Walking with Prehistoric Beasts
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Walking with Beasts'', marketed as ''Walking with Prehistoric Beasts'' in North America, is a 2001 six-part nature documentary television
miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...
created by
Impossible Pictures Impossible Pictures Ltd. is a London-based independent TV production company founded in 2002 by Tim Haines, creator of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', and Jasper James. Impossible Pictures began by producing documentary series using computer genera ...
and produced by the BBC Natural History Unit, the
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
,
ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...
and
TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as (also known as EX and and stylized as TV asahi), is a television station that is owned and operated by the subsidiary of certified broadcasting holding company , itself controlled by The Asahi Shimbun Compan ...
. The sequel to the 1999 miniseries ''
Walking with Dinosaurs ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. Envi ...
'', ''Walking with Beasts'' explores the life in the
Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...
era, after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, particularly focusing on the rise of the
mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
s to dominance. The UK version of the series is narrated by Kenneth Branagh, who also narrated ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', and the US version is narrated by
Stockard Channing Stockard Channing (born Susan Antonia Williams Stockard; February 13, 1944) is an American actress. She is known for playing Betty Rizzo in the film '' Grease'' (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series ''The West Wing'' ( ...
. Like ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', ''Walking with Beasts'' recreated extinct animals through a combination of
computer-generated imagery Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is the use of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, simulators, and visual effects in films, television programs, shorts, commercials, and videos. The images may ...
and
animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
, incorporated into
live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
footage shot at various locations. It was more challenging to create convincing effects, both computer graphics and animatronics, depicting mammals owing both to fur and more moving bits and to audiences being more familiar with how mammals look and move than they were with
dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
s. The visual effects of ''Walking with Beasts'', like those of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', received praise. The series won numerous awards, including a
BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award The British Academy of Film and Television Arts ( BAFTA) annually hosted the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards for multimedia entertainment between 1998 and 2003. In 2003, BAFTA announced the award would be split into two separate ceremonies â ...
, a
Monitor Award Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...
, a
RTS Television Award The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
and a
Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
. ''Walking with Beasts'' was accompanied by a companion book, ''Walking with Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari'', written by the executive producer Tim Haines, and a two-part behind-the-scenes companion series, ''The Science of Walking with Beasts''. Also released were several children's books and the video game ''Walking with Beasts: Operation Salvage''. In 2007–2011 an exhibition based on the series featuring fossils, life-sized models and behind-the-scenes information was held at different locations throughout the UK.


Premise

''Walking with Beasts'' follows the previous series ''
Walking with Dinosaurs ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. Envi ...
'' (1999) in showcasing prehistoric life in a nature documentary style. Beginning in Germany 49 million years ago (in the
Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
), ''Walking with Beasts'' tracks animal life, particularly the rise of the
mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
s to dominance, in the
Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...
era. The series also gives some insight into
human evolution Human evolution is the evolutionary process within the history of primates that led to the emergence of ''Homo sapiens'' as a distinct species of the hominid family, which includes the great apes. This process involved the gradual development of ...
, with ''Next of Kin'' (episode four) being devoted to ''
Australopithecus ''Australopithecus'' (, ; ) is a genus of early hominins that existed in Africa during the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. The genus ''Homo'' (which includes modern humans) emerged within ''Australopithecus'', as sister to e.g. ''Australopi ...
'' and ''Mammoth Journey'' (episode six) including both
Neanderthal Neanderthals (, also ''Homo neanderthalensis'' and erroneously ''Homo sapiens neanderthalensis''), also written as Neandertals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. While th ...
s and anatomically modern humans.


