History YMMV / WalkingWithDinosaurs

** Chased By Dinosaurs has the famous flying reptile ''Pteranodon'' living in the the earliest part of the Late Cretaceous (it really lived roughly in the middle) and in South America instead of North America. It was [[LiteralMetaphor literally]] in the wrong place at the wrong time.

* {{Narm}}: In ''Walking With Monsters''. For all it's hunting prowess and deadliness, the famous crested mammal-ancestor ''Dimetrodon'' looks pretty damn goofy when it's running.
** Justified in the fact that every land vertebrate at that time period ran more or less like that, and the 10-feet one was likely to outrun everything else. And its following evolutive stage (the Gorgonopsid) loses its "clumsiness" altogether.

*** Chased By Dinosaurs has the famous flying reptile Pteranodon living in the the earliest part of the Late Cretaceous (it really lived roughly in the middle) and in South America instead of North America. It was [[LiteralMetaphor literally]] in the wrong place at the wrong time.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The series arguably was destined to a general public including both adults and children: however, for some people who watched it during childhood, several parts of the Walking With series are nothing but a long, endless sequence of NightmareFuel-related stuff. Arguably, talking about prehistory in a more reassuring way "will never be allowed" in TV. And the book "A Natural History" doesn't exactly better the situation, either.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: the giant sea reptile ''Liopleurodon''. This show did to him what JurassicPark did to ''Velociraptor'': make it stock (as wel as exaggerate its size).

*** Chased By Dinosaurs has the famous flying reptile Pteranodon living in the the earliest part of the Late Cretaceous (it really lived roughly in the middle) and in South America instead of North America. It was shown at the wrong place at the wrong time.

* ItWasHisSled: Spoiler alert--[[spoiler:The dinosaurs go extinct!]]

** Useless to say, YourMileageMayVary.

*** Chased By Dinosaurs has the famous flying reptile Pteranodon living in the Early Cretaceous instead of the Upper Cretaceous and in South America instead of North America. It was shown at the wrong place at the wrong time.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** 1) ''Walking With Dinosaurs'': There are several, such as the [[http://www.youtube.com/user/Campaigner101#p/search/0/lchw0UvwEmQ opening theme]], the heartbreaking [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJIp_kyJLo&feature=related Giant of the Skies]], the epic [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stS4SSrv6cU&feature=related Flight of the Ornithocheirus]], the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ123EGQlSo&feature=related Diplodocus march]], the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaNFO3EDw4 Raptor chase]], the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUBIUk_D-qY&feature=related Cruel Sea suite]]... just get the soundtrack, close your eyes, and let Benjamin Bartlett's music take you back to the Age of Dinosaurs.
** 2) ''Ballad Of Big Al'': The ''Allosaurus'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_D2F9QdU8M&feature=channel hunt on the salt flats]] is probably the best musical piece in the whole ''Walking With'' series. The funny [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRksJwGpOyc young Allosaurus theme]] is also worth of mention.
** 3) ''Walking With Beasts'' has many masterpieces as well: the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdtjCQhzl4g&feature=channel attack of Basilosaurus to the Moeritherium]], the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeStegYXevs&feature=channel entelodont battle]], the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMygBxRXpS8 Indricotherium theme]], the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_QY4EJaq-o&feature=channel Smilodon clash]], the very evocative mammoth march, the majestic Australopithecus wandering in the plains after being chased from their old territory, and ''all'' the musics accompanying [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCq8Li9_6WA&feature=channel New Dawn]]. And the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uSFCIOK9MA&feature=channel opening theme]] of course, which rivals Big Al as the title of "the best".
** 4) ''Walking With Monsters'': The opening theme, the ''Anomalocaris'' fight, the ''Cephalaspis'' migration, the Jaws-reminding ''Hyneria'' attack, the whole Early Permian Period, the relentless ''Dimetrodon'' and gorgonopsid attack, the sad Permian Extinction, and the march/river-crossing of ''Lystrosaurus''. And don't forget the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIGlOwdWpL4 Evolution theme]]: it almost makes ''Monsters'' seeming a videogame with all the stages and respective enemies.
** 5) ''Prehistoric Park'': The best piece is probably the soundtrack accompanying ''Elasmotherium'' and ''Toxodon'' stampede. But also the motif for the funny moments and that with the cave bear as well.
** 6) The music in ''Sea Monsters'' is overall great, but the music playing during the Mosasaurs attack really makes it a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, and is equally great to the above ''Ballad of Big Al'' example.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Several examples.
** The march of the ''Diplodocus'' in the opening of "Land of the Giants" in the original ''Walking With Dinosaurs''.
** Nigel Marven tagging the giant shark MEGALODON in ''Sea Monsters''.
** The mother ''Dimetrodon'' defending her nest from the rival female in ''Walking with Monsters''.
** Another example from the same program: the tiny predator ''Euparkeria'' becoming a gigantic ''Allosaurus'' and ''frightening the croc-like chasmatosaur which chased it just before'' (like saying: "Ah, what are you going to do now?")
** Martha the mammoth versus Matilda the Tyrannosaurus in ''Prehistoric Park''. Heck, the entire ending sequence for the final part, expecially when the giant croc ''Deinosuchus'' almost manages to ''kill Mathilda''!
** The ending of the episode New Blood, when a herd of Plateosaurus march in, scaring off the Celophisis and the scence where the Liopleurodon drags a huge, carnivorus dinosaur under the waves.
** The ''Diplodocus'' hunt in "The Ballad of Big Al", and the music really helps.
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: ''Beasts'' has at least two. By the end of "Next of Kin" when the australopithecines team up to drive off the big cat ''Dinofelis'' from a threatened youngster, and when the matriarch of the mammoth herd welcomes the delayed female and her calf in "Mammoth Journey".
** Making the ending of "Next of Kin" was that Blue was the ButtMonkey of the ''Australopithecus'' tribe, an orphan who was basically a hanger-on to the tribe after his mother died. The fact the tribe considered him ''worth saving'' make it extra heartwarming.
** ''Prehistoric Park'' has a female mammoth wounded by primitive human hunters, and despite this she accept to befriend modern human Nigel and follows him in the modern-day park. Another example is the same mammoth being accepted by the African elephants' matriarch after risking to "die for loneliness" due to refusing to eat any food.

