Granted, this series (from the BAFTA and EMMY winning producers of Walking With Dinosaurs)
is pretty damn enteraining and fun - but at the end of the day it
really is just a cheaper and less convincing version of Jurassic Park. The
premise for this six part series is pretty straight forward. Going on
the theory that 99.9% of all creatures that have ever lived on this
planet are now extinct, a group of conservationist use a time travel
device to not only travel back in time to see them - but to bring them
back to ultimate wild life sanctuary - Prehistoric Park. The
shows host, Nigel Marvin (who is doing his best to be the annoying
British version of Steve Irwin), does just that and travels back in
time to "rescue" some of the most magnificent creatures that have ever
walked the earth. Once "rescued" they are given a new home in the park
where they are "looked after" by a team of experts. While I really enjoyed this upon it's first screening on TV (and the picture quality on the DVDs is superb), Prehistoric Park ultimately suffers from sitting on the fence of which genre it wanted to be. The brilliant thing about the Walking
series was that it was treated as it were a real life documentary of
these creatures - not unlike anything else you would see on the
Discovery Channel - and it was a joy and believable. Jurassic Park was again, fantastic in that it treated itself as a popcorn movie, which ultimately made it seem a feasible reality. PH tries to hard to be both - which is a great idea - but it just doesn't translate that well onto the screen. Much like Walking, Prehistoric Park
does it's best to inform while entertaining, and for the most part - it
succeeds. Some of the action sequences look superb (a scene in which
explorer Nigel is chased through the time portal by a giant T-Rex is
thrilling), while the Wooly Mammoth looks absolutley stunning. For
fans of doco's, this one may seem a bit cheesy for you're liking - but
the kids won't be able to get enough of this one. There's enough action
and adventure to keep them glued to their seats (while teaching them a
thing or two), and the graphics really are superb. A great package to allow you to escape reality for a while. DVD
Extras I'm a sucker for good DVD packaging. That's why I can never really accept burning DVDs - the covers are just to good! Prehistoric Park has a great looking slip cover. There's
also an interactive animal stats and facts menu for the kids,
storyboards for the film students and a well put together making of
featurette "Building The Impossible". A good edition to the DVD shelf. Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 65% 
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