I started watching Dinosaurs Alive! 3D with my 9 year-old son this past weekend figuring he would be the perfect age to give me a good opinion about this TV show.  After about 15 minutes in, he asked if he could leave to go play nerf hoop.  I felt the same way, but decided to stick it out and watch it in its entirety so I could write it up.

Content Review

This hour long documentary, narrated by Michael Douglas, is obviously about dinosaurs but really focuses on the paleontologists and their search for dinosaur fossils around the world.  Different and new types of dinosaurs are introduced in addition to the evolution of certain types of dinosaurs and how they might have behaved in their environment with other creatures.  The latter scenes were done with very cool 3D animation which made you feel as if you were there.

There are definitely facts and information that is not widely known, so it was certainly educational from that perspective, both about dinosaurs that you probably haven't heard of before as well as how paleontologists work.

Use and Quality of 3D

Unfortunately, the beginning of Dinosaurs Alive! was very dizzying.  There were several scenes out of focus and forced me to take off my glasses for a few seconds.  The quality did however improve over the course of the show and the dinosaur CGI scenes (although minimal) were very well done.

Regarding the use of 3D, the 360 degree trip around the dinosaur skeletons (fossils) was interesting, especially the angle that took you inside the belly of the skeleton.  The rock formations of the paleontologists' digs in the Gobi desert and in New Mexico were clearly selected to add to the 3D effect and didn't disappoint.  Although completely contrived, the paleontologist throwing dirt into the camera was also a moment that stood out.

Much like in Forgotten Planet 3D, old footage of pioneers in paleontology was introduced in the middle of the screen with a background of current footage in the background.  While effective and better than making it full screen, it wasn't as well done as Forgotten Planet.

The Bottom Line

The show would probably be interesting to children (and adults) who are into dinosaurs, but the content just isn't engaging enough to hook you in if dinosaurs are not your thing. Combine that with the subpar 3D rendering and ghosting and the result is if you skip Dinosaurs Alive!, you won't be missing much.

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