Walking with Monsters and... oh no!—Apocalypto!

Some of you remember my ranting and raving about Apocalypto a few weeks back. My complaint was that the film used certain tropes and cinematographic techniques to confer a sense of authority on a wildly fictitious premise. If I could go on and on about that for three or four posts, you would think I could do the same for BBC's Walking with Monsters. This series, which I've been watching with Sean, uses all sorts of devices to convey a documentary, you-are-there feel. The beasts are continually splattering and even breaking the camera lenses. The night shots are night-vision green or extremely grainy. There's documentary-standard hand held camerawork and time-lapse photography. Of course this is all an illusion since the critters are CGI animations composited on to actual backgrounds.

One of the complaints about the series is that it is wildly conjectural and that the CGI and other techniques give these conjectures too much authority—a complaint very similar to the one I had about Apocalypto. Only Walking with Monsters doesn't bother me. I think it's because the series is so outlandish that it is hard to take seriously. Apocalypto wants to be a serious comment on the decline of a civilization. Walking with Monsters, with its non-stop anthropomorphization, is more like a Disney cartoon. After nearly being eaten, the amphibian looks back at the predator as if to say, "whew!" When a prehistoric spider attacks, it raises up on its hind legs like an attacking horse. A trapped lizard backs away from a spider only to be surprised from behind. Another lizard impales a giant centipede on a tree. Where Disney could use only narration to dramatize his documentaries, the BBC literally animates their creatures for dramatic effect. Add the suspenseful music and you get some very entertaining segments.