Green Phoenix - Inside the Enchanted Forests Review

You know, for all that I have been reviewing a variety of films and television programs whilst a part of this website, I haven't really taken advantage of all the streaming shows that are now available to me. I have occasionally perused Amazon Prime or Crunchyroll, but the variety of services has become almost saturated in recent years, giving me plenty of opportunities for new content to write about. Especially because I also want to start reviewing and recommending more nonfiction and documentary pieces.

I say all this to bring up the fact that Disney+ and Hulu have a wide variety of National Geographic nature documentaries available for viewing. I have absolutely adored nature documentaries and animal programming ever since I was a small child (thank you, Crocodile Hunter) and so when I saw the options for viewing, I was genuinely thrilled. The only question became, what do I review among the wide variety of nature documentaries?

Then I saw it. A six part nature documentary  series entitled Inside the Enchanted Forests, focusing on the vast array of forest and woodland biomes throughout the globe. A episodically light documentary with a light and whimsical tone was just the sort of thing to take a deeper look at.

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Green Phoenix - Light and Magic Review

 

Disney+ has been, in my humble opinion, a boon for anyone interested in classic films and the filmmaking process. The streaming service is filled to the brim with fascinating behind the scenes documentaries and featurettes that reveal the magic and history behind some of our favorite films. From The Reluctant Dragon to Waking Sleeping Beauty, the streaming service is just an absolute treasure trove that I find myself drawn in for hours upon hours of great information and fun.

That's why, when I saw Disney+ recommending a documentary series called Light & Magic, outlining the history and legacy of the special effects company Industrial Light & Magic, I knew I had to watch and review it. That it would be everything that I tend to look for in my documentaries and even play into my love of film history and special effects.

And I was not disappointed. So let's not waste anytime talking and just get right into a review that already had to be delayed by a week due to work and other distractions. But in my humble opinion, this review was worth the wait.

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Green Phoenix - Walking with Cavemen Review

 

 

At long last, we come to the final of the Walking with... documentaries, not including the specials (like Sea Monsters) or more child-oriented programming.

Released in 2003, Walking with Cavemen was technically the third series in the franchise, as Walking with Monsters wasn't released until 2005. However, I've always held that Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts, and Walking with Monsters makes up the trinity of mainline films with Walking with Cavemen acting like more of an expansion of Walking with Beasts, covering largely the same time frame as the latter half of the series.

Walking with Cavemen, as you can imagine, turns its focus largely on the evolution of man. Using many of the same techniques and filming methods employed by the rest of the franchise to explore the lives of the various hominids which called Earth home before modern man, Walking with Cavemen stands in my mind as something as an outlier and oddball among its fellow series.

As I will go into further detail in the actual review segment, Walking with Cavemen makes a few changes to the overall formula that really bother me, despite my love of the subject at hand. Despite a good narrative angle for the documentary, there is only a single massive element which keeps this film from being regarded as equal to the rest of the franchise.

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Green Phoenix - Walking with Monsters Review

 

 

Happy Friday everybody!

So this week has been very busy for me at my job. Most of my coworkers were out for the week and, for one reason or another, I was the only individual trained for my particular position in the company. As such, I'm currently writing these articles in the moments of downtime during my shift. But honestly, I find this environment highly conducive to my writing and this may be a continued situation for the foreseeable articles.

Felt like giving you guys a little update of my day-to-day life as it does tend to impact my output of these articles and the content therein. In my downtime at work when I'm not working on articles, I've been catching up with streaming shows. And among my favorite streaming channels to watch, CuriosityStream is definitely high on that list (I am not getting paid by CuriosityStream to say that, by the way).

I've stated on numerous occasions my love of documentary, with particular interest on geological and biological history. Many of my past documentary articles have been on the Walking with... series. The BBC documentary series has long been held as the gold standard of dinosaur documentaries with Walking with Dinosaurs and the franchise released another hit with its sequel Walking with Beasts (which covered the history of life following the extinction of the dinosaurs).

But with today's article, we will examine the prequel to Walking with Dinosaurs. Detailing the myriad forms of life which preceded the Age of the Dinosaurs. In Walking with Monsters, we bear witness to the evolution of the countless forms of life that inhabit our world and the innumerable forms which seem to defy logic itself.

How does the prequel stand up against the original and the sequel? Does the BBC's trilogy on the Tree of Life end with a bang or a whimper?

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Green Phoenix - The History of Swear Words Review

 

 THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WILL OBVIOUSLY POSSESS QUITE A LOT OF OBSCENITY, EVEN BEYOND MY USUAL AMOUNT. 

READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

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It's not often that I come across the trailer for a film or series that makes me immediately go, "I MUST WATCH THIS!!!!". For all that I am a rabid viewer of cinema, my past economic difficulties have fostered in me a deep sense of "Wait and see" when it comes to many films, hoping that word of mouth can entice me into making the effort to see a new film. Even in the age of streaming services, where money is less of a pressing issue, the sheer amount of temporal investment (and time is money) into any movie or TV series is oftentimes difficult for me to get over.

