History YMMV / WalkingWithDinosaurs

** The upcoming 2013 installment is not even a documentary, just SpiritStallionofTheCimmaron WITH DINOSAURS!!!!.

* ItChangedHowItSucks: Many a dinosaur fan and ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' fan have complained about the 2013 movie humanizing the animals too much.

** The upcoming 2013 installment is not even a documentary, just a TheLandBeforeTime CGI sequel.

** ''Walking with Monsters'' suffers from some particularly bad-looking CGI composition. A lot of times, animals either clip into the scenery, their shadows rarely correspond to the irregularities or the color of the ground, and in some shots, they are cropped a little bit too far from the screen's edge ([[http://i53.tinypic.com/ofpuz4.png like this poor fish]]), so you can even see parts of the background "through" them.[[hottip:*:Though this last one may depend on whether or not you watch it on DVD. At least one version of the ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' DVD also has some strange goings on at the edges of the screen.]]

** The old ''Ornithocheirus'' too. He risked his life flying all the way to his old mating grounds, is driven away the minute he gets there, and dies of exhaustion without managing to mate at all.

* TheWoobie: TyrannosaurusRex.

** TheWoobie: TyrannosaurusRex.

** TheWoobie: TyranosaurusRex.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Its visual effects are among the most impressive in any TV series ever, period.

** Averted, defied, spat upon and ''defiled'' by the upcoming movie, though some things (like a tyrannosaurid having it's teeth punched out of the jaws) are questionable.

* 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.

* NightmareFuel: The strange roaring noises the doomed ''Iguanodon'' is making.

** Nigel surviving in the Carboniferous without filters is another example, since Carboniferous had much more oxygen in the atmosphere than every other prehistoric time, and ''too much oxygen'' is as lethal to human physiology as a low level of it.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: the giant sea reptile ''[[StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Liopleurodon]]''. This show did to him what ''Film/JurassicPark'' did to ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Velociraptor]]'': make it stock (as well as exaggerate its size).

* MostAnnoyingSound: You will get ''really'' tired of hearing the American narrator say "wildlife adventurer Nigel Marvin" after ''every damned commercial break'' in ''Prehistoric Park''.
** I nominate "[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Anatotitan]]"'s "roar" (it does sound like they're saying the word "roar"). That sound drives me nuts.

** ''The Complete Guide'' cites Carnosauria as "an ill-defined collection of theropods, whose evolutionary relationships are much contested by scientists." This hasn't been the case since TheNineties at latest. Carnosauria is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnosauria actually pretty well-defined]] and has been since earlier this century.
** The recent 2013 installment is not even a documentary, just a TheLandBeforeTime CGI sequel.

* 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) The music in ''Sea Monsters'' is overall great, but the music playing during the mosasaur attack really makes it a CrowningMomentOfAwesome, and is equally great to the above ''Ballad of Big Al'' example.

** The huge dinosaur ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Giganotosaurus]]'' with its memorable predation upon the gigantic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropoda sauropod]] ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Argentinosaurus]]'' may be counted as another example. It's interesting both ''Giganotosaurus'' and ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Spinosaurus]]'' (the latter became stock after ''JurassicParkIII'') achieved their popularity in the same year (2001).

* NightmareFuel: Lots.
** Liopleurodon is terrifying, particularly when it starts attacking an Opthalmosaurus giving birth. It is just a mindless animal, but it scares off a pair of sharks that are twice the size of modern ones and the sinister soundtrack does ''not'' help.
** The first episode of Walking With Beasts gives us the ants killing the baby Gastornis, followed by a cut to the dead baby. ''Stripped to the skin.'' We also get walking whale Ambulocetus drowning animals, followed by anything and everything choking due to the carbon monoxide poisoning.
** Basilosaurus is the best example of MamaBear turned absolutely terrifying.
** The Utahraptor hunt when they corner the lone Iguanodon. The sounds it made and the expression on its face shows no hope in ever escaping from its death.

* CriticalBacklash: From the general scientist/paleontologist community, but mostly from those to whom scientific accuracy is SeriousBusiness and any amount of speculation is intolerable. One such person infamously labeled the show's paleontology consultants "[[http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Essays/WWD/default.html prostitutes]]" for their "selling out" their knowledge to a fancy TV show.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: the giant sea reptile ''[[StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs Liopleurodon]]''. This show did to him what JurassicPark did to ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Velociraptor]]'': make it stock (as well as exaggerate its size).
** The huge dinosaur ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Giganotosaurus]]'' with its memorable predation upon the gigantic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropoda sauropod]] ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Argentinosaurus]]'' may be counted as another example. It's interesting both ''Giganotosaurus'' and ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Spinosaurus]]'' (the latter became stock after JurassicPark 3) achieved their popularity in the same year (2001).

** The final fate of the Tyrannosaur family at the end of Death of a Dynasty rather comically clashes with the grimness of the scene. To elaborate: The mother died from her leg wound, with the surviving infants clustering around her body. Then the meteor shockwave hits. The babies get suck up by the wind and zoom away, followed by the mother's corpse being lazily dragged after them.

** I nominate ''[[StockDinosaursTrueDinosaurs Anatotitan]]'''s "roar" (it does sound like they're saying the word "roar"). That sound drives me nuts.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: the giant sea reptile ''Liopleurodon''. This show did to him what JurassicPark did to ''Velociraptor'': make it stock (as well as exaggerate its size).
** The huge dinosaur ''Giganotosaurus'' with its memorable predation upon the gigantic [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropoda sauropod]] ''Argentinosaurus'' may be counted as another example. It's interesting both ''Giganotosaurus'' and ''Spinosaurus'' (the latter became stock after JurassicPark 3) achieved their popularity in the same year (2001).

** I nominate ''Anatotitan'''s "roar" (it does sound like they're saying the word "roar"). That sound drives me nuts.
* {{Narm}}: In ''Walking With Monsters''. For all its hunting prowess and deadliness, the famous crested mammal-ancestor ''Dimetrodon'' looks pretty damn goofy when it's running.

* 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.]]

** ''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.

** Special mention must go to ''Sea Monsters''. It features pre-historic creatures ''underwater'' and interaticing with Nigel.
** The arena spectacular for the sheer spectacle of seeing life-sized dinosaurs live in front of you.