TheLittleSongbird Have always been fascinated by dinosaurs, whether reading about them or seeing documentaries and films on them. Love documentaries, especially those of the national treasure that is David Attenborough, and admire Kenneth Branagh a good deal. So my expectations for 'Walking with Beasts' were quite big and that's an understatement.Expectations that were actually mostly lived up to, a good thing for me having seen my fair share of wastes of potential recently. 'Walking with Beasts' is not one of the best documentaries personally seen (far from it), and there are better ones on the subject of dinosaurs. It is also not as ground-breaking as 'Walking with Dinosaurs', as far as dinosaur documentaries go, still a big achievement to this day. Standing on its own without comparing it to anything, 'Walking with Beasts' was very interesting and mostly very well done.'Walking with Beasts' isn't perfect. Sometimes the dinosaur effects are on the stiff side in movement.Did actually appreciate the storytelling approach 'Walking with Beasts' took and it made it entertaining and emotionally investable. It did get in the way though too much of the documentary aspect, which interested and compelled throughout but there could have been more focus on the evidence and such to stop things from being too speculative.However, when it comes to how it's written, 'Walking with Beasts' does just as good a job entertaining and teaching, it's all very sincerely done and it never feels like a sermon. There are things here that are common sense and knowledge but one is taught a huge deal as well.Kenneth Branagh's narration delivery is similarly spot-on, very sensitively delivered and very dignified, his expertise in Shakespeare helps the delivery. The narration is comprehensive and sincere, with a good balance of things known to me and things new to me (really like it when documentaries do that), as well as compelling.Visually, 'Walking with Beasts' may lack the awe-inspiring, almost cinematic quality one anticipates. With that being said, it is beautifully shot, shot in a fluid and non-static way. The sceneries and landscapes are handsomely rendered and mostly the dinosaur effects are impressive.Every episode is appropriately scored, never intrusive or too low-key. There is fun, tension and pathos throughout and the dinosaurs, prey and predator, are like characters that one cares for in the same way they do a human. The documentary aspect of the series is grounded and well researched.Overall, very good though could have been great. 8/10 Bethany Cox

tankace Walking with Prehistoric Beast is sometimes overlooked by its most famous predecessor, but that is a great mistake. To start the stories here are more complex from the Walking with Dinosaurs and that is reasonable, if you think that mammals have more evolved brains. Anyway the location we see here is a bit creepy because many of the places that the events of the series take place are either for the most part the same or they have changed dramatically in geologically speaking (less than 65 million years ago).Also some the majority of the extinct creatures that are presented still have descenders in the modern-day and I remember felling amazed by that fact. A bonus fact is that the graphic due to the improvement of the technology from 1999 are extreme realistic and in all honest look better than Walking with Dinosaurs. In summary it is a sequel ( OK of documentary in this case) done right, so go watch it all six episodes, it is about 3 hours and after you will want to see them again.

userwithnoname ...but I'm biased, not only because I love this subject but because a full-length documentary exploring the vast subject of the Cenozoic era was long overdue. I mean come-on! We currently live in a mammalian world with only 4 surviving orders of reptiles, all of which barely come into contact with everyday human beings. Mammals rule the ocean...they're the biggest, smartest and even the most ferocious (killer and sperm whales). How did all this come to be? The story is told in Walking with Beasts. Indeed it can be said that Walking with Dinosaurs is about interest, while Walking with Beasts is about legacy!The era is covered in 6 six half-hour episodes, which is about as long as any such programme can hope to be. In geological terms, we have depictions of the early Eocene, late Eocene, Oligocene, Pliocene, early Pleistocene, and late Pleistocene. OK, excluding the boring Holocene...heh...we're missing two epochs (Paleocene and Miocene) which might seem less agreeable...why not do one for each??? Still one finds the amount of information covered in the programme sufficient and of course interesting. I personally wouldn't want to have missed any of them out.Briefly, in "New Dawn" we get Leptictidium, Propalaeotherium and Ambulocetus, the latter (I'm sure a lot of you are aware) is known for its role in the evolution of the whale. The 6 foot bird Gastornis is another highlight. Forget about the ostrich, this guy was a predator and at the top of the food chain. "Whale Killer" is a follow-up centering on Basilosaurus and its survival in the late Eocene Tethys Sea (the climate change alludes to the end of the Eocene). "Land of Giants" is mainly about the giant Indricotherium (this guy was bigger than T-Rex) and Entelodont, a feisty animal related to pigs. Australopithecus was the star of the episode "Next of Kin" which also features Deinotherium. My Favorite was "Sabre tooth", which features Smilodon, the terror bird Phorusrhacos, and Megatherium, the giant sloth. Lastly, "Mammoth Journey" is complete change of climate. It depicts the ice-age inhabitants Megaloceras, wholly rhino and the mammoth...They are all incredible animals and very realistic. You can tell that the CG was slightly better than that used for "Walking with Dinosaurs". The creation of realistic fur and feather presented a huge challenge for the team. In short, it has everything its predecessor has. Perhaps a real treat included in the DVD are the two full-length "making of..." programmes. They provide an in-depth scientific discussion of each of the subjects in the series, including a look at the fossils from the Messil pit in Germany, which provided the basis for the "New Dawn". There were also experts on each specific subject. This gave me the impression that the programme was very well-researched, and perhaps better researched than it predecessor, a claim also made by the producers.I remember reading, either from amazon or here, that the bbc can't make documentaries. I can't disagree more with this statement. I've been watching their documentaries since I was a kid, and I've always liked their "assume an intelligent public" and "broadcast even though people care more about Big Brother" approach to documentaries. This is exactly the kind of thing that gives rise to documentaries like Blue Planet, Horizon and Planet Earth. It's a tradition the bbc should be proud of....

Jonah Falcon Tim Haines made a real misstep in this sequel to Walking With Dinosaurs, in that he made the doc too much of a story, and not enough of a documentary. The smilodon segment, especially, seemed contrived, with the two "brothers" and a lone warrior smilodon named "Half-Tooth." They also take too many great pains to have the animals reacting to the camera. On the other hand, the evolution of man is nicely done - and I strong recommend the Discovery Channel documentary Neanderthal as a companion piece.Speaking of Discovery, once again they make a hash of the documentary, editing out the rougher scenes, and intercutting the Making Of... into it as well. Stockard Channing sounds robotic as the narrator as well. I strongly suggest getting the DVD, which retains all the BBC UK stuff intact.