* NightmareFuel: There are several gruesome scenes throughout the series.
** New Blood: It's not surprising if any kid back in 1999 that saw the series for the first time has been scared by the death of [[spoiler: the baby cynodont who wandered too far]] and the look on [[spoiler: the ''Postosuchus''' face as he dies (she's drooling, and her eyes are ''blood red'')]]
*** This is nothing compared to a deleted scene in the US programation: the couple of adult cynodonts '''eat their own young''' to have more possibilities to escape predators. Since there isn't any fossil proof about this behaviour, [[TearJerker it was really necessary to show it]]?
** "Cruel Sea". Just..."Cruel Sea". It's not surprising if it didn't make a whole lot of people not want to go anywhere near any coastlines for a while... in particular, that part where the bitten-off ''Opthalmosaurus'' tail slowly sinks to the sea floor is what did it for many people.
** Another deleted scene from the original: [[{{Squick}} the dead tyrannosaur embryo out of the broken egg]].
** The giant ants in ''Walking with Beasts'' which devour the chick alive caused many viewers to hate not only ''the entire ant lineage'', but [[FridgeLogic even ant-scientists and ant-lovers]] since watching this scene. Zoologists and environmentalists have to [[SarcasmMode thank]] "Walking With" a lot.
** Some scavengers in the series seem like to eat ''the eyes'' of the corpses. And the female ''Dimetrodon'' loses an eyeball after a fight.
** The agony of the armoured herbivore ''Scutosaurus'' killed by the mammal-like Gorgonopsid in WWM: you can see the blood of the former gushing out of its neck!
** ''Walking With Cavemen may be retitled "Walking with Nightmare Fuels" as well, it's full of these from the start to the end... especially about the exaggerated realism of some death scenes.
*** The fact that some of our ancestors in the program are portrayed with a rather... [[UncannyValley grotesque look]] makes this program even more scary. That means that we are descendants of Nightmare Fuels. Every person that you see every day, including you, is descended from those Nightmare Fuels. So we are surrounded by Nightmare Fuel every day. Come to think of it, Walking With Cavemen could also count as [[FridgeHorror Fridge Horror]].
*** Maybe these ancestors ''were not'' so Nightmare Fuelish in RealLife... but producers thought well to make them as scary as possible because of the umpteenth RuleOfCool example. However, see the australopithecine's look in WWB, they are even nice-looking... It seems many WWD continuations ''really like'' to play straight the DarkerAndEdgier trope (not only ''Walking with Monsters'').
*** Anthropologists often say if Neanderthals would be alive today and clothed, they'll pass unnoticed in our modern cities.