So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when I came across the trailer for Netflix's documentary comedy series The History of Swear Words. Watching Nicholas Cage just scream the word fuck for thirty seconds was apparently enough to completely hook me onto the idea of this documentary series. Released on the 5th of January, 2021 The History of Swear Words is one of the first new releases on Netflix for the year and, as you will see in my review, a fantastic way to start this year.

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Green Phoenix - They Shall Not Grow Old Review

 

My initial plan for this review was to have it released two weeks ago, on the 13th of November. My reasoning was largely symbolic, as the 11th is the anniversary of the Armistice which ended the first half of the greatest and most impactful war in human history thus far. However there ended up being other reviews and delays which had to be taken which ended up messing with my schedule and plans; but at least I was able to give a somewhat symbolic gesture with releasing this review the day after Thanksgiving.

This year is coming to a close, and it has truly been a trying year. Next week will begin my December break and this is to be my last review of the year. To that end, I can think of no more proper send-off for this year than to speak on a film that I not only enjoy but deeply respect for what it sought to accomplish.

Released on the anniversary of the 100th year following Armistice, They Shall Not Grow Old brought Peter Jackson's filmmaking talents to bear against the memories of the First World War. Utilizing revolutionary digital effects and restoration techniques, Jackson and his team sought to bring the lives and tribulations of soldiers from both sides of the trenches into vivid detail. What WingNut Films shows is both stunning in its humanity and in its horror and as we give thanks for all that we have, perhaps we can use this occasion to also give thanks to those souls who are with us no longer.

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Green Phoenix - Walking With Beasts Review

 

A few weeks back, I took a look at the BBC Documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs. I've gone on record stating just how much I adored that series and its influence on my cinematic tastes and experiences.

Knowing how important Walking with Dinosaurs was to my childhood and cinematic sensibilities, it really should come to no surprise that I would keep the show going by taking a look at the other entries in the Walking with... franchise at some point down the line.

Well...today is the day.

Released in 2001, 2 years after its predecessor, Walking with Beasts uses the same combination of animatronics and computer-generated imagery to tell the story of life after the extinction of the dinosaurs. With Kenneth Branaugh reprising his narrator role from Walking with Dinosaurs for the British version of the series, Walking with Beasts brings together much of the same crew and team that brought dinosaurs back to life to tell the story of the rise of mammals and their transition into a world dominated by human beings.

But does Walking with Beasts live up to its predecessors legacy? Or was Walking with Dinosaurs to big of a shadow to shine against?

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Green Phoenix - When Dinosaurs Roamed America Review

I've been wanting to cover more documentaries in my articles and the month-long break gave me the perfect opportunity to think long and hard about what documentary I would absolutely love to discuss. As I mentioned in my Walking With Dinosaurs review, dinosaur documentaries just absolutely consumed my childhood and teenage years. I always tried to catch some new show on Discovery or Science channel when they were on, maybe National Geographic or Animal Planet, and for the most part, they were fun but kind of samey. Few ever reached the same standard of quality that Walking With Dinosaurs achieved.

But there was one documentary that I remember growing up that hit all the right emotional and educational beats while maintaining a level of CG quality that I actually think surpassed Walking With Dinosaurs. So it is with immense joy that I take a serious look at a seriously underrated dinosaur documentary.

Released on Discovery Channel on July 15, 2001, When Dinosaurs Roamed America brings us back to the Mesozoic Era, focusing exclusively on dinosaurs that lived in the area that would eventually become the United States.

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Green Phoenix - Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) Review

As stated many, many times during my various Jurassic Park reviews, I was absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs and paleontology growing up. A love I have actually healthily maintained to this day.

While I enjoy the fictional portrayals of dinosaurs, that passion also helped me to develop a love for documentaries and educational television and films. So much so that I even have a subscription to CuriosityStream simply because I want to have access to documentaries that I can't get on Netflix, Disney +, and Amazon. I had considered acquiring the documentary streaming service for a few months, due in no small part to the recommendation of some of my favorite YouTube educators and theorists. But the information that finally convinced me to purchase CuriosityStream was the knowledge that they had the entire Walking With... series available for viewing.

In the wake of the release of Jurassic Park in 1993, public interest in prehistoric life reached a fever pitch. This public excitement inspired Tim Haines with the idea of using ground-breaking computer effects and animatronics, similar to Jurassic Park, to create a dinosaur-centric documentary miniseries. Collaborating the Jasper James and special effects artist Michael Milne, Haines succeeded in creating the most advanced paleontological documentary ever seen to that point.

Walking with Dinosaurs is easily one of the most notorious and influential nature documentaries in recent memory and the progenitor of an equally influential franchise. It was a game-changer in the field of nature documentaries, utilizing state of the art animatronics, computer graphics, and the top paleontological knowledge of the time to bring the world of dinosaurs to life.

While dinosaur nature documentaries are a dime-a-dozen nowadays; back in the late 90s, Walking with Dinosaurs was truly revolutionary and the chance to talk about it in detail is exhilarating to me.

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