Amazing Dinoworld: The Feather Revolution: A Review
Hello, smd welcome back to Mesozoic Mind, the blog that's ostensibly about all things mesozoic but is about mostly documentaries. Today, we are focusing on a documentary from 2019 co-produced between Japan's NHK and the American streaming service CuriosityStream, the awkwardly-titled Amazing Dinoworld. When it debuted, it was a bit of a big deal in palaeo-media circles, as it was pretty much the first big dinosaur documentary in years, coming during a dry spell for palaeo-documentaries in the middle and late 2010's, which were usually one-off specials and never really stuck or made too big an impact; there weren't really any equivelents of Walking with Dinosaurs, Dinosaur Planet, or even Dinosaur Revolution earlier in the decade. But then came this, first appaing in the form of trailers and promos with Japanese titles, and theyu looked fantastic, with feathers on full display. I bought a subsctiption to CuriosityStream just to watch it on end, and I loved every minute of it, but three years later, how does Amazing Dinoworld stack up?
The first episode is our subject, one about how dinosaurs used feathers to become a succcesful clade, with a specific focus on the maniraptoran theropods and in particular, two places that have been Ripped from the Headlines throughout 2010's Palaeontology.
The majority of the documentary is about the giant ornithomimosaur Deinocheirus, specifically a female. But first comes a brief recap of its history, from the first discovery in the 70's and for the longest time being the Mystery Dinosaur in palaeo-media, before a new discovery in 2014 uncovered a fuller skeleton which showed it was a truly bizarre humped, duck-billed titan. In fact, save for a nekkid cameo in Nat Geo's Bizarre Dinosaurs, this is the first major appearence in a documentary. Japanese palaeontologists Yoshitsugu Kobayashi and Kohei Tanaka are the talking heads for the segment.
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| Nice shot compositon on top, might I say |
We then transition back to Maastrichtian Mongolia, which here is depicted as hilly grassland-forest mosiac (actually filmed in New Zealand). I've seen many people compare it to where the Teletubbies live, and I do admit I can see the resemblance.
We then see our first glimpse of deino as four of them are on the run, inadvertedly spooking a flock of the oviraptoran Avimimus. Almosy immidiately we see what the documentary hasd become infamous for: the incredibly bright colours and patterns. With the Deinos they're light pink like spoonbills or flamingoes, while the Avimimus are light green and blue and ownright cartoonish. I've seen many criticise them for just how garish and over the top it is, and would make them stand out and be a big target for predators (though blending in probably isn't a priority for adult Deinocheirus). I honestly can tolerate them, as they give yhe documentary its own identity.
Anyway, its revealed they're being chased by a group of Tarbosaurus, and the young female with a notch in her hump is being targeted in particular. She does mangage to escape, but only because she falls down a cliff to where they can't reach her. When she comes to as the sun sets, she finds the Tarbos have killed all of her family, and she sadly leaves. You can tell she's sad even without that being stated thanks to body language and the music that plays in an over the top manner.
A talking head sequence then proceeds, one about the Liaoning biota and the connection it shows between birds and dinosaurs and how it shows dinosaurs were warm-blooded. It's pretty good, if not to my interest. Moving on.
The next segment features the Deinocheirus feeding, first on trees in the forest, then heading to a lake to hunt fish, literally bitchslapping it out of the water and onto the shores. It also features the little raptor Halskaraptor as it dives into it and catching its own prey. It's a lovely scene, is what I'm saying: it's bright and sunny with whimisical music and puts a a smile on my face (I know, inappropriate for spooky season), and does a good job of showcasing just how bizarre Deinocheirus was as well as how it used its huge arms eat . My only complaints are how far the Deino slaps the fish, which would leave it vunerable to being stolen by other scavengers as opposed to just snatching it out of the water right there, and that the Halzkaraptor's anatomy looks off. They also treat fish as seperate from meat-eating, like a pescetarian too, might I mention.
Even before that, there was a brief segment in the forest with two Protoceratops... coming out of a burrow. Why this inclusion? Granted, there is evidence for such, but its strange they had a whole scebe to it that's quickly moved on from.
After another talking head sequence on an Oviraptorid's nest, the Deinocheirus is courted by a male at sunset, and she accepts it. Later, she lays her eggs, which as the talking heads reveal, is in a ring to avoid crushing them when she sits on it.
