The series features quite a few controversial (and since debunked) ideas that were based on rather obscure and fragmentary evidence and certain theories that have largely been forgotten since 1999. The tie-in books Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History (1999) and Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence (2000) explain some of it:
The gigantic Liopleurodon was based on a very large vertebra (25 cm wide) and isolated teeth and jaw fragments from Oxford Clay, which David Martill (a major scientific consultant in the series and the main one for “Cruel Sea”) attributed to pliosaurs reaching 17-20 meters in length, giving it the nickname “Megapleurodon”, through improved understanding of pliosaurid anatomy has since debunked those estimates (the 25-meter giant in the episode is a hypothetical max-sized individual).
The reason they put Utahraptor in Europe in “Giant of the Skies” was due to a contested theory at the time that Europe and North America shared the same dinosaur taxa during the Early Cretaceous, as the European Iguanodon, Polacanthus, and Hypsilophodon were also allegedly recorded from North America, but the American material has later been reclassified as distinct genera (Dakotadon, Hoplitosaurus) or deemed nomen dubia due to the paucity of the remains.
Though not addressed in the book, there have actually been fossils from the Chinle Formation (the setting for “New Blood”) that have been attributed to cynodonts, though most of those are only isolated teeth, and one particular find, teeth and two ischia found in the Placerias Quarry, have specifically been likened to a Thrinaxodon-like cynodont in a 1994 paper, though later studies deemed most of these fossils undiagnostic and potentially not even representing synapsids.
Despite being a common punching bag among critics for being an In Name Only depiction of the animal, the Quetzalcoatlus in "Death of a Dynasty" (who is a tweaked version of the Ornithocheirus model) wasn't that far off compared to many artistic depictions of the animal◊ during the '80s and '90s◊ when we knew far, far less about azhdarchid anatomy. That said, one thing that was definitely inaccurate even for its time was the short neck, as Quetzalcotlus has always been reconstructed with a long, stork-like neck (promotional images also show it with teeth, which was also a glaring error).
It's often claimed that the polar allosaur was based on the megaraptoran Australovenator before it was properly named and described. Except it wasn't. The latter was discovered in Queensland during the mid-2000s (after the series aired), while the former was based on an ankle bone from southern Victoria. And while said ankle bone is morphologically similar to the corresponding bone in Australovenator, meaning the “polar allosaur” was likely a megaraptoran itself, it's not Australovenator, due to being around 20-15 million years older. The confusion stems from the fact that upon its initial description, Australovenator was thought to be much closer in age to the "polar allosaur", so workers made the assumption that the two could be the same animal, and several BBC websites subsequently parroted the purported connection. Just for comparison, the age difference between them is comparable to the time gap between the last entelodonts and modern humans.
When talking about the exaggerated size of the show’s Liopleurodon, people often cite the Monster of Aramberri as its inspiration. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. The 2000 tie-in book Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence details that the massive size was actually based on an assortment of jaw and snout fragments from Oxford Clay, as well as one vertebra around 25 cm in width housed at the Peterborough Museum (that later turned out to have come from a sauropod), which were interpreted at the time as belonging to pliosaurs up to 20 meters in length. Meanwhile, the Monster of Aramberri gained notoriety for its alleged colossal size around 2003 (after WWD aired). note The 2005 book The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life does allude to the Aramberri pliosaur in the Liopleurodon entry, though this seems to have been an afterthought to validate the size
Regarding the huge size of WWD's Ornithocheirus, it's often claimed that it was based on MN 6594-1, a partial skull and skeleton now assigned to Tropeognathus. While that specimen has been known since the '80s, according to both Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History and Walking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence, the 12-meter wingspan was actually based on much more fragmentary fossils, mainly isolated wing bones found in the Santana Group of Brazil, as well as similar fragmentary fossils from the Vectis Formation on the Isle of Wight, which David Martill (the series main consultant) attributed to gigantic pterosaurs with wingspans in excess of 9 meters back in 1996 (though he later lowered those estimates to less than 6 meters), which also provided apparent evidence of giant ornithocheirids in both Brazil and England, further supporting the intercontinental migration shown in "Giant of the Skies".
While they didn't become stock, Ornithocheirus and Tapejara became fan favorites after this show and were given more attention in educational dinosaur books. The Ornithocheirus character became particularly popular due to the tragic outcome of his story.
Didelphodon is among the most remembered non-dinosaurs of the show, and was given further exposure in the making-of (where it was jokingly shown making the Tyrannosaurusflee with a Zerg Rush) and a TV promo where they were shown as TalkingFunny Animals. They also got a small cameo at the beginning of Walking with Beasts.
