Best/Worst Documentaries

[SBell]

Ultimate Guide... What station is that on? I don't believe I've even heard of it.

I was on the Discovery Channel during the 90's.

I'd also like to add that I like Walking With Dinosaurs (even if the dinosaur restorations didn't seem right, like with the theropod forlimbs) and of course, Dinosaur Revolution!

As for Planet Dinosaur, I thought it focused too much on theropods, and it seemed kind of dull. Also irritating was they keep perpetuating the idea "ZMOG SPINOSAURUS WAS THE BIGGEST CARNIVORE EVER!!!", while we only have less than 20% of a complete specimen.

But at least Spinosaurus was portrayed as a fish-eater.  Compare that to Monsters Resurrected.

[Joel]

But at least Spinosaurus was portrayed as a fish-eater.  Compare that to Monsters Resurrected.

Yes, I give credit to the show for that and for pointing out that dinosaurs may have just mobbed their prey instead of pulling off a ridiculously coordinated attack (I'm looking at you, "When Dinosaurs Roamed America!") that modern animals today could not do. However, there were other issues that the show just arbitrarily threw in there, such as the Spinosaurus being wasteful with its food and including "Predator X" when it has not yet been properly described (why not discuss Kronosaurus?). 

Monsters Resurrected was worse than Jurassic Park 3 because it pretended to be a scientific documentary. It failed not just miserably, but also insulted our intelligence. For example, remember that experiment that predicted how much damage its forelimbs could do? How can they extrapolate something from nothing? Let us never mention that show again.

[Metallisuchus]

But at least Spinosaurus was portrayed as a fish-eater.  Compare that to Monsters Resurrected.

Yes, I give credit to the show for that and for pointing out that dinosaurs may have just mobbed their prey instead of pulling off a ridiculously coordinated attack (I'm looking at you, "When Dinosaurs Roamed America!") that modern animals today could not do. However, there were other issues that the show just arbitrarily threw in there, such as the Spinosaurus being wasteful with its food and including "Predator X" when it has not yet been properly described (why not discuss Kronosaurus?). 

Monsters Resurrected was worse than Jurassic Park 3 because it pretended to be a scientific documentary. It failed not just miserably, but also insulted our intelligence. For example, remember that experiment that predicted how much damage its forelimbs could do? How can they extrapolate something from nothing? Let us never mention that show again.

You mean when they build machines that "replicate" body parts and rip through a pig carcass? Yeah that's very idiotic to me as well. There's no way you can really be accurate with that as they aren't using real muscles, etc. It always annoys me.

[SBell]

But at least Spinosaurus was portrayed as a fish-eater.  Compare that to Monsters Resurrected.

Yes, I give credit to the show for that and for pointing out that dinosaurs may have just mobbed their prey instead of pulling off a ridiculously coordinated attack (I'm looking at you, "When Dinosaurs Roamed America!") that modern animals today could not do. However, there were other issues that the show just arbitrarily threw in there, such as the Spinosaurus being wasteful with its food and including "Predator X" when it has not yet been properly described (why not discuss Kronosaurus?). 

Monsters Resurrected was worse than Jurassic Park 3 because it pretended to be a scientific documentary. It failed not just miserably, but also insulted our intelligence. For example, remember that experiment that predicted how much damage its forelimbs could do? How can they extrapolate something from nothing? Let us never mention that show again.

You mean when they build machines that "replicate" body parts and rip through a pig carcass? Yeah that's very idiotic to me as well. There's no way you can really be accurate with that as they aren't using real muscles, etc. It always annoys me.

I personally like the use of solid metal and plastics to somehow replicate the actions of bone and muscle.  It turns out that metal things on hydraulics can rip through stuff! Who knew!?

[Metallisuchus]

But at least Spinosaurus was portrayed as a fish-eater.  Compare that to Monsters Resurrected.

Yes, I give credit to the show for that and for pointing out that dinosaurs may have just mobbed their prey instead of pulling off a ridiculously coordinated attack (I'm looking at you, "When Dinosaurs Roamed America!") that modern animals today could not do. However, there were other issues that the show just arbitrarily threw in there, such as the Spinosaurus being wasteful with its food and including "Predator X" when it has not yet been properly described (why not discuss Kronosaurus?). 

