PREHISTORIC PLANET

[Duna]

Thanks everyone! Glad that I didn't miss on it after all.

Yes, you can watch it anytime you want (one week for free, but I'm paying for a month to enjoy it more -only 4,99€/month). We are very lucky because we can enjoy it also in Spanish with the super pleasant voice of José María del Río, who dubs the documentaries by David Attemborough. His style is very similar to him.

[Bread]

A little late on posting this, but looks like inside edition posted a little coverage on Prehistoric Planet:
https://youtu.be/97g4G8zyZ6U

Disappointed that JW: Dominion needed to show up at the end...

[Carnoking]

I mean, they're not wrong about it being the summer of the dinosaurs! Between this, Dominion, and even season 2 of Primal, it's a great year for dinosaurs on the screen.

[Bread]

I mean, they're not wrong about it being the summer of the dinosaurs! Between this, Dominion, and even season 2 of Primal, it's a great year for dinosaurs on the screen.

Its more so the fact that I feel that Dominion will outshine Prehistoric Planet. Not so that I dislike the franchise, but more so that Prehistoric Planet featuring realistic adaptations will be outshined by movie monsters.

But you are right, it is the year for dinosaurs!

[Carnoking]

I'm hoping they actually work to build on each other's success, especially when it comes to Dominion working in favor of Prehistoric Planet. I imagine there will be countless children eagerly searching for more dinosaur content after seeing Dominion, and (hopefully) that will lead them back to PP.

[GojiraGuy1954]

I mean, they're not wrong about it being the summer of the dinosaurs! Between this, Dominion, and even season 2 of Primal, it's a great year for dinosaurs on the screen.

Its more so the fact that I feel that Dominion will outshine Prehistoric Planet. Not so that I dislike the franchise, but more so that Prehistoric Planet featuring realistic adaptations will be outshined by movie monsters.

But you are right, it is the year for dinosaurs!

I find it funny how JW dinosaurs are meant to be fictionalised to be scarier yet PrePlanet's Dreadnoughtus, an accurate reconstruction, has a face like this

[bone crusher]

Unfortunately countless children will mistakenly think Giganotosaurus is so huge and mighty that makes the T.Rex look like a teddy bear next to it. This is gonna be JP3's Spinosaurus all over again, a movie monster merely adopting the name of a real animal with the rest of its features blown way out of proportion. I hope Season two would take us to South America and really delve into the carcharodontosaurids especially the Giga and thoroughly educate people what a real Giga is supposed to be like.
Anyway here's my dream roster for Season two: Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Acrocantosaurus, Mapusaurus, Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan, Supersaurus, Sauroposeidon, Stegosaurus, Spinosaurus, Suchomimus, Utahraptor and of course more T.Rex hunting baby!

[Faelrin]

Honestly with both Prehistoric Planet, and Dominion featuring feathered animals, including dromaeosaurids finally, I think this is going to be a major boost in the right direction for the mainstream going forward. I mean even with Dominion, I think it's amazing just to walk into a store right now and see how much marketing the feathered animals are getting, such as on the kinder egg displays, the Dr. Pepper cans, etc. I do think the lack of merch currently for Prehistoric Planet and being a streaming service exclusive may hinder its widespread appeal compared to Dominion, although it does seem to be getting out there somehow through word of mouth, and advertising. I really do hope we get merch at some point, especially figures. I especially want figures of the Mosasaurus, Dreadnoughtus, Barbiadactlyus, Mononykus, Velociraptor, Deinocheirus, Olorotitan, Carnotaurus, and of course the T. rex.

[Duna]

I'm hoping they actually work to build on each other's success, especially when it comes to Dominion working in favor of Prehistoric Planet. I imagine there will be countless children eagerly searching for more dinosaur content after seeing Dominion, and (hopefully) that will lead them back to PP.

My feelings go that way, too! 

I do think the lack of merch currently for Prehistoric Planet and being a streaming service exclusive may hinder its widespread appeal compared to Dominion, although it does seem to be getting out there somehow through word of mouth, and advertising. I really do hope we get merch at some point, especially figures. I especially want figures of the Mosasaurus, Dreadnoughtus, Barbiadactlyus, Mononykus, Velociraptor, Deinocheirus, Olorotitan, Carnotaurus, and of course the T. rex.