Unfortunately, her nest is raided by a pack of the troodont Zanabazar, who are as garishly-coloured as the other animals are (but apparetly based off the real Taiwan Barbet). A fight bre- no, breaks out is not the correct word here, as the Deinocheirus, as seen in the title card above, effortlessly throws them away by slapping them. It would be very dumb if it weren't so epic and well-shot. Later, the eggs hatch into grey-coloured babies.
That's not the only segment in The Feathered Revolution: there's one about the Prince Creek Formation in Alaska.
Our first creature we see is the famous Pachyrhinosaurus, as what else c-
Wait a minute, do they have....
Seriously, why did they give it a hugeass horn!? It was a perfectly good desogn, one of the best I've seen, even having filamenrs like Mark Witton proposed, but then the designers had to crap on it by pulling a Jurassic Fight Club and take 'the rhino' part of its name way too literally.
Thankfully another dinosaur takes centerstage: the alaskan species once known as Troodon but is more likely it is its own genus, which is nice and feathered. Naturally, we follow it and its big brain as it uses it to survive the ever-snowy winter; the Troodon in question finds a bug hivernating in a log, but rather then eating it then and there, it uses it as bait to catch a fish by dropping it in water. It's a pretty cool scenario, and even supported by observing herons (which they acually mentioned). The next day, we see it has stored a cash of nuts and feeds on it.
Unfortunately, the Troodon its amushed by the tyrannosaur Nanuqsaurus, one that has subscribed to the palaeomeme of being wholly white like a polar bear or a (male) snowy owl. A chase ensues where it gets driven out onto open tundra so it can't hide, but the troodon outsmarts it by running over a froken lake that Nanuqsaurus' weight can't hold.
The talking head for the segments all the while is Larry Witmer, as he explains how the large brain-to-body size ratio came from how feathers helped regulate body temperature. He's helped by some parrots and a nifty experiment of one getting a seed out of a glass tube by bending a pipe cleaner into a hook
Back in the past, come spring, we see a group of Troodon screeching at a herd of Pachyrhinosaurus. It might look like they're trying to hunt it, and the narrator makes it look like the ceratopsids might eat them, but in truth, they were keeping them out of their nesting colony. That I can buy: just look at this goose chasing off an elephant with a similar size disparity.
Anyways, our Troodon lead returns to his nest, only to find the eggshells broken. However, its not a nest raid. Luckily, from behind a log comes the babies. The father takes his babies out to teach them how to fish. It's one of the most adorable scenes in any palaeo-media, thanks to the fluffy babies, sequaking sounds they make, and the music is utterly adorable likewise.
The final sequence is with the orphan Deinocheirus and her babies, but its interupted by a Tarbosaurus charging in. A fight breaks out, and a over the top one. At one point the Orphan even suplexes the Tarbosaurus (that the right term Pro wrestling fans?), grabbing it and falling on its own back. She wins. Unfortunately, the Orphan dies, leaving the chicks to wander away just as she did, coming full circle. I give most of them two months before they're picked off by predators.
Oh, and there's a final scene of Yoshitsugu Kobayashi in Alaska to close things up, pretending to seaerch for fossils in the area but is clearly staged, waxing about discoveries to be made.
So with that done, what to make of Amazing Dinoworld: The Feather Revolution?
For starters, the visual effects are truly some of the most stunning in works like these. Every feather is indivudually rendered, and the way light bounces off them is almost tangeable, and does the gold standard of good CG, thinking it really was real. You can even see the eyes moving the skin around them in closeup.
The cinematography is also excellent: major props to Peter Majtan for a vibrant and lush kind, with lighting that helps make the CG downright believable. See these beautiful shots I like the most below.
The music by Hideaki Kamura and Evan Call is superb, both adventurous, whimsical, and in awe of the subjects, from violin solos to choral arrangements.
The narration by Salvatore Vecchio (returning from Dino Death Trap) is generally good, as is his soothing voice. However, sometimes it goes very much into anthropomorphising the subjects to a very sentimental way, which bugs me, and the script often makes weird claims, like wondering how deinocheirus could be a carnivore if it had no teeth (that that to most birds).
