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Post by Infinity Blade on Jul 24, 2021 19:06:13 GMT 5
It is very telling that not a single of the titles you mentioned is younger than ten years. The only recent documentary that might come close to them is Amazing Dinoworld (and even then, it doesn't quite have the same feeling). The dino documentary market seems to have stagnated after the epic documentary duel between Planet Dinosaur and Dinosaur Revolution. I wonder if it's simply because the success of WWD caused scores of imitators, but, like any other market trend, the hype simply ebbed off over the years and we're living in the aftermath. Yeah, I hate to say it, but it seems that we really start seeing the terrible paleo docs by the late 2000s (this was the point when Jurassic Fight Club, Clash of the Dinosaurs, and Monsters Resurrected come out). PD and DR seem like the last gasp of the really good ones. Of course, this isn't to say everything that came afterwards was downright terrible, and not to say that everything during the time of WW or WDRA was good (example of that named below), but you make a good point. Maybe one day they'll pic up the pace in quality greatness again. I hope. That's a good idea. I'll do the same for my Valley of the T. rex review too.
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Post by creature386 on Jul 25, 2021 15:22:08 GMT 5
It is very telling that not a single of the titles you mentioned is younger than ten years. The only recent documentary that might come close to them is Amazing Dinoworld (and even then, it doesn't quite have the same feeling). The dino documentary market seems to have stagnated after the epic documentary duel between Planet Dinosaur and Dinosaur Revolution. I wonder if it's simply because the success of WWD caused scores of imitators, but, like any other market trend, the hype simply ebbed off over the years and we're living in the aftermath. Yeah, I hate to say it, but it seems that we really start seeing the terrible paleo docs by the late 2000s (this was the point when Jurassic Fight Club, Clash of the Dinosaurs, and Monsters Resurrected come out). PD and DR seem like the last gasp of the really good ones. Of course, this isn't to say everything that came afterwards was downright terrible, and not to say that everything during the time of WW or WDRA was good (example of that named below), but you make a good point. Maybe one day they'll pic up the pace in quality greatness again. I hope. It's not only about quality, actually. It's also about quantity. While JFC, CoD and MR were no doubt atrocities, but people talked about them. People still talk about them. Yet, when I look at what documentaries the paelo-community talked about in 2011 and what documentaries they talk about today, the list is basically the same. Granted, I'm not as active in the paleo-community as I used to be, but the glimpses I occassionally catch confirm this view. Like, I recently checked the Spino's Discord server again and the titles mentioned in our paleo-documentaries channel were Animal Armageddon, Walking with Dinosaurs, Planet Dinosaur, Prehistoric, Flying Monsters 3D and the like. Even those that were new to me (like the last two) were pre-2011 and the recent title that you mentioned ( Dino Hunters) doesn't really seem to be a CGI-based documantary. I have a hunch why this is the case. People make TV shows to make money. While less expensive documentaries might be exempt from this pressure and can get their expenses covered by government or public broadcast funding, documentaries with lots of CGI probably want to reach an audience. So, what do networks do? They give funds to what they think will give them the best ratings and that's normally what's similar to what's popular right now (the good old "Follow the Leader" trope). 1999-2011 was the time when the WWD hype was still fresh. WWD itself massively benefitted from first airing only six years after the original Jurassic Park movie which is probably why it got the budget it did. Because, honestly, what draws "normies" to dinosaur documentaries isn't the writing or the scientific accuracy (otherwise, we'd have more novels similar to Bakker's Red Raptor). JP brought dinosaurs back to live like nothing before it and WWD outdid it on that front. Then, the market responded by having documentary producers chase after the success of WWD, giving us many of the dinosaur CGI documentaries we grew up with. Now, though? Even a quick google search of "dinosaur documentary" puts most of what I find in the 1999-2011 range. Kinda sad, as watching and talking about them was always one of the most fun parts of this whole paleo-community thing. I think we'd need a new technological breakthrough for a new WWD. Unfortunately, we already had an opportunity for that and WWD 3D botched it, so, the WWD brand is probably already too damaged to be repaired. Maybe the success of the recent Jurassic World movies will inspire more new documentaries, but I doubt it. These days, every superhero movie puts the original JP to shame in the special effects department, so, JW didn't even try to recreate the magic of the original JP. It's less "Oh, the dinosaurs are back" and more "monster movies, but with dinosaurs". ...that was a pretty long rant. I should be saving that for my own retrospective review. Anyway, just some thoughts I had yesterday which may or may not be nonsense I'll take back in a few years. Who knows?
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Post by Infinity Blade on Jul 26, 2021 4:05:35 GMT 5
Welp, I guess the only thing I can say to that is only time will tell. Crossing my fingers that the answer is a renewed interest in paleo docs (and good ones at that, of course).
Forgotten Bloodlines: Agate is coming sometime in 2022. There's also a doc called Prehistoric Planet that's apparently being worked on by Jon Favreau. I'm almost certain that they're not going to result in a massive renewed interest in, and influx of, paleo docs (especially the former; my guess is an indie project can only do so much). But even just a little bit of revival, or just a good doc here and there (even if it's not quite a hit like WWD) would be good enough for me.
At least, that's what my current self thinks. Maybe if do we get little but good things here and there, I might just complain for more. Lol.
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