Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster: a review

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. Today we will be looking at the very first palaeodoc of 2024, and the third work by the great David Attenborough featured here, Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster. It's one of the many both the BBC and David's put out over the last couple years about fossil finds, all titled "Attenborough and the X", wich include Attenborough and the Sea Dragon, about Temnodontosaurus, Giant Dinosaur, about the sauropod Patagotitan, and Giant Egg, about the Elephant Bird. In this case, it's about a fossil specimen of the plesiosaur Pliosaurus found a couple years ago and the efforts to understand it, airing on both New Years Day and Valentines in the US.


Let's get something out of the way however: the doc does not ever say the name of the fossil's discoverer, Phillip Jacobs. The crew should be ashamed of such, and . There's even a Change.org petition that demands compensation by having ther Pliosaurus named after Jacobs as opposed to the landowner, something I actually signed myself.

Anyway, bulk of the docu is about digging the rest of the skull out of the cliffs before it can fall and become washed out, done by Museum of Jurassic Marine Life owner Steve Etches (pictured above) and Chris Moore. They're tense and well-shot, with the wide shots of the cliff showing just how precarious the dig is as they rappel up and down it and extract it so high up.

In between the dig portions cuts to Attenborough on a boat, where a CG Pliosaurus in the modern dsy swims by as David talks about the basics of it. It's a very beutiful scene, even if it's brief compared to the rest of the documentary.



The fossil is taken to University of Southampton to CT scan the snoot by both Katy Rankin and Neil J. Gostling, and the docu explores its senses, such as pressure sensors and smell. We also look at its teeth after one is found in the cliff and how striations on it helped it grip onto its prey, which David demonstrates himself. The segment isn't present in the US cut, which is a shame as I like it.

Cutting back to the fossil dig, the skull is fully excavated, but now comes the part where they have to pull it out of the cliffside. Steve creates this sled tube holding a crate that the fossil is pushed into before being pulled on. Pretty impressive to see being made and used.

In turn we cut to the skull at the museum as David looks at it, where Bristol palaeontologist Judyth Sasoon talks about its eyes and intrugingly, brings up its parietal eye used to regulate its biological time and guage depth. it's a cool topic to bring up.
So with, needs to be studied further. Enter Andre Rowe, a Milwaukee expat also at Bristol scanning it, explaining to us about the giant holes were anchor points for muscles, enabling a powerful bite, and how powerful it was.

And to be honest, I chose to review the docu because Amdre is POC, and it is Black History Month, so.... this is it for representation, which really tells you how bad representation in palaeontology is even in the 21st century.


Next we see how they're using robotic models to test how Plio moved, and brings us to Luke Muscutt, who has one of the odder haircuts I've seen in a while. Still, the test with the mechanical models is fun to watch. Plus, we get a cute scene beforehand with David at a zoo with penguins to show how Pliosaurus actually swam in similar ways to them.

Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster climaxes with a hunt sequence of the Pliosaurus going after ichthyosaurs, demonstrating what we now know of it. not to mention makes pretty good use of slow motion. It ends with David recapping Giant Sea Monster's themes and a pan out as the Pliosaurus swims by one last time.
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So what do I think of Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster?

The docu is pretty well-shot, with aerial shots that really make you nervous for the diggers as they . The CG sequences of the Pliosaurus are also great. They show off the power and speed of it well, and moves with weight and fluidity. Meanwhile, the talking heads that make up a large portion of the docu are pretty good, sonething needed when its one of those docus. The music by Joni Fuller is also fine... if unmemorable.

Really, if there's anything bad about Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster, it just feels... empty, being a one-off special as opposed to officially being part of a larger series. It doesn't really have any memorable thing to it. I actually can't think of much to say about it in fact outside of the CG Pliosaurus (which again are good).
  • Accuracy - 7/10
  • Aging - 7/10
  • Talking Heads - 8/10
  • Visuals - 8/10
  • Behaviour - 7/10
  • Narration - 8/10
  • Rewatchability - 7/10
  • Overall - 7/10

Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster is fine in every sense of the word. The fossil dig scenes are well-presented, and focus on the scientific research and experiments, while standard for a "dig" palaeodoc, are a nice way to show. However, like a lot of the other "Attenborough and the X" titles, it's rather unmemorable even on its own due to being one-off special. it only recommend for completionists. But honestly, its still fine for what it is.

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