Fan Nickname: The core documentary trio, Dinosaurs, Beasts and Monsters, are sometimes referred to as the Trilogy of Life, thanks to the documentary on the Walking With Monsters DVD and Executive Producer Tim Haines referring to the three as such in the documentary. The name is appropriate as the three cover the evolution of life throughout Earth's history.
For "Cruel Sea", the setting is almost always changed from Oxford Clay to Kimmeridge Clay, in order to stay in Britain but also keep the original Late Jurassic date. As a result, Liopleurodon, Cryptoclidus, and Eustreptospondylus are always replaced with Pliosaurusnote Fitting, as the giant Pliosaurus macromerus and Pliosaurus rossicus were placed in Liopleurodon back in the '90s. , Kimmerosaurus, and Juratyrant (the last one being a basal tyrannosaur instead of a megalosaur), while Rhamphorhynchus stays the same. The replacement for Ophthalmosaurus, however, varies, since there are several different ophthalmosaurids known from Kimmeridge Clay.
For "Giant of the Skies", the Utahraptor, Iguanodon, and Polacanthus are commonly replaced with Deinonychus, Tenontosaurus and Sauropelta, as the latter actually lived around the same time as Tropeognathus (the real inspiration for WWD's Ornithocheirus). This usually involves a Setting Update from 127 mya to circa 110 mya and often removing Europe from the plot.
Beasts, and Monsters are also well-liked and are better in many ways, but Walking with Dinosaurs is the most iconic of series to the general public because, well, it's the one with dinosaurs in it. This was acknowledged by the producers during development: they originally wanted to cover the era shown in Beasts, but settled on Dinosaurs as they are incontestably more popular, and its success would help turn people's eyes to Beasts and the era of history it covered. This proved to be a benefit, as they underestimated the challenges of rendering fur in CGI.
The Walking with Trilogy (Dinosaurs, Beasts, and Monsters) is the most well-known and beloved prehistoric documentaries ever made, and both The BBC and Discovery Channel try to repeat their success with other dinosaur documentaries but none of them aside from Prehistoric Planet have come close to the popularity of the original trilogy. At least part of the reason behind this may be because many future dinosaur documentaries would often splice their episodes in with talking head segments explaining more about what the viewers saw, whereas the Walking With Trilogy attempts to go for a more naturalistic "show, don't tell" approach.
One frequent criticism of Walking with Monsters was that it apparently made an effort to get the audience to root for certain animals over others, which felt strange for a nature documentary. This tendency can be seen here as well, as it treats various animals like protagonists and antagonists, with apex predators generally being depicted as menacing and less charismatic carnivores (especially scavengers and ovivores) being shown in a decidedly negative (or at least macabre) light. This was, however, less noticeable in Dinosaurs, as it lacks the rhetoric characterizing evolution as a Forever War that was present in Monsters' narration, which drew attention to the narrative slant present in that series.
Quite a few later documentaries on prehistoric life were heavily criticized for attempting to pander to mainstream audiences by depicting its subjects in an overly "edgy" and "badass" way (often making them out to be monstrous in the process), a tendency that earned the derisive nickname "awesomebro". While these documentaries were frequently contrasted with the Walking With... franchise, it was not innocent of this sort of thing itself, as demonstrated by its extensive Rule of Cool page. This was, however, considered more acceptable for two reasons. First, these embellishments were generally based on ideas that were seriously considered at the time, rather than being simply added for the sake of being awesome regardless of factual basis. Second, the series made an effort to depict prehistoric life realistically in both appearance and behavior, having them act in ways reminiscent of normal present-day animals rather than making them out to be vicious, bloodthirsty beasts.
Harsher in Hindsight: The death of the Ornithocheirus (now Tropeognathus) at the end of “Giant of the Skies” becomes even more tragic once you learn that the specimen on which its portrayal was based, MN 6594-V, a partial skeleton from the Romualdo Formation and one the most complete giant pterosaur skeleton ever found, was lost in a museum fire (which are a common problem in Brazil) following its proper description in 2013. After surviving for 110 million years and giving us an invaluable insight into the full size and magnificence of Early Cretaceous pterosaurs, this rare specimen will never again be studied or marveled at by future generations.
During the making-of special, we are shown Crystal Palace Park and the narrator cites the resident statues as vintage examples of past generations trying to reconstruct scientifically accurate dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals but making crucial mistakes, calling them “a solid reminder of the mistakes of the past”. Some 20 years later, in the wake of a lot of new discoveries, and that summary aptly describes WWD and its sequels when compared to later and more up-to-date documentaries such as Prehistoric Planet.