Monsters Resurrected was worse than Jurassic Park 3 because it pretended to be a scientific documentary. It failed not just miserably, but also insulted our intelligence. For example, remember that experiment that predicted how much damage its forelimbs could do? How can they extrapolate something from nothing? Let us never mention that show again.

You mean when they build machines that "replicate" body parts and rip through a pig carcass? Yeah that's very idiotic to me as well. There's no way you can really be accurate with that as they aren't using real muscles, etc. It always annoys me.

I personally like the use of solid metal and plastics to somehow replicate the actions of bone and muscle.  It turns out that metal things on hydraulics can rip through stuff! Who knew!?

Haha! Exactly!

[CityRaptor]

Well, it is rather obviously: Robot Dinosaurs!

[Metallisuchus]

Well, it is rather obviously: Robot Dinosaurs!

Yeah, I'm sure that's how Skynet's dinosaurs would've done it, hah.

[tyrantqueen]

I saw WWD when I was a kid and I still love it to this day, despite how dated the CGI looks now.

Although I don't generally watch many documentaries because very few are shown on TV where I live. I have seen one episode of Dinosaur Revolution, with the broken jaw Allosaurus. The colour schemes for the dinosaurs were beautiful, but I found the behaviour of the dinosaurs to be unrealistic. The part at the beginning with the mother Allosaurus getting irritated and biting the head off another dinosaur was too human like and comical for me personally.

Also it kind of annoyed me that it never explained how the broken jaw-ed Allosaurus made it to adulthood with an busted lower mandible. It just skips straight ahead to the adult section. How would the baby Allo have eaten its food without being able to open its mouth?

[Takama]

I saw WWD when I was a kid and I still love it to this day, despite how dated the CGI looks now.

Although I don't generally watch many documentaries because very few are shown on TV where I live. I have seen one episode of Dinosaur Revolution, with the broken jaw Allosaurus. The colour schemes for the dinosaurs were beautiful, but I found the behaviour of the dinosaurs to be unrealistic. The part at the beginning with the mother Allosaurus getting irritated and biting the head off another dinosaur was too human like and comical for me personally.

Also it kind of annoyed me that it never explained how the broken jaw-ed Allosaurus made it to adulthood with an busted lower mandible. It just skips straight ahead to the adult section. How would the baby Allo have eaten its food without being able to open its mouth?

I just watched that yesterday, and i must say that i was shocked on how dated the show has become as a whole.

[DinoFan45]

Well, If I remember correctly, it almost has 20 years under its belt. Only four more til its twenty.

[Yutyrannus]

I saw WWD when I was a kid and I still love it to this day, despite how dated the CGI looks now.

Although I don't generally watch many documentaries because very few are shown on TV where I live. I have seen one episode of Dinosaur Revolution, with the broken jaw Allosaurus. The colour schemes for the dinosaurs were beautiful, but I found the behaviour of the dinosaurs to be unrealistic. The part at the beginning with the mother Allosaurus getting irritated and biting the head off another dinosaur was too human like and comical for me personally.

Also it kind of annoyed me that it never explained how the broken jaw-ed Allosaurus made it to adulthood with an busted lower mandible. It just skips straight ahead to the adult section. How would the baby Allo have eaten its food without being able to open its mouth?

Actually, I thought the part with the mother allosaurus was very accurate. Modern animals (as well as avians) have character and personalities, so non-avian dinosaurs would've too. I do agree with the not explaining how Broken Jaw survived.

[Metallisuchus]

I saw WWD when I was a kid and I still love it to this day, despite how dated the CGI looks now.

Although I don't generally watch many documentaries because very few are shown on TV where I live. I have seen one episode of Dinosaur Revolution, with the broken jaw Allosaurus. The colour schemes for the dinosaurs were beautiful, but I found the behaviour of the dinosaurs to be unrealistic. The part at the beginning with the mother Allosaurus getting irritated and biting the head off another dinosaur was too human like and comical for me personally.

