T-Rexes with parenting issues. Velociraptors hunting in snow. And Attenborough narrating it all like it’s “The Crown” for dinosaurs — and Hans Zimmer’s score makes it even more badass.
Mary Beth Griggs at The Verge recommended this one, and I’m glad she did.
Trailer for “Prehistoric Planet”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- There’s a Troodontid scene where this little feathered dinosaur straight-up steals burning sticks from a wildfire and deliberately drops them into burrows to smoke prey out, basically becoming a Cretaceous arsonist.
- One of the most jaw-dropping bits has two male Dreadnoughtus—70-ton sauropods the size of small office buildings—smashing their necks together in slow-motion sumo combat over a single female in an open plain.
- The show even gives you a “gay pterosaur” moment: on a crowded Hatzegopteryx mating cliff, a sneaky male copies female display behavior to slip past rivals and cuddle up to another male, completely fooling the whole flock.
Watch “Prehistoric Planet”
You can watch “Prehistoric Planet” on Apple TV+.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 95/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96/100 (Users); 91/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note: “Prehistoric Planet” is directed and produced by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit with Jon Favreau as showrunner. Photorealistic visual effects by MPC (the team behind “The Lion King”).
Release Date: May 23, 2022 (Apple TV+)
My Review of “Prehistoric Planet”
The Setup
This five-part series drops you right into the daily chaos of the Late Cretaceous. No talking heads. No “Jurassic Park” screams. Just naturalistic storytelling with dinos treated like real animals in their ecosystems. It’s like “Planet Earth” with feathered raptors.
The scenes are short, vivid, and behavior-focused. A baby dino gets snatched mid-hatch. A blind predator uses sound to hunt. Some of it feels playful, some terrifying—but all of it feels alive.
More Highlights from the Doc
- A full-grown T-Rex with facial scars swims across open ocean waves—casually—while his fluffy, paddle-footed kids trail behind like ducklings on spring break.
- Deinocheirus, a 2-ton duck-billed dino with Freddy Krueger claws, uses a tree as a scratching post because it’s being devoured alive by prehistoric horseflies.
- Quetzalcoatlus—the giraffe-sized flying reptile—nests on cliffs so crowded it looks like a chaotic airport. Every takeoff is a gamble, every landing a midair collision.
- It’s not all teeth and roars—there are courtship dances, parenting styles, and survival strategies we’ve never seen animated this convincingly.
- Feathered dinos are everywhere. Velociraptors look like angry turkeys with parkour skills—leaping off cliffs to snatch prey in mid-air.
- Each episode focuses on a different habitat: coasts, deserts, freshwater, ice worlds, and forests. You’ll meet creatures like the armored ankylosaur and a sneaky predator called the Nanuqsaurus (think: Arctic T. rex).
- Attenborough’s narration balances wonder and science. He explains things like mating rituals and migration without talking down to kids—or over adults’ heads.
Cameos – Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Some dinosaurs are given scars, broken limbs, or healing injuries—visuals based on fossilized bone damage discovered by real paleontologists.
- Deinocheirus is shown wallowing in water for relief—this behavior is speculative but based on the creature’s size, likely parasites, and swampy fossil sites in Mongolia.
- The music score is by Hans Zimmer, Anže Rozman, and Kara Talve. It’s moody, grand, and cinematic—think less “Discovery Channel” and more “Dune.”
Wrap Up:
If you grew up obsessed with dinosaurs, or if you’re raising someone who is (like me), this is must watch.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc