PREHISTORIC PLANET

[dinofelid]

I was actually glad the baby dinosaur and pterosaurs had such high infant mortality rate and it was actually shown. And I'm glad the way all of the animals were depicted, though I think the Deinocheirus could have been a little less fluffy. The Carnotaurus being a giant bowerbird was brilliant.

I thought of a bowerbird at first too, but then I saw the clip below (from Attenborough's "Our Planet") of a bird called a western parotia which I think must have directly inspired the Carnotaurus behavior--whereas the bowerbird tries to create a colorful and interesting display, the parotia tries to create a clean "stage" for its dancing by clearing away all the leaves and twigs. (The clip shows some other birds of paradise first, with the parotia sequence starting 1 minute in.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX40mBb8bkU

Others have mentioned the velociraptors hunting the pterosaurs on the cliff was also inspired by a sequence from an Attenborough doc with a snow leopard--would be interesting to learn how many other sequences in Prehistoric Planet were inspired in the same way! In both cases I think it definitely added to the feeling of watching a nature documentary where the dinosaurs acted like real animals rather than rampaging monsters.

[HD-man]

Climate modeling for PhP:

[Gwangi]

I just got done re-watching Ice Worlds. I don't have much to say about this one and I'm not sure why. Maybe the novelty of the show is wearing off, or my desire to breakdown each episode is. Seems like a lot of the hype for this show has died down. Anyway, I like this one more than Coasts and Deserts but not as much as Freshwater and Forests. Maybe that's why I don't have a lot to say, it's the middle child so-to-speak. One baby dies in this episode, during the river crossing, but it is implied that a lot more than that die. The episode doesn't have any pterosaurs or marine reptiles, it's all dinosaurs here. Favorite creature designs include the dromaeosaurs, troodontids, ornithomimosaurs, and Pachyrhinosaurus but really they all look fantastic.

Kind of weird seeing scaly animals in the snow. Some like the dromaeosaurs and Nanuqsaurus looked right at home on account of the feathers. I almost wish they had went with a shaggy coat for the Pachyrhinosaurus like in Mark Witton's painting.

No real complaints about any particular behavior in this one. The Olorotitan chicks playing struck me as too mammalian but not enough to bother me like the plesiosaurs in Coasts did. The mosquitoes biting the Olorotitan chick was one of the saddest moments in the series, even though that particular one makes it.

[MLMjp]

Despite me watching it two weeks ago and wanting to share my thought on it, as always, life gets in the way and doesn't give me enough time to post, specially since this one requires a long one. Always coming late to the discussion and I hate it, anyway...

Prehistoric Planet, did I like it? Absolutely, this without a doubt one of the best modern documentaries about prehistoric animals.

The design/reconstructions are top notch. Up to date and beautiful looking. Just look at the Velociraptor, that its exactly how I imagine it looking like, with those eagle/falcon mean looking eyes. Same about the Tyrannosaurus, this is the true tyrant lizard king. A bit of a shame about them not being able to update the Carnotaurus skin, oh well. Other details like the Triceratops having different shaped horns were are also really cool.

This show has some of the best CGI ever put to screen, the creatures looked like they were really there. Nothing it's perfect though, Tuarangisaurus and Elasmosaurus in certain shots (specially when they raise part of their bodies out of the water) weren't integrated that well.

A lot of the species presented here I didn't even know they existed, so the documentary definitely taught me something new. The behaviors, albeit speculative, seem plausible to my eyes (most of them) and I like how the show didn't went too far on the speculative side but played around with it. For example I really liked the like the Mosasaurus "spa" or the bioluminescence of the ammonites.

Overall I really enjoyed most of the mini-stories that each episode presented. And I could go on and on about the things that I did like but it that would basically mean talking about 90% of the show, so I'm gonna go for the things I did not like:

The hell they were thinking when they gave the Ornithomimus those toupees, good lord, they looked awful.

I didn´t like it when they don't clarify the exact genus/species the animals belong to. It is understandable for certain animals that have not been formally described yet, like the indeterminate dromaeosaur and troodontid. But for example, the Edmontosaurus in "Ice Worlds" are just called "hadrosaurs", or the Mosasaurus in "Coasts" being referred as Hoffman's Mosasaur. Don't you mean Mosasaurus hoffmani then?! At least call it Mosasaurus and not "Mosasaur". Speaking about Mosasaurus, I find the tail to be a bit too long compared to modern skeletal reconstructions, oddly enough, the other Mosasaur featured in this episode, Kaikaifilu, does have a shorter tail.

Going back to the Edmontosaurus, none of them have a flesh comb, for the arctic ones (former Ugrunaluk) this could be excused as we don't know if they are its own species, but we do se E.regalis in "Forests", although the adult is a female, so I guess maybe we could say it is sexual dimorphism and if any of the babies is a male we could say they haven't developed it yet. Still.

The "femboy" Barbaridactylus. Is it plausible for males to lack display structures typical to males and pretend to be females? Androgynous pterosaurs?

Personally I wasn't a fan of the Pachyrhinosaurus having quills, but its better than having buffalo-like shaggy coats (sorry I don't like those reconstructions) also they have goat eyes while the Triceratops don't. Not sure if to close related animals would differ in such feature. A positive thing is that, despite have seeing the ecosystem of the prince creek formation already in other documentaries (March of the dinosaurs, WWD 3D...) this is probably the best representation as we finally have Nanuqsaurus and not Albertosaurus or Gorgosaurus.

Also, I wished they had put a bit more emphasis on Hateg island's ecosystem.