Also it kind of annoyed me that it never explained how the broken jaw-ed Allosaurus made it to adulthood with an busted lower mandible. It just skips straight ahead to the adult section. How would the baby Allo have eaten its food without being able to open its mouth?

Actually, I thought the part with the mother allosaurus was very accurate. Modern animals (as well as avians) have character and personalities, so non-avian dinosaurs would've too. I do agree with the not explaining how Broken Jaw survived.

If it helps, I know some animals can heal some injuries on their own. A cat with a fractured leg will sit/lay in certain positions (usually unusual positions) to force the bones to heal, much like we use a cast on our legs.

[tyrantqueen]

Maybe you have a point, but this how I see it

If its jaw was broken, eating food would be near impossible/extremely painful. It is implied in the documentary that the mother Allo abandons the baby Allosaurus too- how the heck would it have survived? If its mother wasn't around to get food for it then it would have had to hunt for itself, which seems unlikely with the damaged jaw.

I see it as just something done for a cool effect personally. I think the injury on the fossil probably occurred during adulthood.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I think that WWD and related programs are the best, although they would have been better with feathered dinosaurs. (I mean other species, not on the utahraptor although that would be nice).
The worst documentary of all for me would be "When Dinosaurs Ruled..." It airs on the Science Channel regularly, generally in the morning hours. The CGI is #1 on the list of the worst and the narration doesn't sound the greatest.  Luckily, there are some not as well known dinosaurs there, such as ones from their Australia and Antarctica episode.   

[Joel]

If its jaw was broken, eating food would be near impossible/extremely painful. It is implied in the documentary that the mother Allo abandons the baby Allosaurus too- how the heck would it have survived? If its mother wasn't around to get food for it then it would have had to hunt for itself, which seems unlikely with the damaged jaw.

Well, young Nile crocodiles will suffer similar broken jaws, and they can make it. Also, if the Allosaurus does use its upper jaw like a hatchet, and working with its forelimb claws to capture prey, there is a slim chance it could survive. It may be in extreme pain, but that is nothing to the drive of hunger.

[Balaur]

Best Documentaries -
1. Walking with Dinosaurs
2. WWD's spinoffs
3. Walking with Beasts
4. Dinosaur Revolution
5. Planet Dinosaur

Worst Documentaries -
5. Dinosaur Planet
4. When Dinosaurs Roamed America
3. Prehistoric (Discovery Channel)
2. Animal Armageddon
1. Monsters Resurrected

I watch WWD almost every day. I love it so much. NO other documentary can beat it. And the Americans try, and do good, but some like WDRA are just bias for dinosaurs in America. I personally think that creatures outside of the US are cooler, like in Argentina, Canada, China, and the UK.

[DinoToyForum]

  I've split the off topic discussion into a new thread: http://www.dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,651.0.html

[Harry_the_Fox]

For me, the very best were the NatGeo Imax documentaries "Giants of the Patagonia" and "Flying Monsters"- rational explanations, up-to-date information for its time, plenty of stuff I (nor many others I imagine) ever knew- and all grounded on clear observation, with flights of fancy and flamboyant drama very low indeed! To top it off, the CGI was the best I had ever seen, and the 3D actually did it credit (the dinosaurs' perspective made them appear at about the size they actually were- the gigonotosaurus appeared to be the same size as the skeleton in the museum I saw earlier that day)!

The worst... tough call. There was an American show that although did have some excellent talking heads, had mostly some rather less credible heads insisting T-Rex was a scavenger, with some ridiculous replaying scene of a lone T-Rex biting a horn of a lone triceratops in some forest. Then there was a british gigonotosaurus/argentinosaurus CGI doco with talking heads that covered some ridiculously pedantic points- such as the painfully redundant point that argentinosaurus turned out to be a cretaceous-era sauropod was somehow a "problem" worthy of a dramatic cue and an explanation by a talking head that people thought sauropods were only Jurassic-era dinosaurs. (It's a thrilling point- but executed so badly by trying to make it 'suspenseful'- I had to stop watching). I couldn't name either of them, and don't want to frame the wrong doco for a crime it didn't commit by guessing the wrong name!