The series has gotten flak for shaftingQuetzalcoatlus, who is just a reskin of Ornithocheirus here and only appears briefly in "Death of a Dynasty", while other pterosaurs are given more substantial roles in the previous episodes (not helped by Azhdarcho being given the same treatment in Chased by Dinosaurs). This is pretty ironic in hindsight, as Quetzalcoatlus and azhdarchids, in general, would go on to become the most commonly depicted pterosaurs in the paleo-documentary genera that spawned from WWD, being prominently featured in When Dinosaurs Roamed America, Dinosaur Planet, Clash of the Dinosaurs, Planet Dinosaur, March of the Dinosaurs, Flying Monsters 3D, and Prehistoric Planet, just to name the most prolific ones, while other types of pterosaurs would only appear sporadically.
A huge marine reptile drags a theropod by a body of water underwater to eat? The "Cruel Sea" opening now reminds people of the ending to Jurassic World.
The "Prehistoric Planet" cut of "New Blood" features a trivia card for the cynodont that briefly describes it as "Triassic Cuddly?" due to its fur. More than a decade later, "Triassic Cuddle" would become a far more iconic phrase associated with cynodonts thanks to a certain fossil that had a cynodont up and intimate with an amphibian wit.
Hype Backlash: Although it's often been held as one of the highest quality paleo-documentaries ever made, and many dinosaur fans look back very fondly on the series and its sequels and spinoffs, a number of palaeontologists, then and now, have criticized the series for its extremely speculative depictions of prehistoric life, many of which were questionable even then, and more of which have since been discredited.
The Postosuchus roar being an edited Howie scream has not been lost on fans.
Postman Postosuchus. note Originated from this series ofYTPs of Walking with Dinosaurs, which depicted a Postosuchus posing as a delivery man. During the laterYTPs of this series, the OC in question evolves into a Bunny EarsUnstoppable Mailman who time travels throughout the Mesozoic to make deliveries and later saves the dinosaurs from extinction by allowing for them to join him in his Time Machine truck as temporal refugees.
Many memes have retroactively spawned since the release of its Spiritual Successor, Prehistoric Planet, such as a remake of the meme "Allosaurus had never seen such bullshit before" with the Tarbosaurus instead. It also drew joking comparisons of the aggressive and hostile Tyrannosaurus courtship, as opposed to the more casual and peaceful courtship and mating in PP.
Making Postosuchus even sillier is that its roars are actually distorted versions of theHowie Long Scream. Once you hear it, it's impossible to un-hear it.
The final fate of the tyrannosaurid family at the end of "Death of a Dynasty" rather comically clashes with the grimness of the scene. To elaborate: The mother died from her leg wound, with the surviving infants clustering around her body. Then the meteor shockwave hits. The babies get suck up by the wind and zoom away, followed by the mother's corpse being lazily dragged after them.
Nausea Fuel: The dead T-rex embryo in "Death of a Dynasty".
Newer Than They Think: While the animal itself was named back in 1903, Ornitholestes having a crest on its snout was a very recent theory, proposed by Gregory S. Paul in his book Predatory Dinosaurs Of The World, only to then be disproven in the early 2000s, not long after WWD aired. Throughout most of paleontological history, Ornitholesteswas depicted without any nose adornment◊.
Nightmare Retardant: The Postosuchus resembles a terrifying cross between a crocodile and a Tyrannosaurus rex, and is the top predator of the Triassic, but she’s also as slow as molasses and you could avoid her deadly jaws by just walking at a brisk pace.
Older Than They Think: Believe it or not, the TV series' premise of a documentary was actually what Steven Spielberg and George Lucas both originally wanted for The Land Before Time. It was supposed to have no dialog save for the narrator documenting the young dinosaurs separated from their herds trying to survive together. But to make the film appealing to children, they abandoned this idea and got actors and actresses to do the voices instead. Ironically, this would also happen to the 2013 film, but as the decision was made late in production, it doesn't work nearly as well.
Plateosaurus only shows up at the end of the first episode, but it's easily the biggest creature seen thus far, and makes quite the Establishing Character Moment for large dinosaurs.
The Brachiosaurus in the second episode. While it doesn't do much other than walk and eat, it's presence accompanied by the soundtrack playing quickly shows the magnificence of the giant sauropod.
