Synopsis: We follow the life and adventures of dinosaurs like Deinocherus and Troodon as they grow and survive in a prehistoric world.
Viewed on: HBO Max (Also available on CuriousityStream)
Apparently to my surprise, HBO Max has a two part documentary series on their platform called Amazing Dinoworld. This series is a japanese-american co-production by CuriousityStream with state of the art CGI that really took my back to those days of watching Walking with Dinosaurs on television. Although this series can overextend its reach about the science, it is nonetheless a fun thrill ride. Compared to other dinosaur documentaries that have come out in the past few years, Amazing Dinoworld makes it mark and stands out as one the new great dinosaur documentaries.
The first half of this series is called The Feathered Revolution which takes us through the lives of two feathered dinosaurs, Deinocheirus and Troodon, and how feathers possibly influenced their evolutionary histories. Deinocheirus (means horrible hand) is an omnivorous dinosaur with giant claws, and I was actually very intrigued by the new science of this animal. Fossils out of Mongolia show this creature is a T-rex sized animal that used its claws for finding food and for defense against predators like Tarbosaurus. Other fossils show a strong parental instinct was present in Deinocheirus based on sophisticated nests that became fossilized.
The other part of the episode focus on a mother Troodon. The story takes a drastic shift in locality because now we are in the Arctic. Its very interesting to see dinosaurs in snow since most people don't know they can adapt pretty well to the cold. Scientist begin to explain here that feathers probably influence certain evolutionary traits. For example, feathers kept dinosaurs warm which is believed to of helped Troodon fuel its big brain. Troodon has the biggest brain relative to body size amongst dinosaurs. Both Troodon's and Deinocheirus' feathers probably helped them incubate their eggs and allowed the animals to better nurture their young.
The only negatives I noticed were the melodramatic story elements. I understand this is for the purposes of entertainment, but when a dinosaur documentary tries to pull at your heart strings like a Pixar movie would, it's just a little out of place for a speculative nature documentary. Now lets forget about all the science and the melodramatic story stuff, and just look at the CGI. The animation in this series in incredible, top notch! Honestly, Amazing Dinoworld has the best CGI of any dino doc of seen recently. Even amongst all the special limited engagement museum imax theaters, this documentary ranks up their in terms of visual quality. This viewing would be best seen on a big screen. If you want an updated Walking with Dinosaurs with scientifically accurate (but not perfect) dinos and reptiles, with CGI that that doesn't lag far behind Jurassic World, then this series if for you.
My Score: Tyrannosaurs Recs
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