Production


Pre-production, research and writing

After the success of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', the executive producer Tim Haines conceived ''Walking with Beasts'' as a sequel. The intended goal of the series was to introduce the general public to the fascinating mammals (and other animals) of the Cenozoic era, typically less represented in popular culture than dinosaurs. The budget of ''Walking with Beasts'' was ÂŁ4.2 million, one of the most expensive documentaries ever made but much lower than a feature film with comparable visual effects needs. Tim Haines attributed the completion of the series despite this to solid planning. Research in preparation for ''Walking with Beasts'' was conducted full-time for nearly two years by the geologist Paul Chambers and the zoologist Alex Freeman. Like ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', ''Walking with Beasts'' was set to consist of six episodes which meant that six suitable settings had to be chosen for the programme. Chambers and Freeman picked the six settings of the programme based on the amount of good fossil evidence, position in the time line and number of interesting animals. The settings of some episodes had been picked already before any research was required, such as doing an episode on woolly mammoths and an episode on
indricotheres Paraceratheriidae is an extinct family of long-limbed, hornless rhinocerotoids, commonly known as paraceratheres or indricotheres, that originated in the Eocene epoch and lived until the early Miocene. The first paraceratheres were only about the ...
. For much of the process, Chambers and Freeman were considering more than six settings, which meant that some potential episode ideas were forced to be abandoned. Among the abandoned ideas were an episode set in Australia, based on fossils from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area. After the selection had been narrowed down to six settings, selecting which animals would appear in each episode was a straightforward process. After Chambers and Freeman had decided upon suitable settings for the programme, the filming locations for ''Walking with Beasts'' were chosen by the assistant producer Annie Bates over a nine-month period. Bates first spoke with palaeobotanists to figure out suitable locations that were sufficiently similar to the intended ancient landscapes. After determining a comprehensive enough selection of possible filming locations, Bates traveled to the different sites with a video camera to shoot test footage, which was then viewed by the producers to get an idea of the terrain. Filming locations for ''Walking with Beasts'' included
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish: MĂ©xico), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
,
Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
,
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
and
Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
. In order to write the storylines for the series, producers Jasper James and Nigel Paterson watched numerous nature documentaries on modern animals. They wanted to avoid episodes simply becoming "lists of animals and how they lived" and instead wanted them to draw viewers in and make them want to know what would happen to the animals next. Chambers and Freeman also worked on the storylines, with the goal of ensuring that as much inferred behaviour as possible of each animal was showcased in the series. In the end, each episode of ''Walking with Beasts'' ended up with a different type of story. ''Next of Kin'' (episode four) for instance follows a group of ''Australopithecus'' going through rough times and ''Land of Giants'' (episode three) follows a young '' Indricotherium'' for the first few years of its life. Details of the plot and how animals behaved were guided by fossil evidence; James maintained in behind-the-scenes material that no details in the storylines of ''Walking with Beasts'' were based on fiction.


