Review of Walking with Dinosaurs

Hi. This is a post I meant to do days ago, but circumstances haven't been in my favor. Still better late than never. On the very last day of 2013 my family and I went to see Walking with Dinosaurs!

Yes this film was inspired by the documentary of the same name from back at the start of the millennium. While the film does incorporate many aspects of a documentary it also features a lot of elements of a traditional narrative. One theme I noticed in this film is that we should never give up. The story is basically about Pachyrhinosaurus named Patchi who has to learn to survive in the prehistoric world of what is now Alaska. The events are narrated by Alex the Alexornis, which was a prehistoric bird. He and Patchi become good friends and share several misadventures together. As time goes on Patchi has to learn to stand up for himself when it comes to facing another Pachyrhinosaurus or a Gorgosaurus which is the main predator used in the film. Patchi's journal supports the moral mentioned earlier because there are several times where he feels like giving up but in the end chooses to keep living.
I enjoyed how they combined elements of a documentary in with the film. That made it more relatable to and easier for people to understand. Several times there are brief pauses in the movie to explain about the dinosaurs found within and some of the interesting features about them. One of my favorite moments was when Alex was explaining about the Gorgosaurus and he loses composure because of one key feature of the carnivores. I won't say what, but if you've seen the trailers you might know what I'm talking about. Still despite Alex breaking the fourth wall several times the characters don't even know the audience is there. I think the documentary features help support the moral I'm using in this review because we can understand a little more of Patchi's life and know how he's feeling, why he feels like giving up at different points and why he chooses to keep trying.
The design of the dinosaurs was also very interesting. I enjoyed seeing some of the new information we found out about dinosaurs since the original Walking with Dinosaurs came used in this movie like how certain dinosaurs had feathers. The film did have some errors with the animals. It listed Troodon as being an omnivore when I was sure it was supposed to be a carnivore. Also the ankylosaur in the movie was called Edmontonia. The film did use some species that were new to me like Chirostenotes and Hesperonychus. I have to admit I'm not sure if Gorgosaurus being the shade of blue it was would've been very helpful in the prehistoric world. To me at least it be a dead giveaway that they would've been in the area and would alert prey to them. Patchi's coloring and size also help support the theme because he's basically at the bottom of the pack (or herd I should say), yet he keeps pushing on until he becomes more than what others saw him as.
I really enjoyed this movie and had a good time watching it with my family. I was surprised to read that several reviews for the movie had been negative. Still my opinion remains the same: This was a very well done movie and one that I definitely will add to my personal collection when it comes out on DVD, if they still exist at the time.
One of the funny things about us going to the theater was that we were the only ones in there.

See? I couldn't get a photo of around me. However you get the idea. Also I didn't hear this come up at all during the movie, but the main Gorgosaurus (the one that was really blue) was named Gorgon according to what I read. That was interesting because the species was named after the gorgons of Greek mythology. Actually that was the understanding I had. I did some research and Gorgosaurus actually means Fierce Lizard. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to argue with that. Well I think I've done enough for now. I'll try to get a list up this week of movies I plan to see this new year. Also one of my new year's resolutions is to be completely done with the first draft of book 2 of The Myths of Dymos by the end of the year.