Walking with...
Walking with..., also referred to as Walking with Prehistoric Life, is a media franchise created by Tim Haines and Jasper James centered on a collection of documentary series produced by the BBC and created by the independent production company Impossible Pictures. The series of documentaries began with Walking with Dinosaurs (1999), which was followed by four more series; Walking with Beasts (2001), Walking with Cavemen (2003), Sea Monsters (2003) and Walking with Monsters (2005).
| Walking with... | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover of box set containing multiple series of the franchise. | |
| Created by | Tim Haines Jasper James |
| Original work | Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) |
| Owned by | BBC |
| Films and television | |
| Film(s) | Walking with Dinosaurs (2013) |
| Television series | Series
Specials
|
| Theatrical presentations | |
| Play(s) | Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular |
Dinosaurs, Beasts and Monsters form an overarching series within the franchise dubbed the Trilogy of Life. In addition to the main series, three special episodes have been produced; The Ballad of Big Al (2000), The Giant Claw (2002) and Land of Giants (2003). In 2013, a movie based on Walking with Dinosaurs, with the same name, was directed by Neil Nightingale and Barry Cook.
The aim of the installments in the franchise is to recreate extinct animals and present them in the same way modern animals are presented in wildlife documentaries. The various extinct animals were realized throughout the franchise using computer graphics and animatronics.
Series
- Walking with Dinosaurs (1999)[1]
This six-part series is focused on the rise, success, and the demise of the dinosaurs and other animals in the Mesozoic Era.
- Walking with Beasts (2001)[2]
This six-part series is a sequel to Walking with Dinosaurs, and its focus is on the world after the dinosaurs, and the rise of the mammals in the Cenozoic Era. It was released in the United States as Walking with Prehistoric Beasts.
- Walking with Cavemen (2003)
This four-part series is a sequel to Walking with Beasts and recounts the evolution of humans.
- Sea Monsters (2003)
In this three-part series, real-life zoologist Nigel Marven travels through time to encounter many prehistoric marine creatures that lived during, before, and after dinosaurs. In the United States it was titled Chased by Sea Monsters.
- Walking with Monsters (2005)[3]
This three-part series is a prequel to Walking with Dinosaurs, and its focus is life before the dinosaurs, in the Paleozoic Era. It was released in the United States as Before the Dinosaurs.
Specials
- The Ballad of Big Al (2001)[4]
This special follows the life and death of "Big Al", a famous Allosaurus skeleton found with various injuries. In the United States, it was released under the title Allosaurus: A Walking with Dinosaurs Special.
- Land of Giants/The Giant Claw (2002–2003)
In these two episodes, real-life zoologist Nigel Marven travels through time in search for various dinosaurs. In the United States, the two episodes were marketed together under the name Chased by Dinosaurs.
Timeline of episodes
| Time | Geological period | Series | Episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4400 mya | Early Precambrian | Walking with Monsters | "Water Dwellers" |
| 530 mya | Early Cambrian | Walking with Monsters | "Water Dwellers" |
| 450 mya | Late Ordovician | Sea Monsters | "The Seventh Most Deadly Sea" |
| 418 mya | Late Silurian | Walking with Monsters | "Water Dwellers" |
| 360 mya | Late Devonian | Sea Monsters | "The Fifth Most Deadly Sea" |
| 360 mya | Late Devonian | Walking with Monsters | "Water Dwellers" |
| 300 mya | Late Carboniferous | Walking with Monsters | "Reptile's Beginnings" |
| 280 mya | Early Permian | Walking with Monsters | "Reptile's Beginnings" |
| 250 mya | Late Permian | Walking with Monsters | "Clash of Titans" |
| 248 mya | Early Triassic | Walking with Monsters | "Clash of Titans" |
| 230 mya | Late Triassic | Sea Monsters | "The Sixth Most Deadly Sea" |
| 220 mya | Late Triassic | Walking with Dinosaurs | "New Blood" |
| 155 mya | Late Jurassic | Sea Monsters | "The Second Most Deadly Sea" |
| 152 mya | Late Jurassic | Walking with Dinosaurs | "Time of the Titans" |
| 149 mya | Late Jurassic | Walking with Dinosaurs | "Cruel Sea" |
| 145 mya | Late Jurassic | The Ballad of Big Al | "The Ballad of Big Al" |
| 127 mya | Early Cretaceous | Walking with Dinosaurs | "Giant of the Skies" |
| 106 mya | Early Cretaceous | Walking with Dinosaurs | "Spirits of the Ice Forest" |
| 100 mya | Late Cretaceous | Land of Giants | "Land of Giants" |
| 75 mya | Late Cretaceous | The Giant Claw | "The Giant Claw" |
| 75 mya | Late Cretaceous | Sea Monsters | "The Most Deadly Sea Ever" |
| 70 mya | Late Cretaceous | Walking with Dinosaurs ( the 3D Movie) | "Walking with Dinosaurs ( the 3D Movie)" |
| 65 mya | Late Cretaceous | Walking with Dinosaurs | "Death of a Dynasty" |
| 49 mya | Early Eocene | Walking with Beasts | "New Dawn" |
| 36 mya | Late Eocene | Walking with Beasts | "Whale Killer" |
| 36 mya | Late Eocene | Sea Monsters | "The Fourth Most Deadly Sea" |
| 25 mya | Late Oligocene | Walking with Beasts | "Land of Giants" |
| 4 mya | Early Pliocene | Sea Monsters | "The Third Most Deadly Sea" |
| 3.2 mya | Late Pliocene | Walking with Beasts | "Next of Kin" |
