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| TV,
Jerry Carpenter,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F3
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I’ve been enjoying the hype for this one. Usually when the B goes trailer crazy it’s for some dull Eastenders special Edition or some new slant on why paying your licence fee improves the quality of human life – witness the bleeding heartfest of Beeb journos they’ve been slipping in recently. But writing out a fat check for a CGI-gantic documentary showing Dinos living it up 150 million BC style, that’s a wise move I’d sign the cheque for.
Opening shots confirm some niggling fears immediately. The CGI’s good to very good, and this makes the prosthetics look positively fingerbobs by comparison. It’s a shame, but because a lot of the scenes play out in bright baking sun (where the Computer dino’s are skillfully slipped) the puppet heads really look just that – they don’t even blink. The camerawork is pretty active, and the dino combat vignettes are compellingly sparky. That said the pre-Jurrassic herbivore/carnivore chase scene must rate the most mogadon fueled tv action sequence ever. But that sort of stuff just adds to the charm of it all.
The show aims to create a realistic re-enactment of the period by applying classic ‘circle-of-life’ wildlife film-making to dinoworld with reference from the top experts in the field. This means grafting on the thinnest of narratives to the struggles of the small group of creatures each show focuses on. At times this approach prompts the giggles and a serving of ‘Jimmy Hill’ chin scratching. Ken Brannagh’s dull-but-important sounding voice intones – ‘ and now these pre-mammals are forced to resort to eating their own children, just to survive ‘, and the mummy and daddy handpuppets start snacking on the cute pink fingerpuppets. ‘As it really happened’ my arse – but very funny regardless.
BBC1 Mondays 20.30 BST
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