy about this film is how it has a tendency to look very unscripted. It all seems like they have captured these dinosaurs living the way they would have lived millions of years ago not knowing what to expect next.This film does have its weaknesses however that one should take note of. The producers for some reason decided to film silicon models for the close up shots. I feel that they made a very poor decision here because these silicon models were, in my opinion, very unrealistic and using them actually takes away from the realism of the film. Also the opening sequences are very poorly made. They could have done a lot better here, but it only takes away 30 seconds of your life so I wouldn't let that ruffle your feathers too much! :-)Anyway, I encourage you to check this one out.I give this an overall score of 7/10.