End of my "negative points". Some final thoughts:

I have only heard the Spanish dub because I watched it with my family. But I have plans to rewatch it next week so I can enjoy David Attenborough' narration.

It's funny how this show features Atrociraptor, Therizinosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus and Dreadnoughtus, all of which are new additions to Jurassic World Dominion. Intentional or purely coincidental?

Is Prehistoric Planet the true successor to WWD? Mmmmmmmm......yesn´t.

Despite PP being superior to WWD in many aspects (scientifically and technically) I think WWD storytelling format is better, focusing on specific areas in specific periods for each episode and center the narrative around a few animals for the whole episode while also incorporating mini stories for other. Also, WWD covered all the Mesozoic period while PP only covers the Cretaceous.

Sure, PP format allows for going more in depth with the late Cretaceous period while WWD can only pick up a couple because it also has to cover the Triassic, Jurassic and early Cretaceous. But even though PP mini-stories are great, I still prefer WWD storytelling approach. We would need a million episodes to cover everything we would want to see, though.

And that's it for now. I'm so glad Prehistoric Planets exist and I hope there is more like this in the future, whether it be a second season or another series.



 

[BlueKrono]

@MLMjp The female-looking male who sneaks into nesting areas to surreptitiously mate with the females is taken directly from modern day nature; I remember learning about it in my ornithology class in college. I think it's prairie chickens that do it in their heavily protected leks (aka nests).

As for the show, I thought it was great as most do. The one issue I had with it was when they didn't specify species. Such an easy thing to do, and it was completely forgone in some of the later episodes.

[HD-man]

The "femboy" Barbaridactylus. Is it plausible for males to lack display structures typical to males and pretend to be females? Androgynous pterosaurs?

[Cretaceous Crab]

Personally I wasn't a fan of the Pachyrhinosaurus having quills, but its better than having buffalo-like shaggy coats (sorry I don't like those reconstructions) also they have goat eyes while the Triceratops don't. Not sure if to close related animals would differ in such feature.

Foxes have vertical pupils while other canines do not.

[Lynx]

I've only watched two episodes due to school work, yeah, but here is my summary:

- WWD, while more inaccurate, had main characters that you could root for, while not making them bad or good guys. Thus, it still felt realistic despite having those great story elements. PP, meanwhile, was much more like an extant animal documentary. Thus, I like it better. The lack of giving the names to the creatures provides more realism (which I like), and the narrator does not suddenly burst in with a skeletal and information nobody asked for every two minutes (cough, some earlier documentaries, cough).

There aren't any dull episodes just to "skip past", as it doesn't focus on one character and a bunch of dull moments that just feel like you are waiting for something to come. The CGI is wonderful, for if someone was not aware of dinosaurs' extinction (somehow), they would easily assume it is real footage.

[MLMjp]

@MLMjp The female-looking male who sneaks into nesting areas to surreptitiously mate with the females is taken directly from modern day nature; I remember learning about it in my ornithology class in college. I think it's prairie chickens that do it in their heavily protected leks (aka nests).

The "femboy" Barbaridactylus. Is it plausible for males to lack display structures typical to males and pretend to be females? Androgynous pterosaurs?

Oh, I see. I was too harsh on the poor Pterosaur then.

Forgot talking about the music score. For having the master Hans Zimmer the only theme that stuck to me was the main theme (fantastic and goosebumps inducing). I'll pay more attention on the rewatch though.

[ceratopsian]

I actually don't like Zimmer's music. Too emotionally manipulative for my taste. But I know his work is very popular with others!

[Fembrogon]

Zimmer's score for the show can definitely be bombastic and melodramatic at times; but then, Benjamin Bartlett's score for WWD wasn't exactly subtle either. These sorts of epic soundtracks are par for the course with big documentary programs.
I admit, I think I ended up liking the music more than I expected to from the initial trailers; but the standout tracks for me were the more quirky, "comical" pieces like the music which played over the Deinocheirus "itch" scene or the Ornithomimus "thievery" scene. I do hope we get more content about the making of the soundtrack, because there were some pretty unique sounds that got used.

Speaking of "making-of" content, here's a new interview on the visualization of the show:
befores & afters: 'Those close-ups are where it all lives and breathes'

previs shots:

Spoiler

[close]

Here's another review for the show as well - pretty surface-level, but still positive:
https://mrmercottreviewer.com/documentary-reviews/f/dino-documentary-trendsetter-%E2%80%93-prehistoric-planet-review

[GiganotosaurusFan]

poor carno      

[Brocc21]

Spoiler

[close]

The female doesn't seem to have any horns. I wonder if this was intentional as a form of sexual dimorphisom?

[GojiraGuy1954]

The carno one looks exactly like a GMOD screenshot you'd see on the steam gallery lol

[HD-man]

[HD-man]

"Excellent & very fair review of #maniraptoran #theropod portrayal in #PrehistoricPlanet from
@albertonykus
-- Albert has >very correctly< noted many of the science-based behaviours we depicted. I long for the chance to talk more about what we portrayed!": https://twitter.com/TetZoo/status/1535973220670754816

[Fembrogon]

While there isn't a lot of substantially new information here, we do get a few more varied snippets of details regarding the science of the show. Some of the footage is misaligned with the names, though, which is kind of annoying.

[HD-man]

"Here's a handy collection of all the episode threads by the chief scientific adviser, Darren Naish (
@TetZoo
)": https://twitter.com/colinburgess/status/1537906534193065984

[HD-man]

I need at least 1 40-minute version of this:

[DerbesSchuhwerk]

I need at least 1 40-minute version of this:

That was exactly what I was thinking!