The unidentified pliosaur (presumably Plesiopleurodon) is only in frame for a few seconds, but impresses the dangers of the sea that the Ornithocheirus was flying over.
Quetzalcoatlus, which captures the majesty of the large pterosaurs (in the series at least, in the book it's subjected to a karmic death) and highlights their decline.
Deinosuchus. A few shots are all that is needed to make the danger feel palpable.
Signature Scene: The Liopleurodon snatching up the Eustreptospondylus is easily the most memorable moment of the original series, and immediately put the former species on the map.
Even these shows weren't immune to this: the most common goofs are CG clipping errors (like when the mammoth's trunk "merges" with its tusk and the Ornitholestes' quills clipping into its skin), wires from the animatronic models or parts of the people controlling them being visible, and shadow/reflection effects being messed up. Some are obvious (like the skin of the Opthalmosaurus puppet flaking off in the birthing scene), others are much more clever in hiding their flaws, only catchable if you watch the clips frame-by-frame.
The animals in the earlier series often suffered from weird clipping and deformation. Sometimes during motion, their skin-textures would overlap and clip through each other near the joints, creating odd-looking "seams". There were also some rigging problems evident, like the shoulder-spikes of Polacanthus moving separately from its skin, or the upper teeth of the Diplodocus stretching when they open their mouth in a couple of shots. These issues were gradually ironed out as the series progressed.
One of the biggest and most obvious instances of clipping is the Utahraptor pair attacking an Iguanodon. Because of the direct and dynamic nature of the attack, with the raptors pouncing onto the Iguanodon and clawing at its flanks in the centre of the shot, the show could not resort to obscuring the points of contact as in many other scenes, making it incredibly obvious the Utahraptor models frequently and heavily merge with the Iguanodon model (such as one shot where the raptor's entire hand sinks into the Iguanodon's shoulder).
The level of detail on the models has also not aged too well, as skin detailing is very vague. Many dinosaurs were also modeled at the same scale, which can cause issues where a smaller Polacanthus is walking around with more detail-per-foot compared to the larger Iquanodon around him. And of course, the detail of the models cannot stand up to what's possible on a hand puppet... but hand puppets often have movements that make it obvious that they're hand puppets, which the CGI does not suffer from thanks to well-crafted animations.
Another trick the show used was obscuring the foot contacts of the animals, which are one of the hardest things to do in CG. This was often done by compositing in real plants in front of the creatures or by cutting out bits of the environment in the real shot and moving them upwards to obscure the feet, and once you notice it, the trick is immediately obvious. While it works better in some episodes than it does in others, in Death of a Dynasty the bare ash plains make it rather obvious when they're being used. As with overscan, this was much less obvious on blurrier CRT TVs when the show first aired.
Similarly, any shots of animals eating would be done in ways that avoiding actually showing them swallowing, such as cutting away, putting their head just out of frame, obscuring it behind some object, or just showing them chewing but with nothing in their mouth. It's also noticeable that predators are rarely seen pinning a food item with their foot. Presumably, this was due to the difficulty in showing the different CGI models realistically interacting or the CGI animal interacting with a physical prop, but once the trick is noticed it becomes hard not to notice it everywhere in the series.
In tandem with the above, another issue is Overscan. When the first series was made in 1999, HDTVs and other flatscreens weren't really a thing yet and many CRT TVs had overscan where you wouldn't see the full picture, so watching the show today brings out these quirks. Many compositions have dinosaurs either "pop" in suddenly at the edges or be visible through the slight black border of the background plate, and many shots slide the frame around to give the illusion of camera shake (to save on tracking the CG to a moving camera; the series only rarely uses real moving shots with ground contact), but this often reveals the edges of the composition where the various scene elements have their varying edges visible.
The Deinosuchus. The fact that it's just an immobile head puppet is extremely obvious due to the fact every time it appears, it only shows its head in a single position, with the camera carefully avoiding showing anything behind its neck in every shot it's in (because it doesn't have a body), and it never occurs onscreen together with any other animal.
The Cretaceous mammal in "Spirits of the Ice Forest" is played by an easily recognizable coati, which is made worse by supplementary material calling it a Steropodon, an early relative of the platypus. One wonders why they didn't at least use a more generic-looking small mammal like a possum or rat (which plenty of other paleontological documentaries have done).
Squick: In "Spirits of the Ice Forest", a herd of Muttaburrasaurus is tormented by flies, which bite them on the insides of their ears. The idea of an insect entering an orifice to feed is enough to make most viewers shudder in disgust.
