Walking With Dinosaurs - Episode 4 - Giant of the Skies - Review

on the 25th of october 1999 the fourth episode of walk with dinosaurs giant of the skies was released this episode takes place in the early cretaceous period 127 million years ago and starts in brazil before traveling to southern north america and then western europe like the previous episode cruel c there are accuracy problems related to the geological age of some animals not fitting with the episode's time setting but it also features some very questionable inclusions in terms of geographical distribution whilst this is nothing new for this series out of the six episodes giant of the skies seems to have the most egregious accuracy issues as a lot of liberties were taken with both the spatial and temporal setting of this episode as a whole however these don't detract from the episode's quality in my opinion as this one has some of the best if not the best storytelling in the whole series without further ado let's get into it giant of the skies has arguably the most interesting opening a flash forward to the end of the episode where we see the body of the titular giant of the skies lying dead in the shallows on a beach at sunset the music for this episode is truly heart-wrenching and i would say this episode is the most tragic of the bunch this is a good way to quickly gain intrigue from the audience as they wonder how he died as the narration gives some background on how spectacular he once was before the title appears a very cool start indeed the first scene takes place on a cliff coastline in brazil with the narration explaining how the movement of the continent is creating new seaways and coastlines this coast is the breeding site for the pterosaur tapijara although it is now classified as a different genus topandactylus the model looks very cool the colours are incredibly striking especially with the bright red head crest and the design is fairly accurate aside from the limp proportions being slightly off they also exhibit sexual dimorphism which i'm not sure is accurate they may also have not lived near the coast rather they were more inland pterosaurs but it's still plausible they could congregate at the coast to breed we are then introduced to the giant of the skies himself ornithocyrus however like the tapijara it too has since been reclassified as another genus tropicanaethus both the trophy ignathus and two pandaculus had yet to evolve by the time of this episode setting sadly the design is really good and accurate the head especially has a brilliant looking animatronic the only issues i could find anatomically would be that there just aren't enough pythnofibers but overall this one has aged very well the problem is that they state that is the largest animal ever to fly but this title belongs to other giant pterosaurs such as quetzalcoatlus or hatzigopteryx so this animal is oversized he is of course the main character of this episode and we follow his migration from south america through north america to europe where he will breed this road trip style of storytelling really sets this episode apart as it allows the audience to see the scope of the mesozoic world and makes it seem fleshed out unbelievable which could in turn lead viewers to interpret and speculate about what else is living around the globe in the early cretaceous and it's a joy to watch whilst there's no evidence for trophy ignathus being migratory it's still plausible considering it is a flying animal and that many birds today are migratory as he sets off on his grand journey the narration teases how this will be the last he ever makes engaging the viewer further the shots of the ornithocaires flying over the sea are really impressive still to this day but the most impressive shot in the entire series goes to the aerial shot of the agualadon heard as the onothecarus reaches north america according to tim haynes on the behind the scenes excerpts on the dvd this shot alone took a whole year to make as every individual dinosaur model and footprint had to be animated and accounted for incredible stuff the iguanodon also have now been reclassified as a new genus decoded on as there is little fossil evidence of dakota don it's hard to say if it is an accurate representation of that taxa but judging it as an aguadon it is one of the most accurate models in the entire series and i personally love the coloration with the dark brown highlighted by white stripes the only issues i could really make out was its posture as the hips seemed to be too high and the front of the animal being too low as a result other than that it is excellent we are also introduced to polar canthus which follows the trend of animals in this episode now being reclassified as a new genus in this case hopletosaurus it's the similar case with the dakotadon as there is little fossil remains of hoplite sword so judging it as a representation of polar canthus it is fairly good however the tail droops considerably when it should be held stiffer it also appears to lack a beak which nodosaurids like polar kansas did have i really like the settings of this episode the beach on the edge of the forest is such a cool environment and the following rain and fog just make it look even cooler this rain however halts the migration of the ornithocaires and forces him to take shelter we then are shown a very impressive iguanodon animatronic as it chews on plants unique adaptations so far unseen in the animal kingdom this then brings us to the showcase of some of the first flowers and flower pollinating insects i really appreciate scenes like this as they give especially important insight into the world of the dinosaurs and how it changes around them and how they adapt to it as the weather clears we get a grotesque yet intriguing practical effect in the form of giant prehistoric mites also i still to this day wonder what these silhouetted pterosaurs are but they lead to what is