Prehistoric Planet
In the series we go back 66 million years, to the time when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Prehistoric Planet started last Monday and consists of five episodes. Apple promises you can watch dinosaurs for a week, because a new episode will be available every working day. The enthusiastic response has no doubt something to do with the production team behind it: the BBC Studios Natural History Unit using photo-realistic visual effects from Moving Picture Company (known for ‘The Lion King’, ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘ Spider-Man: No Way Home' and 'Blade Runner 2049'). The fact that David Attenborough has attached his name to it also creates high expectations. What you get to see is the type of wildlife documentary that made Attenborough famous, but now in a completely virtual world.
Of course, no real dinosaurs could be filmed, because they became extinct 66 million years ago, probably as a result of a meteorite impact. The creators of ‘Prehistoric Planet’ however, not only had to virtually bring the animals back to life, but also the landscape at the time of the Cretaceous. In addition to Tyrannosaurus Rex, we also get to see the life and habits of all kinds of other animals from that time. The landscapes are breathtaking and the animals look lifelike. A reviewer of The Guardian sighed:
What a beautiful spectacle. […] You watch episode één and you think, “Wait a minute. I just saw dinosaurs. They just filmed a Cretaceous wildlife documentary and I watched it.”
Extensive advertising campaign
Apple is pulling out all the stops to bring the series to the attention. In the Apple Stores, commercials can be seen on the video screen, some Apple Stores have giant dinosaur stickers on the windows and in Wales Apple had footprints made on a beach to give the impression that the dinosaurs had come by at night. came.
You can watch a new episode every evening between 23 and 27 May, in which you gain knowledge about a different environment, such as the seacoast and the desert. However, the viewing experience is completely different from the Jurassic World series, whose third film will hit theaters in early June. Fun fact: Richard Attenborough (brother of) appeared in the first two Jurassic Park films, but has since passed away. David himself was featured in a BBC One documentary last year called ‘Dinosaurs: The Final Day With David Attenborough’. That documentary had a significantly smaller budget than what Apple is now offering. It is therefore to be expected that this production will again be overloaded with nominations and awards. Directors Adam Valdez and Andrew R. Jones are veterans of special effects, especially fiction. They worked on The Lord of the Rings movies, Avatar and more.
What you can ask yourself when looking at all that beauty is to what extent we really have knowledge about the behavior of some prehistoric animals that went extinct tens of millions of years ago. The series is based on scientific insights and although skeletons and sites are known, it takes a lot of work to visualize everything in such detail, including behavior, details on the fur and other things that are lost over the centuries. ‘educated guesses’.
In addition to the already mentioned episodes about the seacoast and deserts, you can also watch this week's dino life in fresh water, ice worlds and the forests. You need an Apple TV+ subscription of €4.99 per month to watch. Read more about Apple TV+ in our explanation.
You can see trailers for the series below:
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