The behavior of the creatures is a mixed-bag: mostly fairly good, but with a few baffling choices here and there. The fights obviously come to mind, like the Zanabazar charging in where the mother Deinocheirus can see them and getting whacked away instead of going behind her, or the Tarbosaurus continuing to fight even when it logically shouldn't be.
The sound design is similarly mixed. Most of the vocals are evidently modern animals, with the Deinocheirus having an audible mix of birds, bears, and camels. I like it, especially how like all the good ones, they usually suit the animal well. Keyword usually, as some like the Tarbosaurus have unfittingly high screeches like a kaiju.
Finally, I like the contrasts and similarities between the segments. The Deinocheirus is in the warm, sunny meadowland, the Troodon cold taiga. The Deinocheirus is a mother who ultimatly dies to save her kids, the Troodon is a dad who lives. Tyrannosaurs are both antagonistic to the focus species. The Protoceratops are dwarfed by the Deinocheirus, while the Pachyhinosaurus dwarf the Troodon. The Deinocheirus faces mainly threats by predators, the Troodon mainly the elements. However, both are about parenthood and survival.
It's quite tempting to conpare The Feathered Revolution to Prehistoric Planet thanks to sharing similsr taxa and locales, so I'm just gonna say that it naturally trumps the presentation and designs of this series...although I do admit I like that they did a bit more with it's Deinocheirus then just a single sequence that amounts to treating it as a joke.
Now for the large negatives of the doc:
Sometimes the behaviour of the subjects veer into over the top absurdity, like the fights. Not quite awesomebro territory, but more anime or manga territory but have no place in a documentary. But hey, it's Japan. What were you expecting? Over the top is a staple of them.
The designs are a mixed bag, ranging from excellent to woefully inaccurate. Naturally, the highly-garish Nemegt maniraptorans are the biggest one. While as said before I don't mind them, I can see how with the possible exception of the Zanabazar, none of them really blend in and could leave them vulnerable to predator attacks.
There are also plenty of inaccuracies in it, from the afromentioned bad designs to weirdly-phrased statememts.
- The Tyrannosaurs are overfeathered (as this is carried over from other recent NHK documentaries): its unlikely they had wing feathers as in here, let alone full coats of feathes. At the same time though, they're basically carbon copies of Jurassic Park's, pronated hands and lipless jaws.
- Similar note: Deinocheirus is said to have originally be inditified as a tyrannosaurid. Not true, as even back then it was at least considered a relative of Ornithomimids.
- Most of the maniraptorans lack tail fans, even though there is evidence they did, such as fused tail vertebrae.
- Throughout the documentary the sequences are given the date of 66 million years ago at thge direct end of the Maastrchtian, when the fauna presented came from earlier in 70 mya point.
- The Avimimus have no tail, which has not been accurate since it was described in 1981.
- It goes without saying there were not grass in continental Asia and Alaska at the time.
- The segment on feathered dinosaurs briefly features this atrocious silhouette of Yutyrannusthat's nothing like the real thing. Blegh.
Finally, I don't like how the Japanese talking heads are overdubbed in English. While its common to do in documentaries, I find it unweildy and awkward to listen to, and prefer subtitles.
If I were in charge at NHK of this documentary, I'd probably start with giving the series a better name, like Realms of the Dinosaur. Further changes would include replacing Avimimus with the fellow ornithomimosaur Anserimimus, and a third segment about a taxon of a dry desert enviroment that uses its feathers to cool itself replacing the Tarbo fight (perhaps Rahonavis and the Maevarano Formation, using the Abelisaurus model next episode for Majungasaurus).
And yes, most of the egregious inaccuracies would not be retained in my version.
- Accuracy - 8/10
- Aging - 7/10
- Presentation - 7/10
- Behaviour - 6/10
- Visuals - 9/10
- Music - 9/10
- Rewatchability - 8/10
Overall, Amazing Dinoworld: The Feathered Revolution is in one word pleasant: the visusls are breathtaking and. There's little competition for the best doc of the Naishian era - not that there's much competition. However, it is let down by baffling creative decisions. I give it 7/10: I generally reccomend it, but itts okay if you choose to skip.
And no I'm not reviewing the second episode. I'm not interested in it, and its not very good.
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