* TearJerker: The death of the GiantFlyer ''Ornithocheirus'' in ''Giant of the Skies'' and the eventual extinction of the dinosaurs. But "Giant of the Skies" especially. Not to mention that [[NightmareFuel poor young cynodonts]]...
** From the ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' Special about Big Al, many people felt sad when [[spoiler: the allosaur dies still young from his injuries and starvation]].
** ''Walking With Beasts'' has also a sad scene when a young ''Indricotherium'' is violently driven off by its ''own mother'' as she got a new calf. The scene when the ''Gastornis'' chick is eaten alive by ants is an odd mixture of this and NightmareFuel, just like the aforementioned cynodonts. Still another example from ''Beasts'' is the opening with the australopitecines "mourning" their elder female in "Next of Kin", probably [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman because how human they look]].
** The entire Late Permian in ''Monsters'' is a slow journey to death for all creatures. And ''that'' was the worst mass extinction ever, not that of the dinosaurs.
** ''Prehistoric Park'' has Nigel and the popular big cat expert Sabah Huntingdon mourning for sabretooth cats which suffer hunger and finally die because of starvation. And also the sad story of Martha the mammoth and her sister, even though it ends happily this time.
*** [[FridgeLogic They could travel through time, yet they couldn't arrive in time to save these animals?]]
**** It looked like they were taking the animals from the times they were becoming extinct to not have as big an effect on the timeline... maybe.
** The live arena show ends with a Tyrannosaurus and her baby snuggling as the comet hits the earth.

** From the ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' Special about Big Al, many people felt sad when [[spoiler: the allosaur dies still young from his injuries and starvation]]

* TheyJustDidntCare: The NetFlix episode summaries screw up a lot. By which claiming that "Giant of the Skies" centered on ''[[StockDinosaurs Archaeopteryx]]'', promising "mammoth ichthyosaurs" (if by "mammoth" one means "dolphin-sized") and "[[UsefulNotes/PrehistoricLife marine crocodiles]]" for "Cruel Sea", and claiming that "Death of a Dynasty" was an examination of an unanswered query about the extinction of the dinosaurs, rather than it being a [[DownerEnding plain depiction of]] [[RocksFallEveryoneDies a giant meteorite killing them all]] [[TheMagicGoesAway after a considerable decline from volcanic activity.]]

* The Diplodicus hunt in "The Ballard of Big Al", and the music really helps.

** The agony of the armoured herbivore Scutosaur killed by the mammal-like Gorgonopsid in WWM: you can see the blood of the former gushing out of its neck!

* {{Narm}}: In ''Walking With Monsters''. For all it's hunting prowess and deadliness, the famous crested mammal-ancestor ''Dimetrodon'' looks pretty damn goofy when it's running.
** Justified in the fact that every land vertebrate at that time period ran more or less like that, and the 10-feet one was likely to outrun everything else. And its following evolutive stage (the Gorgonopsid) loses its "clumsiness" altogether.

*** Anthropologists often say if Neanderthals would be alive today and clothed, they'll pass unnoticed in our modern cities.

* NightmareFuel: There are several gruesome scenes troughout the series.

** ''Walking With Cavemen may be retitled "Walking with Nightmare Fuels" as well, it's full of these from the start to the end... expecially about the exaggerated realism of some death scenes.

*** To some, it's more of a WallBanger than a TearJerker. [[FridgeLogic They could travel through time, yet they couldn't arrive in time to save these animals?]]

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: ''Beasts'' has at least two. By the end of "Next of Kin" when the australopithecines team up to drive off the aforementioned cat ''Dinofelis'' from a threatened youngster, and when the matriarch of the mammoth herd welcomes the delayed female and her calf in "Mammoth Journey".