Walking with Monsters - Life Before Dinosaurs (2005)

Many people think of the dinosaurs as the first inhabitants of the earth, but this prequel to Walking With Dinosaurs puts viewers in the midst of a host of strange creatures that inhabited the earth millions of years before the dinosaurs ever existed. With the help of complex computer animation and the research of hundreds of paleontologists, the BBC presents an extremely realistic picture of the earth's earliest, most primitive aquatic inhabitants and chronicles their evolution to the precursors of man himself and the mighty dinosaurs. The first Walking With Monsters episode begins in the Cambrian period 530 million years ago, showcasing how a simple jellyfish-like sea creature evolved over 200 million years into new creatures with eyes and protective external and internal skeletal systems. These adaptations resulted in the world's first fish, arthropods, amphibians, and land-loving reptiles. The second episode details the giant insects of the Carboniferous period 300 million years ago and demonstrates how evolution empowered amphibians and reptiles by creating mechanisms to regulate their own body temperature and developing specialized teeth. The final episode begins in the late Permian period 250 million years ago when the earth was essentially one large desert full of volcanic activity. While much of earth's life was extinguished during this period, adaptation and evolution continued, bringing the development of a specialized hip in a tiny reptile called the Euparkeria that would prove to be the forerunner of mammals and evolve into the dinosaurs in the Triassic period. While some criticize this project as a somewhat overly dramatic presentation of speculative paleontology as fact, this program utilizes scientific inference to bring pre-history to life and highlight the amazing adaptations and evolution of the earth's earliest inhabitants. The bonus "Trilogy of Life" feature details the research, vision and hard work inherent in the creation of the Walking With Monsters, Walking With Dinosaurs and Walking With Prehistoric Beasts. (Ages 6 and older) --Tami Horiuchi Amazon.com

James Arndt, Montgomery Alabama

Impressive video. This video brings to life the periods before the dinosaurs with realistic images. This section of the series should have focused more into the Devonian Period (Age of Fish)and included more footage into this period of Earth's history. There were some impressive fish during this period. The series does focus on the huge fish called Hyneria, but the footage on this fish does not appear to contain the large teeth found in fossil finds. This video series is a close second to Walking with Dinosaurs. However, I have read that the series appears to have made an error on the cat sized spider, which was identified recently as a eurypterid instead of a spider. The series does concentrate heavily on the spider, and should have put more time into Devonian fish species, since recent fossil finds have identified magnificent types. Otherwise, the series is truly a great piece of work!! 5 Stars in my opinion. September 19, 2008

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Fun and interesting for the dinosaur fan in your house. Best for second grade and up. August 13, 2008

An awesome look at before the dinosaurs!

I found this "walking with" to be very good, even in comparison to Dinosaurs and Beasts. I liked how they made it different from the others; such as showing the evolution from one era to the next and the insides of some of the animals.
They also didn't make it as long as the others, but it was actually better having shorter. I found it easier to watch.
There was one thing i didn't like about it and that was some of the effects. Although the cgi upclose seemed to work, the animatronics weren't as impressive as the previous films. The parts that get me (and if you haven't seen it yet you may want to skip this!) are the ones such as where the giant spider attacked the petrolacosaurus and it was half cgi and half puppet. Why wouldn't they have just done it all cg? another one was where the chasmatosaurs attacked the lystrosaurs in the river. At one point the animatronic chasmatosaur bites the lystrosaurus and there is a spray of blood, which is clearly being done by someone off camera. However the lystrosaur animatronics are quite well done, especially considering its operating in the water. I forgot to mention, the chasmatosaur puppets have no intricate movements at all. There jaws are always open, there eyes never shut, there tounges nor nostrils don't move at all. At one point they're on the beach apparently sunbathing, and they don't move at all. They even used the same head in the water as they did on land! Other than those slight mishaps, the special effetcs were top notch.
All the episodes are wonderful, and they all have intresting animals, spectacular effects, great storylines and up-to-date facts squeezed in. However the last episode was kind of short and not as good as the others. It kind of lacked content, but it works. the bonus features on this disc are also quite enjoyable.
I'm glad i bought this DVD, and if you liked Walking with dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts, you'll love this adventure through the beginnings of our world. August 9, 2008

Best of the series

Of all the Walking with Dinosaurs offshoots, this is by far the best one in terms of diversity of life and presentation style. The show clocks in at 90 minutes; 3 episodes of 30 minutes each. Each episode focuses on one time period; all of which occurred before the Jurassic rule of dinosaurs. The show features creatures as diverse as sea scorpions, giant millipedes, orthocones, unusual-looking sharks, predatory lobe-finned fish, huge dragonflies, primitive crocodiles, and the famous sailback reptiles Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus. This diversity of wildlife is greater than the other Walking with Dinosaurs serials. The show is filmed like a nature documentary with minimal human presence, unlike some other dinosaur specials. Of course, the show's creators have taken creative license with the vocalizations, skin tones, and behaviors of the featured animals, but this is necessary to make the show enjoyable. There is one extra feature on the DVD, a short documentary that is worth watching. All in all, a great 1.5 hours of CGI documentary. July 27, 2008

Very well done.

I didn't get a chance to see this series when it was released on regular cable, and had a chance to see parts of it a bit back, and I am very enthralled by this set.
Overall, the creators/directors did a fantastic job expanding a part of Earth history that seems to be left out of many textbooks today (ok, at least when I was in school, not sure what the kiddies are doing now). Even years ago, alot of creatures presented here were just 'in theory', which has been long since debunked.
The set covers the eras of the Cambrian (and starting with the Cambrian explosion) and continues through the Late Permian. Alot of people (at least outside the field of paleantology) don't realize that a huge chunk of life was exterminated from Earth a good 250 million years ago.
Many different branches of the tree of life just poof. Gone.
As for the artistic merit, this film far exceeds expectations. The soundtrack is also excellent as well.

Don't take this film as a pure science documentary. Some of the animals in are mis-named as well, so there is some artisitic creativity. However, this is the closest thing I have ever seen that actually approaches the subject of early life on Earth. July 22, 2008

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