Chased by Dinosaurs

Have you ever wanted to soar among a flock of Pteranodons? Chased by Dinosaurs, which plays like an entertaining hybrid of TV's Crocodile Hunter and Jurassic Park, is hosted by Australian zoologist/adventurer Nigel Marvin, who heads up a ‘factitious' time-traveling camera crew in this compilation. The digital dinosaurs are spectacularly realistic, and Marvin's infectious enthusiasm brings playful perspective to a vast menagerie of long-extinct species, thriving in their native habitats and ranging from 75 to 450 million years B.C. "Land of Giants" leaps back to the early Cretaceous period (100 million B.C.) to what is now Argentina, where Marvin and his intrepid crew find Argentinosaurus, at over 100 feet long the largest dinosaur ever. "The Giant Claw" is a search for Therizinosaurus, an amazing herbivore (Mongolia, 75 million B.C.) with enormous 28-inch claws on 10-foot arms. The third program, the three-part "Sea Monsters," spans seven epochs to survey some of the most bizarre and terrifying creatures that ever swam the oceans, including sea scorpions, a multi-tentacled Giant Orthocone, and Megalodon, the ancient relative to Great White Sharks. Marvin's a fair educator, but more science-minded viewers will appreciate the 50-minute bonus program "The Science of Giants," centering on the behavior of massive dinosaurs and the efforts of renowned paleontologist Philip Currie to prove that "megacarnivores"--once thought to roam alone--actually hunted in packs. In addition, helpful "Fact Files" provide detailed profiles of every dinosaur and sea creature featured here. Highly recommended. Aud: J, H, C, P. (J. Shannon)