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Click above to purchase "When Dinosaurs Roamed America" at
amazon.com
When Dinosaurs Roamed America
review by Zach B.
Studio: Artisan Home Entertainment
Running Time: 90 minutes
Narrated by John Goodman
Writer: Georgann Kane
Director: Pierre de Lespinois
Retail Price: $19.98
Features: Behind The Scenes Featurettes, Animator
Interview, Paleontoligist Interview, Dinosaur Quiz, Dinosaur
Facts, Dinosaur Graphics, Music Video, Biographies, Music
Score, Weblink
Specs: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English Dolby
Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital Stereo, English Closed
Captions, English Subtitles, Chapter Selection (6
Chapters)
Released: August 15th, 2001
It seems lately the Discovery Channel has been known for
their various, in-depth specials on dinosaurs. Even though
dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years, they
still continue to draw wonder, fascination and of course,
various films and documentaries on them. While Discovery
Channel's specials have drawn big ratings, major publicity
and awards for the network, they also capture a good
audience on home video for those who do not have a feed to
the channel. Artisan now brings home "When Dinosaurs Roamed
America," a rather interesting look at dinosaurs lived on
American soil.
This feature-length special is narrated by John Goodman
(SWEET!) and he does a good job as his voice, like so many
times, brings a great presence.The feature goes on to
explain how America was once a giant continent, and
Dinosaurs in American areas. You'll see evolution, computer
animated dinosaurs in action against live-action backgrounds
and learn some interesting facts along the way.
This may seem like an educational documentary, but I
found it pretty interesting. It's easy to understand for all
ages and can be entertaining even. The live-action backdrops
and great computer animated dinosaurs blend incredibly well
together, it's quite a technical marvel. There could be
worse ways to kill time, so if you like the Discovery
Channel specials or dinosaurs, this is worth checking out.
One might expect this to be in full frame, but Artisan
has provided a lovely 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer
that really impressed me. Black levels are incredibly deep,
while colors and fleshtones are rock solid and really well
saturated. There is some grain and shimmering on the
transfer, but there is not much of it and it's not
distracting. This widescreen image really preserves so much
beauty and gives off a fantastic sense of wonder. Detail is
astonishing and a lot of it is just amazing to look at. The
locations are picture perfected and look really realistic
(they are real), but it puts you there. The animation is
pixel perfect and has good clarity. Overall, a strong
transfer, but who knows if all the young kids will like the
widescreen image. For the rest of us, enjoy!
Also very impressive is the English Dolby Digital 5.1
track. This movie features a great deal of action since it's
flooded with dinosaurs, but the little things count for
something. Waterfalls, birds outside, insects... but the
main action is really of the dinosaurs. The roars, the
fighting... it sounds really good and the mix pretty
creative. Split surrounds are generally good while .1 LFE
bass extension is fine too. Nothing revolutionary, but you
do expect to get a good experience considering the action in
the feature and that's what you get here. Still, I've heard
better mixes on other dinosaur-based features. This is a
great Dolby Digital track though that surely pleases. Also
included is a less powerful but still strong Dolby Digital
Stereo track, plus English subtitles and English closed
captions.
It's nice to see that this release isn't bare bones,
however, I did find a lot of the material here either a bit
dry, a bit promotional or not that interesting. Children and
dinofreaks will like what is offered here, as it offers more
on the subject and more knowledge to gain after the viewing
experience. That part I like, and these supplements do fit
well with the feature.
Behind The Scenes 1 plays a lot like a trailer,
but it's really promotional. You'll see on location filming,
storyboards, animation process and interviews with the crew
and how they explain the process of making something like
this. However, within the promotion and cheesy music, you'll
find a decent fact or two on how all of this is done. It's a
decent mix, so if you liked the feature, check it out. It's
non-anamorphic widescreen, too bad it's not anamorphic.
Behind The Scenes 2 is also in non-anamorphic
widescreen and feels a bit more promotional than the first.
It lasts a little over two minutes, features clips, an
interview or two and behind-the-scenes footage. Not much.
The Music Video combines on-location filming
footage, animation, clips from the feaure and staff making
it against instrumental rock music. Rather pointless, but at
less than two minutes, it's painless.
You can test your dinosaur knowledge with ten questions
in the Dinosaur Quiz (but the answers are given below
the choices, so try not to read ahead) and the text based
Dinosaur Facts explain some interesting things about
the creatures.
Dinosaur Graphics are short animation tests of the
dinos in the feature, while you can read text based
Animator Interview (with animator Don Waller) and a
Paleontoligist Interview (with Jim Kirkland and Doug
Wolfe). If you're into those kind of things, they are good
reads.
Finally, there's a textbased screen advertising
Disocvery.com (a non DVD-ROM Weblink basically) and a
text based info on the Music Score. AND THAT TEXT
MENU HAS MUSIC. On another note, I found the menus a bit...
jumbled. The interface is a bit annoying. And at the start,
you can't skip over a Discover Channel Promo Spot.
This is a decent feature about dinosaurs, that dino fans
and children should like. So if you know someone in those
demographics, pick it up for them. If you've seen this and
liked it, then it is really worth it. It's a nice release
with a fine presentation at a decent price, so if you're
interested, it's worth checking out.
 (3.5/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (4.5/5)
 (4/5)
 (1.5/5)
(3.5/5, NOT an average)
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