Educational DVD Reviews for All Ages
What have we reviewed?
1.) Bizarre Dinosaurs – National Geographic
This DVD takes a look at as the title suggests at some of the more bizarre dinosaurs thought to have roamed the earth, world renowned palaeontologists have travelled the globe unearthing with the help of fossils some of the most surprising members of the dinosaur family.
As you travel through the fifty minutes run time (don’t panic there are also a further fifty minutes of features), looking at these “live dinosaurs”, young kids will love the action, adults will just have to accept graphics that are good but just don’t quite match up to the “Walking with Dinosaurs” series.
Bizarre Dinosaurs takes a look at a couple of well known and more of the lesser known, yet more weird and wonderful dinosaurs such as Spinosaurus with massive extensions from it vertebrae that resembled a sail, or Chasmosaurus with its huge neck frill and Mamenchisaurus whose neck consisted of 19 vertebrae and was consequently longer than the rest of its body.
Why did these dinosaurs develop these extreme, exaggerated body parts with some loaded with outlandish or disproportionately sized appendages? Bizarre Dinosaurs tries to be informative and entertaining and it uses the known facts to support the ideas (mainly guesswork that had to be done) to give us an overview and look into these bizarre creatures. That said it is well put together and interesting and entertaining - kids should love it.
We score this a - 
2.) Essential Dinosaur Pack - two discs (not rated)
This is really a collection of Discovery’s best dinosaur programs from 2001 to 2007; it consists of 2 discs with nearly 8 hours of nonstop facts and information.
The 2 discs consist of:
-
Disc 1 - Valley of the T-Rex, T-Rex: New Science, New beast, When Dinosaurs Roamed America, Utah’s Dino Graveyard.
- Disc 2 – Dinosaur Planet, The Mystery Dinosaur and Dinosaurs – Return to Life.
Disc 1:
Valley of the T-Rex
In this episode paleontologist Jack Horner has found a collection of five T-Rex fossils at a site in Montana, leading him to reconsider much of what we think we know about the dinosaurs as some of the old theories just don't fit the new evidence found.
T-Rex: New Science, New Beast
New discoveries about T-Rex have made many scientists rethink what they thought they knew about this dinosaur. Here a look is taken at more evidence that the "terrible lizard" may have been a scavenger and prone to slower running, with some of the bone evidence put together in new ways.
When Dinosaurs Roamed America
This Emmy Award winning computer animation re enacts the possible lives of various dinosaurs whose skeletons have been discovered on the North American Continent. Live-action backgrounds and the latest scientific finds show how dinosaurs lived and died also suggesting some new dynamics in the ecological balances that took so many millions of years to work out.
Utah’s Dino Graveyard
Scientists discover a rare dinosaur skeleton a Therizinosaur in Utah and attempt to reconstruct its history. They are believed to be most closely related to raptors - a group that evolved into today's birds.
Disc 2:
Dinosaur Planet
Another Emmy Award winning in four exciting, adventurous episodes learn what it was like to be a dinosaur as the sights and sounds of the primordial past are re-created through computer-generated imagery.
The Mystery Dinosaur
The discovery of a small T- Rex-like fossil called Jane alters our perceptions and re-writes history over the theories behind dinosaur evolution.
Dinosaurs – Return to Life
In this episode we learn about how scientists are reviving the possibility of creating a living, breathing dinosaur.
Although now a few years old the objective of the docu-dramas was to give audiences an insight into the evolution in the field of studying dinosaurs and that is admirably achieved giving the viewer plenty of information and scientific knowledge well explained to all ages. There are other box sets in the related series that fans may appreciate as well but watch out on the Discovery Channel for new programs like Clash of the Dinosaurs.
We score this a -
3) Prehistoric Earth (A 6 disc collection of the wonderful 
award winning BBC "Walking with" series).
The collection obviously has all the great computer graphics for which the series was acclaimed with over 9 hours of programming and almost 7 hours of special features and consists of the discs that take us through the evolution process, namely
Before the Dinosaurs
Walking with Monsters
Walking with Dinosaurs
Allosaurus
Walking with Beasts
Walking with Cavemen
It covers almost all aspects of evolutionary theory including animal aggression, kin altruism and of course the evolutionary adaptations that various species have gone through in their millions of years of existence.
Although not entirely accurate the series is accurate enough and evokes enough interest for any die hard dinosaur fans to further their research, whilst giving those with a passing interest an increase in the general knowledge and an insight into what prehistoric live may have been like.
It is well narrated and each disc takes us through a “period” which is covered from the earliest sea animals through the dinosaurs to land animals and humans each with its own mini sub plots explaining behaviour and evolution.
We score this a - 