Prehistoric Park (2006)

"Prehistoric Park" is a paleontological gift from the gods. Don't listen to those fussy nitpickers that condemn it as an ersatz "Jurassic Park" clone. First of all, the various endangered, ancient beasts are NOT cloned. They are rescued from perilous time periods by the charismatic and engrossing zoologist and adventurer Nigel Marvin, a somewhat more subdued version of the late, lamented "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin. Second, not all the captured beasts are dinosaurs and reptiles. Yes, T-rex makes his obligatory appearance, but we also witness bizarre creatures like a 10-foot tall, flightless, carnivorous bird (Phorusracos), a woolly rhino the size of a modern elephant with a 6 1/2 long horn (Elasmotherium), and a 10-foot long millipede (Arthropleura). Third, the creatures are allowed to and even encouraged to breed, as the Ornithomimus chicks demonstrate. Finally, not every creature encountered is captured. For example, we get to see the giant cave bear, the Parasaurolophus, and the rhinoceros-like Toxodon undisturbed in their natural environments.Instead, this series puts a prehistoric (and sometimes gently humorous) twist on the daily activities and challenges in maintaining a natural-habitat wildlife park. Nigel and his appealing, competent cast, such as groundskeeper Bob and Suzanne the veterinarian provide detailed but fascinating information on the feeding, boarding, and medical care of disparate animal groups. The actual forays in the past are even more fascinating and gripping as Nigel and his crew deal not only with dangerous, deadly animals but also perilous natural disasters like, say, the approaching asteroid which decimated the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous, and odorless carbon monoxide, and a swamp fire during the Carboniferous period. Yes, Nigel has a time travel portal to visit those bygone eras, and yes, some people might have a problem with the time travel paradoxes which inevitably follow. To me, they were an insignificant distraction. The series seems episodic, but you can't really watch the 3-DVD set at random because there are linear threads running through it. Two of the main ones are the increasing sibling rivalry between the troublesome T-Rexes Terence and Matilda, and the living adjustments endured by the wounded, long-suffering, and ultimately heroic woolly mammoth Martha.The series has exciting cliffhangers, but they are natural and unforced. Will Terence survive Matilda's attack? Will Martha heal and be accepted by the elephant herd? Will the male and female Smilodons breed successfully? Will Nigel get himself and his 4 X 4 out of the Carboniferous swamp before the fire strikes? Will Nigel's scorpion sting do permanent damage? Can anything stop the spooked, stampeding titanosaur from reducing the park to rubble? It's also fun to see the depiction of how animals from different eras might react to each other, such as when Martha is introduced to a real elephant herd, and when the crocodile Deinosuchus tries to take a bite out of the escaped Matilda, and when Martha attempts to protect a baby elephant from, again, Matilda; the CGI in this regard is sensational, and is seamlessly top-notch in general.Also, in general, if you are a nature, paleontology, or wildlife buff, you will be in heaven with this series. "Prehistoric Park" may also give conservation-minded people comfort, of a sort, by kinda cheating extinction and bringing a mind-blowing array of creatures back to life for our contemplation.

This is a great show for kids. They'll be sure to find it entertaining, and a lot of good information is given to them in a way that doesn't just ram it all down their throats straight from a book. Nigel's "mistakes" actually are a vehicle for giving that information, I believe, though, as I'm about to lay-out below, some of the mistakes are just plain ridiculous to make.To that end, for the grownups, there are a few plot-holes that can become a bit distracting. If Nigel and his crew can time-travel to an exact, specific time and place repeatedly, wouldn't it be better to go back in time first to just look and see what you have to deal with, film everything you see with a timer running, then go back to the present and figure out a strategy, and THEN go back to your scene a second time and catch the dinosaurs, already KNOWING where they'll be and what they'll do? They will arrive in the exact same circumstances you saw the first time, and do exactly the same things. This method will eliminate ALL of your guesswork. I mean...really!! If you can figure out a way to time-travel, shouldn't you have enough brains to do something like this to make your hunting and capturing easier? Other little things are annoying, too. No one would set up camp in the middle of an open space with T-rex presumed nearby! No one would walk around in a place he KNOWS to be a T-rex lair and be completely defenseless, with no weapons of any kind! No one, having just been chased by no less than THREE T-rex adults, would be "only slightly nervous and out of breath" as Nigel is! Yikes!! Most people would have had a full blown heart attack (I'm SURE I would have!), yet Nigel almost seemed to enjoy the romp...and then, later on, he goes blithely walking around in their lair, totally unarmed! He reacts in similar fashion on other episodes when he is dealing with dangerous bears, sabretooth cats, etc. That's just too much! In the scenario on the show, Nigel is deliberately going to get the T-rex just when they will be wiped out by the asteroid anyway, so he wouldn't need to worry about altering history and possibly changing the fate of the ecosystem. Therefore, he wouldn't have to scruple about killing them to save himself in an emergency (he could, as already noted, always bail out back to the present and then try again with a better plan, and they'd be alive again!). No one would cage the pair of T-rex in a wooden enclosure, especially when it is the flimsy set up one finds on the show!). No one would let a small herd of titanosaurs roam the entire park at will; not only is it dangerous, they'll eventually blunder into all of the buildings and wreck them, not to mention crash through the T-rex and sabretooth enclosures and inadvertently "liberate" these dangerous animals! No one would cavalierly wade through Carboniferous period swamps as carelessly as Nigel does. Even when he gets a bite to the leg, he's almost totally unconcerned about the bacteria in the bite that are completely different from present-day bacteria and TOTALLY foreign to our immune systems. Speaking of bacteria (and viruses), no one explains how the beasts brought back to the present can so successfully fight off the germs of our own day; they'd be as completely defenseless here as we should be in their time.Finally, how, exactly, does Nigel know the PRECISE day that the asteroid hit, ending the Cretaceous Period and wiping out the dinosaurs??? He couldn't possibly guess to within 10,000 years! The dating isn't anywhere near precise enough to travel to the very day such an event occurred! I could name a few more quibbles with the show, but you get the idea.Still, as I said, the show is a pretty good "adventure" for the kids, and it's fairly entertaining for those adults who don't want to think much while viewing. For the rest, it can also be entertaining, but not always in the ways the producers intended, I'm sure! ;-)

After watching Walking With Dinosaurs i wanted more. Then came this! Its the same thing but he brings the dinosaurs to a park! Sadly a lot of things brought it down. Nigil was very annoying and unrealistic. Every single episode he has to bring a new dinosaurs back to the park. What bothered me was that every time he does this it turns out to be the most dramatic and unbelievable adventure with way to much comedy. And it was a little bit Hollywood.Acting and special effects were med core.This will be great for kids. Great for simple ppl who have not seen walking with dinosaur's and basically don't no any thing about dinosaur's.But for more realistic viewers its not to good.

This serial is one the best of its kind. You learn much about dinosaurs and the prehistoric age, as well as you have a lot of fun! The animation is very good, except for some times when it's not so good... The story of the serial is about the man, Nigel, and his park crew that travels back in time to the prehistoric age to rescue some of the dinosaurs and other animals from extinction. But for every animal Nigel saves, there are three problems in the park that needs solving. And what happens when the animals starts attack each other? How can Nigel and his crew solve these problems? Follow them in this world exiting serial!All in all, it's a good serial with lots of good characters and special effects!