Walking with Dinosaurs was brilliantly executed- but the 25 meter leopleurodon was unforgivably bull-poopie
"even for its kind, it was large" Mmm-hmm- in the same sense that an "unusually large" elephant seal managed to reach the size of a Humpback whale???
The worst part is they kept doing it (Leedsichthys), including these bogus measurements on their site.

On that note, there are plenty of deliberately baloney movies pushing rubbish theories, they don't even count- they're just a crime against human intelligence!

[Brontozaurus]

For me, the very best were the NatGeo Imax documentaries "Giants of the Patagonia" and "Flying Monsters"- rational explanations, up-to-date information for its time, plenty of stuff I (nor many others I imagine) ever knew- and all grounded on clear observation, with flights of fancy and flamboyant drama very low indeed! To top it off, the CGI was the best I had ever seen, and the 3D actually did it credit (the dinosaurs' perspective made them appear at about the size they actually were- the gigonotosaurus appeared to be the same size as the skeleton in the museum I saw earlier that day)!

The worst... tough call. There was an American show that although did have some excellent talking heads, had mostly some rather less credible heads insisting T-Rex was a scavenger, with some ridiculous replaying scene of a lone T-Rex biting a horn of a lone triceratops in some forest. Then there was a british gigonotosaurus/argentinosaurus CGI doco with talking heads that covered some ridiculously pedantic points- such as the painfully redundant point that argentinosaurus turned out to be a cretaceous-era sauropod was somehow a "problem" worthy of a dramatic cue and an explanation by a talking head that people thought sauropods were only Jurassic-era dinosaurs. (It's a thrilling point- but executed so badly by trying to make it 'suspenseful'- I had to stop watching). I couldn't name either of them, and don't want to frame the wrong doco for a crime it didn't commit by guessing the wrong name!

IIRC, Flying Monsters was actually from the UK, not NatGeo.

The American show you're talking about sounds awfully like Clash of the Dinosaurs, the first episode of which featured Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops in a fight scene that was cool at first but became less interesting the other 2500000000000000000000000000000000 times they played it. Seriously, they replayed footage so much that some of it is burned into my brain.

[Gwangi]

For me, the very best were the NatGeo Imax documentaries "Giants of the Patagonia" and "Flying Monsters"- rational explanations, up-to-date information for its time, plenty of stuff I (nor many others I imagine) ever knew- and all grounded on clear observation, with flights of fancy and flamboyant drama very low indeed! To top it off, the CGI was the best I had ever seen, and the 3D actually did it credit (the dinosaurs' perspective made them appear at about the size they actually were- the gigonotosaurus appeared to be the same size as the skeleton in the museum I saw earlier that day)!

The worst... tough call. There was an American show that although did have some excellent talking heads, had mostly some rather less credible heads insisting T-Rex was a scavenger, with some ridiculous replaying scene of a lone T-Rex biting a horn of a lone triceratops in some forest. Then there was a british gigonotosaurus/argentinosaurus CGI doco with talking heads that covered some ridiculously pedantic points- such as the painfully redundant point that argentinosaurus turned out to be a cretaceous-era sauropod was somehow a "problem" worthy of a dramatic cue and an explanation by a talking head that people thought sauropods were only Jurassic-era dinosaurs. (It's a thrilling point- but executed so badly by trying to make it 'suspenseful'- I had to stop watching). I couldn't name either of them, and don't want to frame the wrong doco for a crime it didn't commit by guessing the wrong name!

IIRC, Flying Monsters was actually from the UK, not NatGeo.

The American show you're talking about sounds awfully like Clash of the Dinosaurs, the first episode of which featured Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops in a fight scene that was cool at first but became less interesting the other 2500000000000000000000000000000000 times they played it. Seriously, they replayed footage so much that some of it is burned into my brain.

Flying Monsters was indeed from the UK but I believe it was shown in the U.S. on Nat Geo? Nat Geo also had an older documentary about pterosaurs but I cannot recall the name of it. As I recall "Flying Monsters" while it looked good had pretty sloppy science and was not well received by pterosaur experts.