| 3.2 mya | Late Pliocene | Walking with Cavemen | "First Ancestors" |
| 2 mya | Early Pleistocene | Walking with Cavemen | "Blood Brothers" |
| 1.5 mya | Early Pleistocene | Walking with Cavemen | "Savage Family" |
| 1 mya | Early Pleistocene | Walking with Beasts | "Sabre Tooth" |
| 500,000 ya | Late Pleistocene | Walking with Cavemen | "Savage Family" |
| 400,000 ya | Late Pleistocene | Walking with Cavemen | "The Survivors" |
| 30,000 ya | Late Pleistocene | Walking with Beasts | "Mammoth Journey" |
| 30,000 ya | Late Pleistocene | Walking with Cavemen | "The Survivors" |
Crew
| Series | Narrators | Directors | Producers | Executive Producers | Creators and (or) Developers | Cinematography | Editors | Creative Directors | Composers | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking with Dinosaurs | Kenneth Branagh and Avery Brooks | Tim Haines and Jasper James | Tim Haines and Japser James | John Lynch | Tim Haines | John Howarth and Michael Pitts | Andrew Wilks | Mike Milne | Ben Bartlett | 1999 |
| Walking with Beasts | Kenneth Branagh and Stockard Channing | Jasper James and Nigel Paterson | Jasper James and Nigel Paterson | Tim Haines | Tim Haines, Jasper James and Andrew Wilks | John Howarth and Michael Pitts | Greg Smith and Andrew Wilks | Mike Milne | Ben Bartlett | 2001 |
| Walking with Monsters | Kenneth Branagh and Edward Gero | Chloe Leland and Tim Haines | Chloe Leland | Tim Haines | Andrew Wilks | Peter Thorn and Paul Jenkins | Andrew Wilks | Mike Milne | Ben Bartlett | 2005 |
Books
Several books were released that directly accompanied different series in the Walking with... series. These include the following:
- Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History by Tim Haines
- Walking with Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari by Tim Haines
- Chased by Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Predators of the Deep by Nigel Marven and Jasper James
- The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life by Tim Haines and Paul Chambers
- Walking with Cavemen by John Lynch
Related books issued by the BBC and Dorling Kindersley include:
- Walking with Dinosaurs 3-D Dinosaurs by Stephen Cole
- Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence by David Martill and Darren Naish
- Walking with Dinosaurs Sticker Book by Stephen Cole
- Walking with Dinosaurs: Fascinating Facts by Mike Benton
- Walking with Dinosaurs Photo Journal by Stephen Cole
- Walking with Beasts Photo Journal by Stephen Cole
- Allosaurus! The Life and Death of Big Al by Stephen Cole
Prehistoric Planet
Prehistoric Planet is a revision of the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts series, done by Discovery Channel and NBC for the Discovery Kids network. Though the producers kept most of the original animation, David Bock and Peter Sherman wrote new text for a younger target audience, narrated by Ben Stiller (in Season 1) and Christian Slater (in Season 2), and interspersed the scenes with occasional quizzes to act as bumpers around the commercial breaks. New music was incorporated as well. Most marketing and advertising for the series focused on the dinosaur episodes. In addition, the final episode, Prehistoric Planet Top 10, focused solely on the creatures from Walking with Dinosaurs. Most of the graphic content from the shows were removed to be more appropriate for children, small content edits were also done to allow original programs to fit in the 23 minutes of non-commercial time that a normal half-hour program has on network TV, resulting in footage from the shows to be trimmed down. Only Season 1 has been released on home video and DVD.
Accolades
Primetime Emmy Awards
| Award | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking with Dinosaurs | Walking with Beasts | Walking with Monsters | The Ballad of Big Al | Land of Giants/The Giant Claw | Sea Monsters | Walking with Cavemen | |
| Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming More Than One Hour) | Won | Won | Won | Won | Won | ||
| Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special | Won | Nominated | Nominated | Nominated | |||
| Outstanding Sound Editing in Non-Fiction Program | Won | Won | |||||
| Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing in Non-Fiction Program | Nominated | ||||||
| Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special | Nominated | ||||||
| Outstanding Picture Editing for a Non-Fiction Program | Nominated |
BAFTA Awards
| Award | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking with Dinosaurs | Walking with Beasts | Walking with Monsters | The Ballad of Big Al | Land of Giants/The Giant Claw | Sea Monsters | Walking with Cavemen | |
| Innovation | Won | ||||||
| Best Original Television Music | Won | ||||||
| Lew Grade Award | Nominated | ||||||
| Best Sound (Factual) | Nominated | ||||||
| Best Visual Effects and Graphic Design | Nominated | Nominated | Won (only 'The Giant Claw') | Won | |||
| Interactive Entertainment Award | Won (As a part of BBC Natural History) |
Visual Effects Society Awards
| Award | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking with Dinosaurs | Walking with Beasts | Walking with Monsters | The Ballad of Big Al | Land of Giants/The Giant Claw | Sea Monsters | Walking with Cavemen | |
| Outstanding Visual Effects in a Television Series | Nominated | ||||||
| Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie or Special | Won |