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Last
years Walking with Dinosaurs series was a huge success.
The technology that had astounded millions when it was seen
on Jurassic Park had caught the publics interest. But
whereas Jurassic Park's total animation screen time
accounted for about 10 minutes of the finished film, Walking
with Dinosaurs used the technology for the majority of
the programme.
A
year on and the BBC's launch of Walking with Beasts was
eagerly anticipated. But how could they expect to top last
years success? According to the producers the technology has
moved on in the last year considerably and this, coupled with
more detailed animatronics for the close-ups, has led to a
more realistic feel to the show.
If
you've already seen this broadcast on TV you will know that
this is not strictly the case. The technology is still a good
five years away from producing anywhere like realistic effects.
Maybe the reason it worked so well with Walking with Dinosaurs
was because the computers are pretty good at recreating reptilian
skin tones. In Walking with Beasts there are quite
a few creatures which look rather disappointing - in particular
the human ancestors from episode four.
Not
only that, but sometimes the close up animatronic puppets
don't match up too well with the animation (again see episode
four) and on more than a few occasions when the beasts are
roaming their environments they don't seem to fit in - camera
movements and animation are not synchronized as well as they
should be! And the whole animation has a nasty Disney feel
to it in places! Ah! Look at the cute Sabre cats babies -
they seriously look like they have walked out of The Lion
King.
Add
to this Branagh's script which in places is too strange to
be believed (whoever wrote the line 'This is a world where
birds eat horses' should have been reprimanded).
Another
problem I had with this is that every episode has a sex scene
and one even shows the penis of one of the beasts. While I
agree that it is important to show these scenes, like all
documentarys, after the fourth episode I was getting a little
bored of them. They don't add anything to the show and will
simply have tons of kids laughing till their sides split.
While
this is still great entertainment, fans of Walking with
Dinosaurs could be forgiven for expecting more. No doubt
it will be a huge success but until the DVD is released in
March 2002 I would save your money.
Darren
Rea
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