"Spirits of the Ice Forest" uses footage of a modern day tuatara and weta to show the taxa as "living fossils" that have survived unchanged since the age of dinosaurs. The fact that it's older stock footage is obvious though, as the image quality is much worse than the rest of the episode, and neither animal interacts with the other prehistoric animals at any point. Some of the stock footage of insects has a similar issue.
"Time of Titans" also uses stock footage to represent the Jurassic wildfires, and it's similarly obvious that it's older unrelated footage due to the very noticeable drop in video quality and the fact no footage of fire and dinosaurs overlaps.
Plateosaurus and Brachiosaurus are both little more than glorified cameos in “New Blood” and “Time of Titans” respectively. The former only shows up at the end to symbolically signal the dawn of the age of dinosaurs, while the latter appears for less than a minute purely to visually emphasize how big Jurassic sauropods could truly get. The Ballad of Big Al also doesn’t use Brachiosaurus for much more than atmosphere.
The Anatotitan (Edmontosaurus) also does little in “Death of a Dynasty” besides being Monster Munch for the Tyrannosaurus rex. Though the tie-in book does give them a larger role slightly.
Same episode, the Deinosuchus (one of the largest known crocodiles and confirmed dinosaur-eater), who is just a floating animatronic head that menacingly watches other animals drinking. Though again, larger role in the book, where it eats a Quetzalcoatlus.
The Steropodon from "Spirits of the Ice Forest". It might have been interesting to see a Mesozoic, maybe land-dwelling, toothy relative of the platypus animated. This would have been an opportunity to namecheck monotremes (or platypi) and reference that mammals are diversifying in spite of the dinosaurs; mammals don't appear otherwise but in the last episode set in the literal last days of the dinosaurs. Finally, male platypi have venomous spurs in their feet that are believed to have been a basal condition in mammals, so the Steropodon could have used these to defend itself from a predator attack.
The cynodonts from "New Blood", and their babies for that matter. They're like little, half-bald puppies.
The baby Diplodocus from "Time of the Titans". At certain points, they even sound like human babies! And rather than being creepy, the effect is downright adorable.
The Cryptoclidus and baby Opthalmosaurus in "Cruel Sea". The former is basically a Jurassic seal (although closer to a fully marine penguin in Real Life… still sounds cute) and the latter is essentially a Jurassic dolphin.
The Tapejara from "Giant of the Skies" and pretty much every pterosaur in the series. The fact that pterosaurs were this in real life certainly helps.
The Leaellynasaura from "Spirits of the Ice Forest". All of them.
Unintentional Period Piece: An inevitability with a paleontological documentary that's over 2 decades old. Non-saurian Triassic wildlife being sluggish and ungainly, scaly coelurosaurs, quadrupedal prosauropods, Ornitholestes with a nose-crest, whale-sized pliosaurs, plesiosaurs crawling onto land, stiff-necked diplodocids, female T. rex being larger and more aggressive than the males, badger-like Didelphodon, and dinosaurs already teetering towards extinction before the meteor impact are all very reflective of late '90s paleontology.
Visual Effects of Awesome: For many, its visual effects are among the most impressive in any TV series ever (it should come as little surprise that it had an unprecedented budget for a television series at the time; each second of footage cost over 1,000 USD).
The arena spectacular for the sheer spectacle of seeing life-sized dinosaurs live in front of you.
The mother Tyrannosaurus rex in the final episode. First, she loses her eggs after volcanic activity kills the embryos. Then, she seeks a new mate and then drives him away, but after laying twelve only three hatch. Then, one of her babies disappears, implicitly dying at the teeth of its own siblings. Then she is fatally injured by an Ankylosauruswhile trying to protect them and suffers a slow agonizing death shortly after. The only saving grace is that her death meant she didn't have to die in the mass extinction.
The old Ornithocheirus. He risked his life flying all the way to his old mating grounds, is driven away the minute he gets there, and dies of exhaustion without managing to mate at all.
The female Postosuchus does not start this way, as she's seen in her prime when we first see her, but as soon she gets injured in her leg things start to go downhill from there with her injury being a handicap that will make hunting difficult for her, then when she arrives to her territory she finds a male individual has invaded it and she's driven away from her house due to being to weak to defend it, and eventually her injury gets worse as it reaches the point where she loses the ability to use her back legs and looking worse than before having lost sight on her left eye, the mighty predator lays there dying being surrounded by a flock of Coelophysis eager to make a quick meal out of her before she finally succumbs to her injury and the lack of food.
