Land of Giants / The Giant Claw

Land of Giants and The Giant Claw (full titles Land of Giants: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special and The Giant Claw: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special), marketed together as Chased by Dinosaurs in the United States, are two special episodes of the nature documentary television series Walking with Dinosaurs.[1][2] Created by Impossible Pictures and produced by the BBC Natural History Unit, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben,[3] The Giant Claw was first broadcast on 30 December 2002, followed by Land of Giants on 1 January 2003. The two episodes stars British wildlife presenter Nigel Marven as a "time-travelling zoologist", interacting with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, a drastic change in presentation from preceding entries in the Walking with... franchise.

Land of Giants / The Giant Claw
Cover of the original UK DVD release
Genre	Nature documentary
Created by	Tim Haines
Directed by	Tim Haines Jasper James
Presented by	Nigel Marven
Composer	Ben Bartlett
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	2
Production
Executive producers	Tim Haines Gaynelle Evans Adam Kemp
Producer	Jasper James
Cinematography	John Howarth Peter Thorn Paul Jenkins Claire Allistone
Editors	Andrew Wilks Tom Parker
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	BBC Natural History Unit Impossible Pictures
Distributor	BBC Worldwide
Release
Original network	BBC, Discovery Channel, ProSieben
Original release	30 December 2002 – 1 January 2003

As with previous documentaries in the Walking with... franchise, Land of Giants and The Giant Claw recreated extinct animals through a combination of computer-generated imagery and animatronics, incorporated into live action footage shot at various locations. The visual effects of the episodes were praised, with both episodes together winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Programme in 2004 and The Giant Claw winning a BAFTA TV Award for Best Visual Effects in 2003. For his role as the presenter of Land of Giants, and of the subsequent miniseries Sea Monsters, Marven was nominated for a Royal Television Society Programme award.

Production

Land of Giants and The Giant Claw were created by Impossible Pictures,[3][4] creators of the original series of Walking with Dinosaurs. The same technologies used to restore the animals in the previous series were used to reconstruct the prehistoric creatures and environments showcased in the specials, with computer-generated animals and animatronics being used for the animals and background footage being shot in real natural environments.[4][5] Because grass had not yet evolved in the Cretaceous, the location team had to look for filming sites where there was no grass. Filming locations included Fraser Island in Australia and Tenerife (including the lava-covered slopes of Mount Teide, prominently figuring in Land of Giants)[6] in the Canary Islands.[4]

The decision to include a wildlife presenter, The Giant Claw being the first time a wildlife presenter had ever been depicted interacting with computer-generated dinosaurs, was made to more easily allow the audience to see the true scale of the creatures shown in the programme.[3] Tim Haines, the creator of Walking with Dinosaurs, had seen Nigel Marven's work with modern-day reptiles and approached him about the possibility of producing a programme in which Marven travelled back in time to meet dinosaurs, a prospect which Marven was enthusiastic about.[6]

In one segment of The Giant Claw, Marven is chased by velociraptors and has to climb up a tree to escape. While climbing, Marven accidentally put his finger under a vine before stepping on it, which led to one of his fingernails being pulled off. In order to protect himself from infection, Marven then had to wear a bandage on his finger. The bandage and injury was incorporated into the story of the episode, with a Mononykus being depicted as biting Marven's finger.[6]

Episodes

No.	Title	Time period	Directed by	Original air date	U.K. viewers (millions)
1	"The Giant Claw"	Late Cretaceous, 75 mya	Tim Haines	30 December 2002	6.83[7]
Nigel searches the deserts and forests of Cretaceous Mongolia for Therizinosaurus, an obscure dinosaurs with massive fossil claws, believing it to have been a huge carnivore. Throughout his journey, Marven comes face-to-face with dinosaurs such as Saurolophus, Protoceratops, Mononykus, Velociraptor and Tarbosaurus, a close relative of the famous Tyrannosaurus rex. Once Marven finds live Therizinosaurus he discovers them to have been a bizarre type of giant plant-eating theropod dinosaur.
2	"Land of Giants"	Middle Cretaceous, 100 mya	Jasper James	1 January 2003	5.76[7]
In Middle Cretaceous Argentina, Marven searches for the largest dinosaurs of all time. He encounters a herd of Argentinosaurus, one of the largest sauropod dinosaurs, and observes the long and drawn-out hunt of the sauropods by one of the largest predatory dinosaurs, Giganotosaurus. During his journey, Marven also uses a small plane to fly with pterosaurs such as Pteranodon and Ornithocheirus, and he also encounters the massive crocodyliform Sarcosuchus.

Reception

Awards

In 2003, The Giant Claw won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Visual Effects.[3] In 2004, The Giant Claw and Land of Giants won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Programme.[4] For his work in Land of Giants and in the subsequent miniseries Sea Monsters, also part of the Walking with... series and produced by Impossible Pictures, Nigel Marven was nominated for a Royal Television Society Programme award in 2004 for best presenter (factual).[8]

References

1. "Walking with Dinosaurs". BBC One. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
2. "Nigel Marven Profile | Nigel Marven | Presenters | Eden Channel". eden.uktv.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
3. "The Giant Claw | Impossible Pictures". impossiblepictures.co.uk. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
4. "Land of Giants | Impossible Pictures". impossiblepictures.co.uk. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
5. Huelsman, Eric (1 March 2000). "Walking With Dinosaurs". Animation World Network. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
6. "Chased by Dinosaurs: Nigel Marven Interview". YouTube. 2002.
7. https://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-top-30/ Weekly top 30 programmes BARB Web. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
8. "RTS programme awards nominations". The Guardian. 25 February 2004. Retrieved 17 October 2020.

External links

• Chased by Dinosaurs at IMDb