now considered an outdated theory that large pterosaurs had to wait for the heat of the day to be high enough to take off by using heat thermals this theory is now considered to be unrealistic as pterosaurs are now thought to be very strong animals and therefore wouldn't need the assistance of thermals for takeoff the same goes for this huge colony of pterosaurs here i have no idea what genes they're meant to be or why they're there still impressive how many models have been rendered on screen though the narration explains that despite being huge and the kairis weighs very little allowing him to fly as he crosses the atlantic ocean we see what is probably the least impressive creature in the series the plesiopluridon not only is the model identical to the liporidon from cruel sea it is the exact same shot just with a slightly duller colour palette it also hadn't evolved yet by the time of the episode so i really don't understand what it's doing here as the ornithocairus reaches western europe we are introduced to another herd of iguanodon accompanied by a polar counters this time however they are true representatives of their respective genera the polar canthus looks basically identical to its north american counterpart but the iguanodon has a light green colour scheme with yellow highlights and dark brown stripes very different to that of the dakotadon the environment is also very nice with an open woodland and many hills surrounding a lake however this brings us to the most obviously misplaced animal in the series the utah raptor i don't think i need to explain why it's a bit questionable that utah raptors are living in england they also would have been extinct by this time as well so their inclusion does seem very odd they also lack feathers which we now know with confidence that they did have and then we get yet another mystery pterosaur my best guess would be corkycephalus as it lived at this time and place but it could be anything regardless the onuththekyra steals the fish it just caught and i like this display of behavior as animals will most often take the path of least resistance and stealing food from weaker animals is often easier than finding your own the following scene is very entertaining as we see the pack of utahraptors hunter young iguanodon feathers aside the model looks pretty accurate but the head is very shrink wrapped unfortunately the colour scheme is very leopard-like and a treat to the eyes i do like that we see the first attempt at hunting fail as this is very common in nature i love the shot of the iguanodon herd reflected in the water at the lake it's very nice this is followed by a second attack from the raptors on the aguamadon this time they are more successful i like that they don't perpetuate the idea that raptors could disembowel their prey with their killing claws i also like that they portray them as having a pecking order with a younger actor being fiercely put in his place by older animals the hunt prompts the ornithocaires to leave and we are introduced to iberomosanis sadly they go unnamed in the episode and they lived in spain not england the wording of the narration is very important as they are specifically called flying dinosaurs which makes it very apparent to those unaware that birds are in fact living dinosaurs the narration also explains how their wings are more resistant to damage than those of pterosaurs and that they will eventually drive them to extinction this is another theory that is now thought unlikely as subsequent discoveries have shown that pterosaurs remain diverse until their extinction there is no doubt in my mind that the scene of the tiny birds mobbing the giant pterosaur was meant to symbolize this the ornithirus at last reaches his breeding ground in spain where we see dozens of male ornithocaires already there fiercely deterring our ornithocyrus they also represent them as sexually dimorphic with females possessing no crests sadly our own thick iris slowly dies from heat stroke and starvation as the saddest music piece plays it is genuinely very sad to see this animal we've followed the entire episode pass away after such hardship finally we see a juvenile feeding on his corpse as the narration states he has become food for the next generation giant of disguise is a very entertaining episode the globe trotting aspect really does make a unique watch but this does lead to some accuracy and geographical hiccups with many animals not in the right place and time but what ultimately pulls this episode through is the story following the old ornithocyrus on his grand journey to his death is quite the spectacle and seeing the world of dinosaurs around him on his travels is such a wonderful experience i'm happy this episode focuses on pterosaurs similar to how cruel c focused on marine reptiles both groups of animals that shared the mesozoic with the dinosaurs so i'm happy to see them both get some love and representation in media whilst i wouldn't say it's my favorite episode giant of disguise is still incredibly entertaining and an engaging watch thank you so much for watching click the link in the end card to see my review of a figure based on an animal that appeared in this episode and we shall hopefully be reviewing spirits of the ice forest soon thank you bye bye now oh

Channel: HodgePodge

Views: 107

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: jurassic park, pterosaur, jurassic world, polacanthus, tapejara, walking with dinosaurs, giant of the skies, iguanodon, pterodactyl, velociraptor, t rex vs indominus, Dinosaurs, cretaceous, indominus rex vs indoraptor, utahraptor, t rex, jurassic, t rex vs spinosaurus, jurassic world dominion, walking with dinosaurs review, t rex vs indominus rex, walking with dinosaurs episode 4, t rex vs indoraptor, giant of the skies review, ornithocheirus, spinosaurus vs indominus rex

Id: yi-1nPok9w8

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 16 2020