[This review represents a revised text of the original.]


With regard to this 4-dvd set, this reviewer must separate content from packaging.  As to the former, the set contains an pertinent selection of  6 TV presentations, most of them from 1999.  These documentaries provide a good deal of interest and variety.  Subjects covered include: advances in the study of dinosaur eggs, discovery of the species Jobaria, the discovery of (and subsequent possession war over) the largest and most complete T.Rex skeleton ever, the reconstruction of a slender, gracile, ostrich-like T.Rex yearling (with feathers!), and a survey of the rise and development of modern dinosaur studies.  I’d gladly give this excellent set 5 stars on the basis of content.

But there’s still that pesky issue of packaging.  Let’s start with the time-to-disc ratio.  There’s about 4 hours and 20 minutes of material in the set, total.  With today’s DVD technology, in which a good 3 hours or more of film and extras can easily be put on a single DVD.  So we would naturally expect that we would have 2 DVDs in the set.  Right?  WRONG!  We’ve got 4.

One note:  the first disc, the longest at 95 minutes, contains 3 half-hour episodes.  This isn’t entirely clear from the unduly brief blurb on the box.  On this DVD, as with the others there are NO extras, NO subtitles, nothing that would have required the slightest minimum of extra effort on the part of the producers. 

Aside from the fatter storage container required, the use of 4 discs is certainly reflected in the $25 retail price.  The profligate use of plastic is, any way you look at it, a big disadvantage … to the consumer, that is.  You’d better believe the advantage, profit-wise, belongs to the set’s producer.

Fear not … there’s more.  What sort of box do these DVDs get stuffed into?  It’s one with a single spindle on which the discs are crammed.  It’s such fun to get them all off, too.  Have you ever seen a box like that?  Probably not.  But since I also buy bootleg DVDs of items that seem unlikely to see commercial production, I’ve seen them.  The most amateurish of bootleg producers use these things for up to 8 DVDs at a time.  Very nice boxes – with separate storage for each of the 4 DVDs – are available.  Amazingly, they’re thinner than the stingily designed one used here.

Physically, this isn’t a very attractive offering.  In terms of content, however, it’s really compelling.  Even though most of the material is a decade old (a huge time gap in the world of paleontology), it’s remarkably up-to-date and technically well-produced.  Walter Cronkite’s assured, professional voice-overs in the last 2 discs is a great plus.

On the whole, this set is worth owning.  I give it 5 stars for content, 1 star for packaging and presentation.

[Note:  The choices under "suitable for children" are unnecessarily restrictive.  The set is suitible for all children sufficient mature intellectually to understand it and of course for all adults similarly endowed.  A former governor of the nation's largest State certainly proves there are some adults who aren't.]

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above