Special effects and filming

Chambers and Freeman worked with sculptors to create accurate reconstructions of the animals in the series. Relevant specialist
palaeontologists Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
and other researchers were consulted for each animal to gather advice on behavior and appearance. For some of the animals featured in ''Walking with Beasts'', no models had ever been made before. The model makers also worked based on drawings and photographs of fossil material. Each maquette took several weeks to create. The finished maquettes were scanned into computers with 3D. The textures of the animals were designed by skin designers, with advice from researchers. For some of the animals in ''Mammoth Journey'' (episode six), cave paintings could give an idea of real life colors but for most others the patterns were educated guesswork. As in ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', the computer graphics for ''Walking with Beasts'' were created by the visual effects company
Framestore Framestore is a British animation, visual effects company and creative studio based on Chancery Lane in London. Formed in 1986, it acquired (and subsequently merged with) the Computer Film Company in 1997. It works on feature films and tele ...
. Animators worked closely with researchers; experts were brought in to look at the movements of each animal to ensure that they moved accurately and advice was gathered on what behaviours each creature could have exhibited. Animating the animals in ''Walking with Beasts'' was more difficult than in ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' owing to mammals having more moving bits than dinosaurs, such as whiskers, eyebrows and various floppy and wobbly parts. Additionally, the production team believed audiences would be more critical of the movements of mammals than they had been of dinosaurs since viewers would be more familiar with how mammals move; it would thus be easier to spot inaccurate movement. The most difficult creature to animate in the series was ''Australopithecus'', which in terms of their movement had to appear "more than an ape but less than a human".Filming ''Walking with Beasts'' took four or five weeks. Filming was usually a matter of gathering location shots where the computer-generated animals would then be inserted later. Sometimes it was necessary to replicate the impact the animated animals would have on their environment—such as footprints left in the snow by a woolly mammoth. Not all parts of filming the series were entirely imaginary, as ''Walking with Beasts'' also made extensive use of
animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
and puppets for close-up shots. The animatronics and puppets in ''Walking with Beasts'' were created by special effects company
Crawley Creatures Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...
, the same company responsible for the animatronics in the preceding ''Walking with Dinosaurs''. On account of many of the animals in ''Walking with Beasts'' having fur or hair and requiring more complex facial expressions, creating the animatronics for ''Walking with Beasts'' was more difficult than for the previous series. During production, the animatronics team grew from seven to eighteen and additional support was brought in through hiring specialist out-workers. As with the computer graphics, experts were also consulted for some of the practical effects. Among the scientists consulted were archaeologist and anthropologist Michael Bisson, an expert on
Middle Palaeolithic The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic) is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleoli ...
tools, who helped craft some of the tools shown being used by Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans in the series. The animatronics were created and used over a period of one-and-a-half years. In total there were over 40 different animatronic elements used, most of which were animatronic heads of animals. The broad movements of the animatronics were controlled by puppeteers, while their more subtle movements were remote-controlled and operated via servo motors. ''Australopithecus'' was in some close-ups portrayed by actors with prosthetics. Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans were consistently portrayed by actors also in non close-up shots, the Neanderthal actors wearing prosthetics. The prosthetics used by the actors were also made by Crawley Creatures.


Sound design and music

The sound design for ''Walking with Beasts'' was done by Kenny Clark. Clark and his partner Jovan Ajder began the process by recording
foley sound effects In filmmaking, Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds, named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley, can be anyth ...
, such as footsteps. Then, Clark and Ajder began constructing a sound library through recording their own sounds and contacting web-based FX companies as well as companies around the world. After a great collection of different animal sounds had been assembled, different sounds were mixed together, cut up or played backwards to create creature sounds. The noises of ''
Leptictidium ''Leptictidium'' (a Latinized diminutive of the name of its relative '' Leptictis'', which means "graceful weasel" in Ancient Greek) is an extinct genus of small mammals that were likely bipedal. Comprising eight species, they resembled today's ...
'' were
otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...
noises, pitch shifted and reversed, and the sounds of '' Gastornis'' were made by a
monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
and a
rattlesnake Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera ''Crotalus'' and ''Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small anim ...
, slightly edited. ''
Megatherium ''Megatherium'' ( ; from Greek () 'great' + () 'beast') is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Pleistocene. It is best known for the elephant-sized type species ' ...
'' was voiced through goat noises, though considerably lowered in pitch, ''
Embolotherium ''Embolotherium'' (Greek , + , "battering ram beast", or "wedge beast") is an extinct genus of Brontotheriidae, brontothere that lived in Mongolia during the late Eocene epoch. It is most easily recognized by a large bony protuberance emanatin ...
'' were voiced by walruses, ''
Macrauchenia ''Macrauchenia'' ("long llama", based on the now-invalid llama genus, ''Auchenia'', from Greek "big neck") was a large, long-necked and long-limbed, three-toed native South American mammal in the order Litopterna. The genus gives its name to its ...
'' by donkeys, ''Indricotherium'' by bears and rhinoceroses and ''
Chalicotherium ''Chalicotherium'' (Ancient Greek /, -: pebble/gravel + /, diminutive of / : beast) is a genus of extinct odd-toed ungulates of the order Perissodactyla and family Chalicotheriidae. The genus is known from Europe and Asia, from the Middl ...
'' by a
hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
. ''Australopithecus'' was initially planned to be voiced through harmonised human voices, an idea that was abandoned in favour of monkey sounds. The final sound mixing was done by Chris Burdon, who combined a total of 64 sound tracks (including narration, music, animal sounds and background noises) to produce one final
stereo mix Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
for the series.
Ben Bartlett Ben Bartlett (born in 1965) is a British composer known for his numerous Film and Television scores including ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', ''Vera'', ''The Tunnel'' and ''Lucky Man''. Working and living in London, Ben Bartlett was educated ther ...
, who had previously worked on ''Walking with Dinosaurs'', composed the music for ''Walking with Beasts''. The composition process began with Bartlett and the directors (Jasper James and Nigel Paterson) viewing the different episodes together without sound and determining specific scenes that stood out as especially requiring music. Bartlett approached ''Walking with Beasts'' differently than he had ''Walking with Dinosaurs''; the score in the previous series often included sophisticated themes and orchestral sweeps to reflect the grandeur of the dinosaurs. When it came to the Cenozoic, Bartlett found the era much harder to characterise, concluding that the "beasts" were less "refined" than the dinosaurs before them. As a result, the score of ''Walking with Beasts'' intentionally disobeys standard rules of sophisticated harmony, focusing on simplicity but also at times having "big blocks of sound rashingin uninvited".


