Horizon's My Pet Dinosaur (2007): A Review
* Not to be confused with a 2017 australian movie of the same fiom which I have intent on seeing let alone reviewing.
The episode begins with a trip to Alberta's Dinosaur Park to determine how likely dinosaurs would survive given how they were doing at the time, which was very good. It also tackles the temperature of dinosaurs and the implication it would have for them to survive the ice age: but of course, they could, being endothermic.
When its not stock footage from Walking with Dinosaurs often-tinted an ugly blueish grey, our old friend Jellyfish Pictures provides several dinosaurs that... aren't that good, as you could imagine from the earlier efforts of it. The first of them is a Hadrosaur in a fictionalised segment following the above, where hunters are organising culls on behalf of ranchers, as part of a larger segment on dinosaurs' endothermy. It's only seen onscreen as a still model, one with teeth no less.
The next topics are of whether dinosaurs would change over the next 66 million years ago, and features Greg Erickson in Florida. He argues that like crocodilians, they wouldn't change too much and keep the niches and thus appearences over time. Needless to say, this is a bit suspect.
Protoceratops is then featured in a segment representing how humans could domesticate dinosaurs as with hoodstock and poultry, with a farmer feeding one (even being interviewed). Its one of the better original dinosaurs in the episode, though its not saying much: notice the fairly straight head rather then a dip like in the real skull.
However, MPD then asks the obvious queestion: would we even be around if dinosaurs never went extinct? Its unlikely at best, but the episode then features a talking head, palaeobotanist David Burney, wjo argues floral turnover with the evolution of flowering plants and fruits would attract mammals that woukd fuel them with nutrients and evolve into humans, while dinosaurs wouldn't have touch them. This leads to a comical montage of the documentary's talking heads admitting what dinosaurs they'd have as pets (hey, gotta justify the title)*, intercut with a reccuring segment of some british family having their own. What kind is it? Well, its one of those Genericosaurs that don't quite belong to any group, and isn't intended to be any kind. I've heard people call it a Heterodontosaurus, but resembles more a generic raptor only minus the sickle claw. At least the scenes are cute.
* During which Greg Erickson makes an outrageous quip at much-maligned cartoon character Barney I find hilarious.
The episode then proceeds to discuss the possibilities of dinosaurs evolving into more intelligent forms, beinging up both fossil trackways
Troodon is naturally brought up, with Larry Wiktmer suggesting as humn society spread, they'd became opprotiinistic like foxes and qaccoons are. despite being made in 2007, its completely naked and scaley with nary a single filament to them, looking more like a giant JP Compie. I do like how their segment is done up as a news report, though.
But then you have... well, ever heard of Dale Russell's Dinosauroid? That reptilian boi about what a saopient dinosaur could look like? It has a segment all to its uncanny glory as it walks around and lives among humanity, as one scientist Simon Conway-Harris talks about how our own bauplan would evolve naturally due to how so goshdarn good it is at gathering and reaching and binoular vision yada ydadaya.
In fairness, other talking heads do acknowledge how unlikely and human-biased the bauplan is immidiately afterward. And to be honest, here's something downright hilarious about the sight of it just chilling around in the background of Simon's interview or in grocery aprons. Still, the stiff prosthetics and movements are not to my liking.
Naturally, MPD ends with the bird-dinosaur connection being brought up to show dinosaurs did survive the asteroid impact after all.
So what do I think of it? The script does a good job of answering the questions it poses, but it doesn't always go far enough in exploring them. You can't even chalk it up to budget, as a talking head conversation could definitely go in depth and would cost next to nothing.
It's rather an odd point to make, but I like the documentary-style thefanciful sequences go with, complete with talking head interviews, right down to the Troodon sequence as mentioned above having actual news reporter Paraic O'Brien. Helps definitely make the scenes more believable.
British actor Ian Holm's narration is good. He balances both serious gravitas and humour regrding the subject of the series. A similar thing goes with the music, which has that very quirky british feel if you get what I mean (can't find the composer though).
I said it before, but the original effects by Jellyfish, both CG and the pratical effects are decent at best; the prothstetics for the dinosauroid are in partiular very stiff and awkward, while hadrosaur seems ro be a still model and egrigiously has teeth in the beak. As for the use of stock footage from WWD, its generally not of note, save for moments where its edited to look like they're interacting if not in the same space as talking heads via them looking off offscreen, or in . There's also an egregious attempt to pass of Coelophysis as Troodon like Discovery's Dino Lab, coincidentally also about dinosaurs in our day, did two years before.
If I were in charge, I'd probably makr the present day dinoaurs entirely new instead of real taxa to show they've evolved. I'd also add the legendary science writer and godfather of speculative biology Dougal Dixon into the mix as a talking head for him to speculate on how dinosaurs might evolve, maybe even bring up his own creations for The New Dinosaurs.
- Accuracy - 6/10
- Aging - 5/10
- Presentation - 7/10
- Behaviour - 7/10
- Visuals - 4/10
- Music - 6/10
- Presentation - 7/10
- Rewatchability - 6/10
- Overall - 5/10
Overall, My Pet Dinosaur isn't really anything special as both a palaeo-documentary and a Horizon episode. It's mostly just stock footage and talking heads with a few original segmenrs that don't really reach beyond "interesting" and raises a handful of good poinys. As much as I loved watching it as a kid via Youtube, its not exactly a must-see save completionists and those who watched in their childhood. You want a good what if scenario like this? Just go look at your average spec evo project online.
Thanks for reading! I honestly struggled to write this review (hence how terse and barebones this review is), so forgive me.
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