Agree. The best thing WWD did was the merchandising, there are lots of articles (official figures, promotional articles, books, VHS (Yes), DVD, table games ... Another thing that WWD did well is to broadcast in public TV channels (at least in my country) so it reached thousands of people. And you could get the VHS and DVD with newspapers, etc.
I just look at my WWD collection by Toyway which is incredibly good looking as a whole (there are very few collections with such size, colours and "accuracy") and I dream of having a representation of Prehistoric Planet (tyrannosaurus, triceratops, dreadnoughtus!!, olorotitan, tarbosaurus, therizinosaurus ... I'd be happy with 10 at least!

[GojiraGuy1954]

Unfortunately countless children will mistakenly think Giganotosaurus is so huge and mighty that makes the T.Rex look like a teddy bear next to it. This is gonna be JP3's Spinosaurus all over again, a movie monster merely adopting the name of a real animal with the rest of its features blown way out of proportion. I hope Season two would take us to South America and really delve into the carcharodontosaurids especially the Giga and thoroughly educate people what a real Giga is supposed to be like.
Anyway here's my dream roster for Season two: Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Acrocantosaurus, Mapusaurus, Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan, Supersaurus, Sauroposeidon, Stegosaurus, Spinosaurus, Suchomimus, Utahraptor and of course more T.Rex hunting baby!

They aren't mixing eras

[GojiraGuy1954]

Unfortunately countless children will mistakenly think Giganotosaurus is so huge and mighty that makes the T.Rex look like a teddy bear next to it. This is gonna be JP3's Spinosaurus all over again, a movie monster merely adopting the name of a real animal with the rest of its features blown way out of proportion. I hope Season two would take us to South America and really delve into the carcharodontosaurids especially the Giga and thoroughly educate people what a real Giga is supposed to be like.
Anyway here's my dream roster for Season two: Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Acrocantosaurus, Mapusaurus, Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan, Supersaurus, Sauroposeidon, Stegosaurus, Spinosaurus, Suchomimus, Utahraptor and of course more T.Rex hunting baby!

They aren't mixing eras

Honestly with both Prehistoric Planet, and Dominion featuring feathered animals, including dromaeosaurids finally, I think this is going to be a major boost in the right direction for the mainstream going forward. I mean even with Dominion, I think it's amazing just to walk into a store right now and see how much marketing the feathered animals are getting, such as on the kinder egg displays, the Dr. Pepper cans, etc. I do think the lack of merch currently for Prehistoric Planet and being a streaming service exclusive may hinder its widespread appeal compared to Dominion, although it does seem to be getting out there somehow through word of mouth, and advertising. I really do hope we get merch at some point, especially figures. I especially want figures of the Mosasaurus, Dreadnoughtus, Barbiadactlyus, Mononykus, Velociraptor, Deinocheirus, Olorotitan, Carnotaurus, and of course the T. rex.

True

[Duna]

I find it funny how JW dinosaurs are meant to be fictionalised to be scarier yet PrePlanet's Dreadnoughtus, an accurate reconstruction, has a face like this

If you don't get scared with these two looking directly towards you, I don't know what will ... both of them gave me real shivers!

[Gwangi]

I went back and started re-watching Prehistoric Planet. So far I've only re-watched Coasts but I plan to watch them all again. This time I'm taking notes to share some thoughts here as I re-watch them.

First off, dead baby count. A lot of babies die in this series and I counted 4 in Coasts. Why am I counting them? Why not, might make for a fun drinking game. 1 dead T. rex, 2 dead pterosaur chicks, 1 dead sea turtle hatchling.

Coasts only features one dinosaurs, but what a spectacular dinosaur it is. The PP Tyrannosaurus is the definitive T. rex representation in film. It is also my favorite creature design in the episode although I give high marks all around. Other personal favorites include the Mosasaurus, Barbaridactylus, and ammonites.

The T. rex submerges his head and I found this odd. I imagine a terrestrial animal crossing the water would "just keep swimming". A very small nitpick with that one. I found the parental behavior of the T. rex some of the most convincing of the series. I like how he's basically a body guard and that's it, the chicks otherwise fend for themselves. The scavenging of sea turtles on the beach reminded me very much of how jaguars hunt sea turtles. So many behaviors in this series were lifted from real world examples.

