Dinosaur World: A Review

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. Today, we're starting a new themed month, Nostalgiavember, about many prehistoric-related entities of my 2000's childhood I enjoyed and loved or simply fondly remembered, even more then usual. I'm talking web videos, books, and movies, rather then the usual array of docs I usually deal in (which are already nostalgic themselves).

Our first subject is a very short documentary, simply titled Dinosaur World. It's not to be confused with the unfinished BBC game, the chain of parks, or really, any other work with that title.

The video was uploaded in Youtube’s golden age of 2007 but was actually made around 2004, and created by some young British kids named Sam Hart and Tony Hart (and thus are likely brothers or at the very least related from what I can tell), following in the footsteps of a grand british tradition. I hope both Harts have grown up and live good lives now even in troubled. Back on topic, it was made when independent online creators were establishing themselves and pushing the boundaries in many ways. Meanwhile, it was made on the cusp of the Awesomebro period of the late 2000's, when more naturalistic and subdued depictions in pop culture were being sidelined in favour of more violent ones as public interest in palaeo-media waned.

The first creatures we see in the documentary is a Pteranodon as it swoops down and past the camera. Despite the low image quality that makes discerning details hard, I can tell it seems to be a standard Pteranodon popculturensis, with gripping hind claws and an overly straight beak. It's the token non-dinosaur of the short and never appears, though honestly it would make little sense for too many segments about such creatures in a work called "Dinosaur World", let alone more then just one, it still disapointing it never appears again.

A herd of Apatosaurus are next as the first proper segment, shown emerging from the dust of a desert. It’s a striking image, one reminding me of this also-great CG animation by the noted Jagged Fang Designs. However, they perpetrate the myth Apato was once called Brontosaurus overall (only certain species were). Keep in mind this was way before the 2015 study that made the name valid after 2 centuries, inspiring smug children to correct adults at museums. Thankfully, they don't say it was the biggest dinosaur as many are wont to, acknoweldging the existence of the also big contemporaries Diplodocus and Barosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus is naturally featured, introduced walking in a misty forest and roaring loudly. It’s quite jarring even after all these years. Next comes a walk cycle among a desert ourcrop and it in the modern day in a fanciful scenario to show how big it was next to a kid, all while the narration describes it.

Stegosaurus is featured next in a savannah setting, as seen in the video thumbnail. The narration lists off theories about its plate function, from protection, regulating body temperature to display

The ceratopsians Triceratops and Styracosaurus round the short out. The final scene is the asteroid strike.

So after fifteen years online, how does Graffydam's Dinosaur World hold up?

All the dinosaurs’ animations are simple walk cycles or standing around. Given who made it, I can cut it some slack. The movements are fluid enough but lack any kind of weight to them, and not all of the movements line up with how they would have done in life (the rex's jaws couldn't move side to side as it does here for instance), and as for detailing, its good for the time, but there still isn't much. 

The designs meanwhile, are of the Paulian, Jurassic Park-esque school, with uniform colouration with a few striping. They also bear the usual array of wrongs of the time. Most of the herbivores, for instance seem to have the typical elephant-toed feet in pop culture, instead of distinct long claws, while the Rex has pronated hands, Steg has too short forelimbs and neck, you get the point. However, this was made by someomne who wasn't an adult (as far as everyone knows), so you can't fault them for going too big and having slipups... unlike most things made by adults even then and now.

Lemme just say that internet CG made by independant creators has come a long way over the decade 1/2, as seen by the Jagged Fang animation I linked to.

Meanwhile, the overall feel for both designs and environment feel a lot like classic dino-picture books, what with the oft-barren and wide landscapes the dinosaurs are in and the rather simplistic info and poses. This makes sense as I presume a lot of them were the influence for the Harts when making this.

The music for Dinosaur World… is taken wholesale from Disney’s Dinosaur, and thus is by James Newton Howard (since this was back when Youtube’s copyright system wasn’t as big a corpoarate-biased mess). Well, by any rate it's still nice to listen to, so I’m not complaining. Likewise, I'm not gonna complain about the behaviour, since there isn't much of it to comment on, just walk cycles desert plains and in the case of the Rex, vocalising.

The information presented and spoken is pretty standard for the time and age demographic. Not much to comment on, with a few slips here and there. In particular, it's stated that life after the Asteroid impact didn't recover until the present. Not even close, kid. After just a few thousand ecosystems had re-established themselves with mammals and birds now filling the niches non-avian dinosaurs had.

The narration by Sam Hart is fairly good if unremarkable, even for the age. The audio quality and accent can make him a bit hard to inderstand at times, but that's the only drawback, and is otherwise pleasant.

Personally if I were one of the Harts when making this, i’d put in a small dinosaur rather then the Big Four + Styraco featured here, perhaps Hypsilophodon and represent the home nation while at it.
  • Accuracy - 6/10
  • Aging - 5/10
  • Presentation - 7/10
  • Behaviour - N/A
  • Visuals - 5/10
  • Music - N/A
  • Rewatchability - 7/10
Overall, Dinosaur World is nothing more then a short made by kids no doubt having fun, with not much. However, for 8-year old me, it was amazing, watching it nonstop, and loved rediscovering it after all these years, and is pleasant enough as it is.

Sources/See Also

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