The Tie-In Book
Common Knowledge: It's sometimes claimed that the Plateosaurus fights the Postosuchus in the book. In actuality, it just scares it off and the encounter is summarized in one sentence.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The novelization tried to expand the cast of some episode, with "New Blood" having phytosaurs in a small role, and also cameos by metaposaurids and kuehneosaurids, giving us a better idea of Late Triassic biodiversity. But after that, few new animals were included, even for cameos. Worse still, the few they did add felt rather redundant. "Time of Titans" added Coelurus, an animal virtually identical to Ornitholestes, instead of a more interesting pick like Ceratosaurus, and "Death of a Dynasty" featured both Anatotitan and Edmontosaurus (which we now know are the same animal) over more unique taxa like Pachycephalosaurus or Ornithomimus. "Giant of the Skies", in particular, could have used some additional creatures, since it's a globe-trotting story, and there were plenty of interesting animals to choose from, like Amargasaurus, Baryonyx and Pelecanimimus, and "Cruel Sea" actually changed its location from Britain to Germany, yet did not take the opportunity to show Archaeopteryx.
The 2013 Film:
Alternative Character Interpretation: Very easy to do thanks to the Cretaceous Cut removing the dialogue. A key example would be Juniper. Going from a snarky love interest for Patchi in the original cut, to a sweet, mild mannered herd member who’s just as scared and confused as he is with the world, with the two finding comfort in each other before they both learn how to fight for themselves.
Angst? What Angst?: The deaths of Patchi and Scowler's entire family. By the next morning, they're done mourning their father, and the loss of their mother and siblings is never even mentioned.
Catharsis Factor: Scowler getting mauled to near-death by Gorgon and abandoned by his herd after his nastiest moment where he leaves Patchi to die.
Designated Villain: Gorgon. He's treated as the main villain, and yet he's just a predator trying to survive and feed his pack. Probably justified, though, as he is still a dangerous predatory animal and the story is told from the point of view of his prey.
Improved by the Re-Cut: For those who disliked the dialogue, at least. The Blu-ray release has the "Cretaceous Cut", which eliminates it completely.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Scowler being a selfish Big Brother Bully makes him even worse than Gorgon, who is supposed to be the film's Big Bad but is just a predator. It gets to the point feels satisfying when he nearly gets killed by Gorgon.
Moral Event Horizon: Scowler almost crosses this when he disowns Patchi and leaves him stuck in a ditch to be killed by predators for leading the herd away from a lake of thin ice that he himself led into (and never shows remorse or responsibility for it). By almost as in he redeems himself as he's getting mauled by Gorgon and Patchi rescues him.
Rooting for the Empire: Many viewers found themselves supporting Gorgon instead of Patchi and especially Scowler thanks to him being both a character with no dialogue (thus not annoying like the main characters) and a badass tyrannosaur. The fact that he kills a pterosaur to feed his family definitely made him sympathetic in viewers' eyes.
The Scrappy: Juniper, for being a Flat Character and evident of the gratuitous sexism the movie shows.
Signature Scene: Patchi nearly allowing himself to be eaten was seen as the most jarring and nightmarish in an otherwise unremarkable film.
So Bad, It's Good: Sometimes seen this way with its inept childish dialogue, over-the-top cliché plot and gratuitous sexism. Others are not as forgiving, though.
Special Effect Failure: The film has no lip synching, leading to speculation that it was supposed to be a serious documentary and was changed to a comedic film a la Ice Age at the last minute. Cue outcry of They Changed It, Now It Sucks!.
Squick: There is a scene early on where a hatchling Patchi is defecated on by a larger dinosaur. This wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't received a gaping open wound in his frill less than a minute before.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Many a dinosaur fan and Walking with Dinosaurs fan have complained about the 2013 movie humanizing the animals too much.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: The climax of the movie being Patchi leading the herd in driving off the predators by standing together made many longtime paleo-fans groan due to being too reminiscent of the same thing happening in Dinosaur.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Scowler is meant to be seen as a jerk and an antagonist, but ultimately somewhat sympathetic given he has a Heel–Face Turn. Since Scowler spends most of the film being an emotionally and at times physically abusive bully to Patchi for no real reason, culminating in him leaving his brother to die out of petty spite, many viewers found his redemption unearned and felt he had crossed the Moral Event Horizon with his attempted familicide.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Although the film got mostly negative and mixed reviews, the visuals have impressed mostly everyone, whether it's just the CGI or the 3D effects as well. The bulk of the critics single them out as the sole saving graces of the film.
◊ during the '80s and '90s
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