Loved the pterosaur diversity in this episode. It's about time that pterosaurus got their due instead of playing second fiddle to the dinosaurs. It was interesting how some pterosaurs provided parental care while others did not. I'm interested to know if evidence for parental care has ever been found in pterosaurs. The chicks jumping off the cliff, very reminiscent of what many seabirds do today.

Marine reptiles were also nicely represented and I absolutely loved all the aerial drone style footage. I love seeing aerial footage of extant marine animals so I loved seeing it here too. The Mosasaurus segment was my favorite of the marine reptile bits. I initially thought that one killed the other but that was not the case. Although easy to miss you can see the defeated mosasaur swim off.

Didn't like the parental care in the marine reptiles. I found the "calf" distracting the predator from its mother and the rest of the group chasing it off particularly unrealistic. I know that people want to argue about it with me but I cannot be swayed. Marine reptiles weren't dolphins. A 1.5 year gestation period is not evidence for an unbreakable bond between parent and calf. Some sharks have a 2 year gestation period and provide no parental care. A 10' calf is getting a pretty good start as it is, without parental care. And I'm not ruling out parental care completely, something like what we saw with the T. rex would have been more realistic to me.

The episode was about coasts but had no fishes featured. I don't like that. BUT, it did have ammonites and their scene was one of my favorites. Their spawning behavior and bioluminescence was very convincing and squid-like, and the CGI looked particularly lifelike to me. I said it before but I do believe you could fool someone into thinking that was real footage. It's probably easier to render convincing invertebrates in CGI than vertebrates.

All-in-all I have very little complaints about Prehistoric Planet. I loved just about every minute of it. I watch a lot of BBC and Attenborough docs. and this one seamlessly fits in among them. It's a game changer for sure. So don't get triggered by my nitpicks, they really are just nitpicks. This is the best dino doc. I've ever seen and I even like it more than WWD.

[GojiraGuy1954]

I went back and started re-watching Prehistoric Planet. So far I've only re-watched Coasts but I plan to watch them all again. This time I'm taking notes to share some thoughts here as I re-watch them.

First off, dead baby count. A lot of babies die in this series and I counted 4 in Coasts. Why am I counting them? Why not, might make for a fun drinking game. 1 dead T. rex, 2 dead pterosaur chicks, 1 dead sea turtle hatchling.

Coasts only features one dinosaurs, but what a spectacular dinosaur it is. The PP Tyrannosaurus is the definitive T. rex representation in film. It is also my favorite creature design in the episode although I give high marks all around. Other personal favorites include the Mosasaurus, Barbaridactylus, and ammonites.

The T. rex submerges his head and I found this odd. I imagine a terrestrial animal crossing the water would "just keep swimming". A very small nitpick with that one. I found the parental behavior of the T. rex some of the most convincing of the series. I like how he's basically a body guard and that's it, the chicks otherwise fend for themselves. The scavenging of sea turtles on the beach reminded me very much of how jaguars hunt sea turtles. So many behaviors in this series were lifted from real world examples.

Loved the pterosaur diversity in this episode. It's about time that pterosaurus got their due instead of playing second fiddle to the dinosaurs. It was interesting how some pterosaurs provided parental care while others did not. I'm interested to know if evidence for parental care has ever been found in pterosaurs. The chicks jumping off the cliff, very reminiscent of what many seabirds do today.

Marine reptiles were also nicely represented and I absolutely loved all the aerial drone style footage. I love seeing aerial footage of extant marine animals so I loved seeing it here too. The Mosasaurus segment was my favorite of the marine reptile bits. I initially thought that one killed the other but that was not the case. Although easy to miss you can see the defeated mosasaur swim off.

Didn't like the parental care in the marine reptiles. I found the "calf" distracting the predator from its mother and the rest of the group chasing it off particularly unrealistic. I know that people want to argue about it with me but I cannot be swayed. Marine reptiles weren't dolphins. A 1.5 year gestation period is not evidence for an unbreakable bond between parent and calf. Some sharks have a 2 year gestation period and provide no parental care. A 10' calf is getting a pretty good start as it is, without parental care. And I'm not ruling out parental care completely, something like what we saw with the T. rex would have been more realistic to me.

