Dinosaur Revolution (2011)

One of my all time favorites.

A Disappointing Continuation

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

While some paleontological information is offered from very famous experts in the field occasionally, with some footage of excavations, there really is not much educational content to be given. The biggest pro I can give this program is the designs of the dinosaurs. They're very colorful and creative. Very birdlike, which is something most dinosaur documentaries actually lack, going for duller browns and greens primarily. Everything else though is pretty bad. The animations of the dinosaurs are strange. It's jerky and looks like they're moving at a different framerate then they should be. They also act way too much like domesticated animals like dogs, and even some human-like behaviors are present as well, which is my biggest con. This honestly feels more like a high-budgeted cartoon than a documentary. This is honestly one of the worst dinosaur documentaries of recent years. If you're looking for something educational on the subject matter, check out other Discovery Channel documentaries such as "When Dinosaurs Roamed America".

Although the animations are stiff at times i really liked the colorful and imaginative take on the different species, especially the t-rex which looked like death itself. But despite this fact i cannot like this series when every single scene is filled with straight out ridiculous behavior from animals which intelligence and behavior should have been similar to their modern counterparts. When i see a hunting dinosaur nod to its fellow hunter i cannot help but shiver out of dismay, the animators obviously had no idea about animal behavior and seemed to have given the dinosaurs almost human personalities.I suppose the purpose of this series was to display dinosaurs as more caring for each other, but the way it was executed reminds me of a Disney movie, the only thing missing is the animals actually talking to each other.

Take a smattering of randomly themed vignettes, add some excitable paleopublicists, curiously proportioned and bizarrely animated models, throw them together, blend, and pour.Is this entertainment? Education? I'm really not sure, and neither is it. Some paleontological background is presented, but in a token way, with a few stock shots of hammer wielding Indiana Jones style field workers cutting to a hand waving exposition of the conclusions, with no connection between the two. Science by assertion.Pragmatically though, all television is a way to attract eyeballs for advertisers, and this series is clearly aimed at doing just that.To its credit, there is an underlying theme to each episode, such as parental care. But this is illustrated with tiny minidramas, jumping around between eras and species in a disjointed way that prevents any subject being explored in depth.And there are also some highly spurious scenarios, presumably thrown together more for re-use of models or raw drama than through any suggestion from their tame pseudo-science mouthpieces - giant killer mosquitoes, being a standout example.The animation is passable, barely. Strangely staccato, it's more reminiscent of Harryhousen than Jurassic Park. Since the latter was made twenty years ago, there's little excuse for such jerky, hesitant beasts that float and waft through their environments without any interaction.All of this I could forgive, but for one thing: the comedy anthropomorphisation of the stars, with a side line in puppyish behaviour.Apparently the way to sell dinosaurs now is to have them react like people or our favourite contemporary beasts, to project human problems and emotions and reactions on to them.Dinosaurs perform double-takes, females sport rounded, darkly lined eyes - I could swear that some of them were batting lashes. A sleepless night leads to a tired, grumpy dinosaur during the day. It's an animal! If it's tired, it will just lie down and sleep, problem solved.This theme continues through the episodes that I bothered to watch, but eventually I realised that I was watching popular entertainment that simply isn't very entertaining.

This miniseries was much disliked by its' viewers.That said, yes it had fairly jerky animation, and yes, it had many silly and/or gory moments.So if the above makes you feel this production is not worth your time, I've already gotten the critique out of the way. However, if you, like me, have more than just a passing interest in dinosaurs, you are in for a real treat.For all of its' quirkiness, this series is the first of its' kind to set up its' species as characters that the viewer can be invested in. If I were you, I'd be protesting that "Walking With Dinosaurs" already accomplished that, but you'd be wrong.Anyone who's ever dealt with snakes or alligators will tell you that even they have their "adorable" moments. This series takes that angle as well. We see these animals as clumsy and imperfect, with personality and quirks. Another twist is the illustration of some species fighting to survive AFTER the well-known asteroid impact.Dinosaur Revolution takes a sympathetic view of its' subjects, even T-Rex. It is obvious that this series was not meant to have narration or "talking head" interviews as each subject has more than enough personality to carry each story. The problem was the late revision to present this as a documentary, rather than a docudrama.The article here says that the producers are re-editing this series to reflect the original vision. If so, I'd be happy to see it, but I'd be surprised if anyone would change their opinions on it. The criticisms about the animation are justified. The silliness, however, I found endearing.I'd say this video would do well as a foil between viewings of other CGI dinosaur documentaries. It fleshes these species out in a way that has never been, and likely will never be, done by anyone else.If nothing else, consider this the, intentionally, campy dinosaur documentary.