Walking With Cavemen on DVD

If you’ve ever been curious as to where we all came from, BBC’s Walking With Cavemen will shed some light on the subject.

In the tradition of previous BBC documentaries Walking With Dinosaurs and Walking With Prehistoric Beasts, Cavemen is presented in the same format and is just as informative (though not quite as entertaining).

We first get a look at Australopithicus afarensis, the first of our ancestors to walk on two legs. We get a glimpse into the life of the bipedal creatures, but we quickly learn that, other than walking upright, they’re pretty much nothing like us. Over the course of the two 50-minute episodes, we almost see evolution take place, as the creatures become less like apes and more like us.

Despite there only being two episodes, they manage to focus on everything from the overall lifestyle of the groups, to the development of tools and the evolved ability to problem solve. Anyone who’s ever found it hard to believe that we used to be apes will be more likely to change their mind after this.

Although it doesn’t look as good as the previous “Walking With” docs, it’s just as informative and a lot easier to relate to, since we’re learning about our history rather than a bunch of creatures we’ve never even seen. It does still make you wonder how experts manage to piece together so much about the animals’ lifestyle from just their bones, but we guess that’s why they’re the experts.

And what would we do without experts?

The production values aren’t quite as high this time around, but they’ve added the nice touch of using real actors instead of all-CGI. The actors do an excellent job of putting up with the conditions, such as full body makeup, extremely hot weather (it was filmed mostly in Africa), and even going completely naked to add to the authenticity.

The thing we miss the most from the previous “Walking With” installments is the narration by Kenneth Branagh, who is replaced this time by Andrew Sachs. Branagh has a much better speaking voice, sounding both intelligent and witty, while Sachs sounds like he’s reading off of cue cards and doesn’t care much about the subject matter.

It may not be as entertaining overall as other BBC documentaries, but Walking With Cavemen is a welcome addition that has many redeeming qualities. If you’re into this kind of thing, it’s a guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

The DVD presentation of this installment rivals that of the previous ones. Shown in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture isn’t quite as good as it could be, but the problems are limited to a tiny bit of halo effect and a trace of grain here and there. The audio is presented in 2.0 stereo and sounds as good as it can under such conditions. The narration, music and sound effects merge nicely, and none drowns out the others.

Extras include a number of featurettes on the actors, makeup, locations, direction and visual effects, as well as some interviews with the main players, storyboards and animatics, and the typical (but not unwanted) fact files and photo galleries.

Walking With Cavemen, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
100 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) 16X9 enhanced, 2.0 stereo
Produced by Mark Hedgecoe
Directed by Richard Dale

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