The episode was about coasts but had no fishes featured. I don't like that. BUT, it did have ammonites and their scene was one of my favorites. Their spawning behavior and bioluminescence was very convincing and squid-like, and the CGI looked particularly lifelike to me. I said it before but I do believe you could fool someone into thinking that was real footage. It's probably easier to render convincing invertebrates in CGI than vertebrates.

All-in-all I have very little complaints about Prehistoric Planet. I loved just about every minute of it. I watch a lot of BBC and Attenborough docs. and this one seamlessly fits in among them. It's a game changer for sure. So don't get triggered by my nitpicks, they really are just nitpicks. This is the best dino doc. I've ever seen and I even like it more than WWD.

I think "2" is an understatement for the amount of dead pterosaurs. There were hundreds on the stack and only a few made it to the safety of the trees

[Gwangi]

You're probably right @GojiraGuy1954 but I'm only counting those that are shown being killed or eaten. I can't believe you quoted my entire essay just to make that one comment instead of tagging me. 

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

I wrote my own review of Prehistoric Planet for anybody who might be interested! I imagine I don't say anything new to most of the people here, but hopefully my review is helpful to anyone you might want to send a summary to!

Prehistoric Planet - Dino Dad Reviews

[Duna]

I wrote my own review of Prehistoric Planet for anybody who might be interested! I imagine I don't say anything new to most of the people here, but hopefully my review is helpful to anyone you might want to send a summary to!

Prehistoric Planet - Dino Dad Reviews

Very nice review! I love your style.

[Kapitaenosavrvs]

Late to the party, but I finished watching Prehistoric Planet last night. I cannot stress enough what a masterpiece it was. The most beautiful and realistic dinosaurs I've ever seen, bar none. I liked how Tyrannosaurus rex was given ample time, but not the entire spotlight. Anyone who seriously thinks that this series somehow did a disservice to the tyrant lizard by not portraying it as a relentless rampaging deathbringer is beyond salvage. It killed an adult Triceratops for sakes of Pete.

I also enjoyed how much time the pterosaurs spent walking around on land. They seemed far more real to me than when they were flying.

The inflating sacks on the Dreadnoughtus were a brilliant idea and I would instantly purchase any sauropod toy depicting such a feature. Doesn't have to be a whole bunch of them either. A single sack on the throat would be just as nifty.

I may share more thoughts later.

Your Words are my exact thoughts on Prehistoric Planet. Thanks for writing them down, hehe.

@Jose S.M.

Exactly!

[Gwangi]

I re-watched Deserts so here's my thoughts on that one. Overall, I enjoyed it more than Coasts. Probably because it had more actual dinosaurs in it. And it also featured some of my favorite dinosaur designs. No dead babies in this episode!

Dreadnoughtus. The gular air sacks were a clever idea and there are certainly real world examples of animals with similar adaptations. The greater prairie chicken and greater sage grouse come to mind. Magnificent frigatebirds too. If they do make a toy like this I need to be able to squeeze it and have the bubbles pop out of its neck.

Although I love the designs for the Tarbosaurus and Velociraptor, and love their scene together, I find it hard to believe that the Velociraptor would be more interested in chasing lizards than in the carcass sitting RIGHT THERE. I also doubt that a sleeping Tarbosaurus attracts more flies than a rotting carcass but whatever. All of the feathered dinosaurs were handled magnificently and the dromaeosaurs in particular were all perfect.

The Mononykus was beautiful and really has me itching for an alvarezsaurid figure or two, something I've been wanting for years now. I was never too convinced that the single clawed digits were used to dig for termites though, because the arms themselves are just so short. Those claws remind me more of a display type feature like what we see on birds like the spur-winged lapwing. Still, nice to see a Mononykus in action.

Waterhole was breathtaking but I have to wonder, what are all of these gigantic animals eating out there? I know elephants and other big animals wander about the desert and such but these deserts seem particularly barren with a lot of really large animals hanging about. Re-watching Prehistoric Planet it does occur to me that it's easy to get caught up in the spectacle of it but when you really consider some of the scenarios they're positing you begin to question some of the choices made. Still, I will reiterate, this is the best dinosaur documentary I've ever seen. My nitpicks are just that. If I didn't like it I certainly wouldn't be watching it a second time. 