Episodes


''Walking with Beasts''

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
aired the series weekly on Thursday nights, with a regular of repeats the following Sunday afternoon. In 2010, the series was repeated on BBC Three in
omnibus Omnibus may refer to: Film and television * ''Omnibus'' (film) * Omnibus (broadcast), a compilation of Radio or TV episodes * ''Omnibus'' (UK TV series), an arts-based documentary programme * ''Omnibus'' (U.S. TV series), an educational progr ...
format, as three-hour-long episodes.


''The Science of Walking with Beasts''

A two-episode companion documentary, ''The Science of Walking with Beasts'', aired in November 2001 on BBC One. This series featured interviews with palaeontologists and explanations of how the fossil record and modern day descendants have informed what is known about the animals depicted in ''Walking with Beasts'', as well as brief sections showing the development of the CGI and animatronic animals used in the series.


Reception

The first airing of ''New Dawn'', the first episode of ''Walking with Beasts'', on BBC One attracted 8.5 million viewers and a 35% audience share. Though this fell short of the first airing of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' (15 million viewers), it was considered a major success owing to 2001's more competitive broadcasting environment and due to being 2.6 million viewers above the average audience of BBC One during the time slot.


Reviews

''Walking with Beasts'' was praised for its effects. Both
Paul Hoggart Paul Hoggart is a British journalist and novelist. Early life and career Hoggart spent some years as a further education lecturer at Kingsway College and then Woolwich College in London before moving into journalism as a book reviewer, feature ...
, writing for ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', and
Nancy Banks-Smith Nancy Banks-Smith (born 1929) is a British television and radio critic, who spent most of her career writing for ''The Guardian''. Life and career Born in Manchester and raised in a pub, she was educated at Roedean School. Banks-Smith began her ...
, writing for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', concurred that the series showed technical brilliance and stunning computer reconstructions. Banks-Smith however criticised the narration, writing that it had not "advanced beyond chalk and blackboard" and that it was "so clearly addressed to a clever but cloth-eared child that you felt yourself dwindle and shrink". Jennifer Selway, writing for the ''
Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...
'', noted that although the technology and effort that went into ''Walking with Beasts'' was "breathtaking", its subject matter did not hold the same appeal as the dinosaurs and that the production team perhaps should have made "Walking with More Dinosaurs" instead.


Awards

''Walking with Beasts'' won a
BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award The British Academy of Film and Television Arts ( BAFTA) annually hosted the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards for multimedia entertainment between 1998 and 2003. In 2003, BAFTA announced the award would be split into two separate ceremonies â ...
for Enhancement of Linear Media, a
Monitor Award Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...
for Film Originated Television Specials - 3D Animation, a
RTS Television Award The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
for Multi-Media and Interactive and a
Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour of More). ''Walking with Beasts'' was also nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special and BAFTA TV Awards for Best Sound (Factual) and Best Visual Effects & Graphic Design.


