Thursday, August 18, 2011
Even More Dinosaur Revolution Goodies
With the premiere of Dinosaur Revolution inching closer and closer, Discovery is releasing more and more material about the miniseries. It's looking mighty, mighty fine, but to really understand why people are optimistic about the show, don't watch any of the teasers. Watch David Krentz narrate a storyboard. That's really all you need to see to understand why hopes are high.
Of course, you'll want to see the teasers, too. The narration is a bit annoying, but I can understand why the network would worry about the general public feeling lost. Hopefully the DVD and Blu-Ray will have the option to mute it. In a clip of a sleep-deprived mama allosaur, you can see a bit of the humor I've expressed mild concern over. More importantly, you can see a high level of sophistication in the storytelling. Another depicts the brutal comeuppance of a Torvosaurus (featuring Miragaia, which I'm pleased as punch about).
Concerning the slapstickyness... I think I'm converted. See the second link above: the headless dinosaur bit that made me skeptical last November is pretty funny and handled well. I was surprised by it, and I chuckled. It's going to be a moment the audience never forgets, like the water glass in that old Spielberg movie. The cinematic skill on display here is undeniable, so I'm eager to see how it's mixed with the hard science in the final product. I'm sure we'll cover it quite thoroughly here, and be sure to keep an eye on Dinosaur Tracking, where you'll see some exclusive coverage in the coming weeks.
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Hup! Just wanna mention that the "headless dino" scene is a "cold open" for a mini epic, a mult-part story that follows the story of one of those little allosaur "pups", later seen getting his jaw busted in the official trailer and even later in the "Torvosaurus fight"- the pieces will feel much better when judged in their proper context. Hope you will agree.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by again, Pete! Can't imagine what it's like for you all who have worked on this for so long, waiting for it to drop. Even if the marketing stuff may take things out of context, what's most important here is that what we have seen of the editing and storytelling is of a quality that tops just about any previous paleo doc. But like you say, we'll have to wait for the final product to judge. Really excited to see it and wishing I could afford a cable package right now. I'll find a way.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've seen, this dino doc looks real good. I, too, was concerned about it being "slapsticky" and about some of the more over-the-top segments. But now that some actual finished footage is starting to come out, and we can see these things in context, any of those fears are calmed. Plus, the dinosaurs just look darn good!
ReplyDeleteAfter a string of lousy CGI dinosaur documentaries (Jurassic Fight Club, Clash of the Dinosaurs), you can't blame anyone for being leary when a project like this announced. But Dinosaur Revolution seems to be going in the right direction. I can't wait to see it!
Good lord, those storyboards were a thing of beauty!
ReplyDelete@Trish: Hear, hear!
ReplyDeleteOnly the thing is... all the clips I've seen have -oh, frabjous day!- NO narration. But from all I have read, there seems to be some confusion as to whether or not we're going to have to suffer through a bored narrator holding the hands of those in the audience who can't stand not hearing words for a minute or two. As you may guess, I am a touch apprehensive about this.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, and speaking of CGI dinosaurs, I just saw this at Austin Translation, and I'm just going to leave it here: http://munchanka.blogspot.com/2011/08/pixar-is-making-dinosaur-film.html
The final edit will have minimal narration: not the pure "visuals and roaring" that was the original vision, but not the "narration every 5-10 seconds" either. Mostly it will be some narration going into and out of each story (or each act of the full-episode stories), but in a few cases there are internal narration elements to explain particular features.
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