Watching Prehistoric Planet is like watching your favorite paleoart come to life. For so many years I would just stare at artwork and make up stories, imagine the subjects being presented as living things. PP brings them to life for me.

[HD-man]

@Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)

I wrote my own review of Prehistoric Planet for anybody who might be interested! I imagine I don't say anything new to most of the people here, but hopefully my review is helpful to anyone you might want to send a summary to!

I quoted your review in my previous post ( http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=7869.msg321143#msg321143 ). I tried to tag you, but forgot the "Stuckasaurus" part of your name. Silly me

@Gwangi Sorry in advance for my overuse of the phrase, "to be fair," but writing in the moment is hard & I can't think of a better way to phrase my thoughts.

The T. rex submerges his head and I found this odd. I imagine a terrestrial animal crossing the water would "just keep swimming". A very small nitpick with that one. I found the parental behavior of the T. rex some of the most convincing of the series. I like how he's basically a body guard and that's it, the chicks otherwise fend for themselves. The scavenging of sea turtles on the beach reminded me very much of how jaguars hunt sea turtles. So many behaviors in this series were lifted from real world examples.

To be fair (in reference to Hank submerging his head), we see swimming elephants do more-or-less the same, submerging their heads to check something out (E.g. ~3:10 in the Uncovered video). In this case, Hank saw the splash made by the mosasaur's tail (~3:50 in said video) & submerged his head to check it out.

The turtle scene is 1 of my favorite scenes, partly b/c it reminds me of Hallett's artwork:

Didn't like the parental care in the marine reptiles. I found the "calf" distracting the predator from its mother and the rest of the group chasing it off particularly unrealistic. I know that people want to argue about it with me but I cannot be swayed. Marine reptiles weren't dolphins. A 1.5 year gestation period is not evidence for an unbreakable bond between parent and calf. Some sharks have a 2 year gestation period and provide no parental care. A 10' calf is getting a pretty good start as it is, without parental care. And I'm not ruling out parental care completely, something like what we saw with the T. rex would have been more realistic to me.

I'm not as confident in my knowledge of marine reptiles, so I won't argue that point. I'll just say that, in terms of social behavior, PhP's tuarangisaurs remind me of shinglebacks ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4zau3U8aGU ) & Green iguanas ("Pods of babies and looking after siblings": https://web.archive.org/web/20180509234227/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/amazing-social-life-of-green-iguana/ ). Also, to be fair, those sharks w/long pregnancies "live in cold waters, which may explain why they're remarkable slowpokes when it comes to giving birth — chilly temperatures tend to slow down your metabolism if you're a cold-blooded creature" ( https://oceana.org/blog/forget-giraffes-5-reasons-why-sharks-have-coolest-pregnancies/ ). Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't plesiosaurs more endothermic & living in warmer waters?

If they do make a toy like this I need to be able to squeeze it and have the bubbles pop out of its neck.

That would make a great stress toy

I find it hard to believe that the Velociraptor would be more interested in chasing lizards than in the carcass sitting RIGHT THERE. I also doubt that a sleeping Tarbosaurus attracts more flies than a rotting carcass but whatever.

To be fair (in reference to Velociraptor), hawks are similar (E.g. "Although Red-tailed hawks have been observed eating carrion, they prefer live prey": https://raptorresource.blogspot.com/2013/04/meet-stitch-red-tailed-hawk.html ). Also (in reference to flies), that's basically what happens in modern Africa, but w/lions instead of Tarbos & wildebeests/wildebeest dung instead of sauropod carcasses ( https://ew.com/article/2013/01/15/africa-savannah-lion-lizard-shoebill-elephant/ ).

Waterhole was breathtaking but I have to wonder, what are all of these gigantic animals eating out there? I know elephants and other big animals wander about the desert and such but these deserts seem particularly barren with a lot of really large animals hanging about.

To be fair, it is stated that "large dinosaurs keep on the move to try to cope with these harsh conditions[...& that...]open water attracts desert animals of every kind from many miles away" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZYHxdzuEl8 ).