In other media


Books

A companion book to the series, titled ''Walking with Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari'' (titled just ''Walking with Prehistoric Beasts'' in the United States), was authored by Haines and released in 2001. The book is a coffee-table book which explores life in the Cenozoic through the same settings and animals as in the series itself and it contains sidebars with facts and is illustrated with stills from the series. ''A Prehistoric Safari'' was positively reviewed in the book review magazine ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
''. In addition to the larger companion book, there were also several children's books released to accompany the series: ''Walking with Beasts Annual 2002'' (a longer hardback book), ''Walking with Beasts: 3-D Beasts'' (with 3D images) and ''Walking with Beasts: Survival!'' by Stephen Cole, with pictures from the series. ''Walking with Beasts: Survival!'' was released in the United States under the title ''Walking with Prehistoric Beasts: Photo Journal''. There was also a ''Walking with Beasts''
sticker book A sticker album is a book in which collectable stickers are stuck into designated sections. Sticker album themes can be sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup, English Premier League or TV shows, Movies, Animals or Music. Panini were the fi ...
.


Exhibition

An exhibition based on ''Walking with Beasts'' was launched by the BBC in 2007. The exhibition featured life-sized models of many of the animals that appeared in the series, information on the science behind ''Walking with Beasts'',Satrosphere Science Centre - What's on 2009
/ref> original animatronics and puppets from the series, real fossils, as well as various activities for visitors. The exhibition was first held at the Horniman Museum in London from 10 February to 4 November 2007. It was later at the
Aberdeen Science Centre Aberdeen Science Centre is a science museum in Aberdeen, Scotland. It displays exhibits and performs fun, educational and interactive shows and workshops which are aimed to be inclusive for all audiences. It attracts primary school groups around ...
in
Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
, Scotland, from 23 March to 30 September 2009 and then at the
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England. Overview The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herb ...
in
Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
, England from 2 July to 30 October 2011.


Video game

''Walking with Beasts: Operation Salvage'' is a
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
for
Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
developed by Absolute Studios and published by BBC Worldwide Ltd. on 23 November 2001 as a tie-in to the series. A
top-down shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...
, ''Operation Salvage'' is set in 2026 after mankind's discovery of
time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...
. Players take the role of an agent of the World Wildlife Bionetwork (WWB), travelling back in time throughout the Cenozoic, observing different animals and fighting an organisation that is trapping the different creatures. The game received mixed reviews: 7Wolf Magazine gave it 4.3 out of 10 and Absolute Games gave it 40 out of 100.


Interactive version

''Walking with Beasts'' aired as an interactive programme during its original UK broadcast, the first time the BBC had developed an interactive service for a non-sports programme. Among the various interactive features accessible through viewers' remote controls were the possibility to switch between narration by Kenneth Branagh and Dilly Barlow, to access figures and facts through pop-ups, and to view behind-the-scenes material.


Website

An accompanying website to the series was launched in 2001. The ''Walking with Beasts'' website featured extensive behind-the-scenes information on the production of the series, information on the fossil evidence used to reconstruct the animals and their environments, fact files for the animals, numerous articles on palaeontological topics such as climate throughout the Cenozoic and the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, as well as various games. Games included the "Shoot the Fish experiment", where players could experiment with evolution through a simulated fish population, games dealing with topics such as camouflage and fossilisation, as well as
jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaiced pieces, each of which typically has a portion of a picture. When assembled, the puzzle pieces produce a complete picture. In th ...
s with different animal skeletons.Archived ''Walking with Beasts'' website
/ref>


Notes


References


External links

* *
Walking with Beasts - BBC Science & Nature
' * *
Walking with Beasts
' at
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
{{BBC Natural History Unit 2001 British television series debuts 2001 British television series endings BBC television documentaries Discovery Channel original programming Documentary films about prehistoric life Television series about mammals Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program winners BAFTA winners (television series) Walking with...