Walking with Cavemen (2003)

Directed by

Tim Haines

Genre

nature documentary

Country

United Kingdom

Length

1 season, 4 episodes

Rated

NR

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 9 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This nature documentary miniseries shows how early humans evolved over millions of years. It uses computer graphics and puppets to act out the daily lives and social behaviors of different prehistoric human species.

educationalinformativeseriousspeculativevisually ambitiousslow-pacedcontemplative

What happens

Walking with Cavemen is a 2003 four-part nature documentary television miniseries produced by the BBC Science Unit, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben. Walking with Cavemen explores human evolution, showcasing various extinct hominin species and their inferred behaviours and social dynamics. The original British version of the series is presented by the British researcher Robert Winston; in the American version Winston's appearances and narration is replaced with narration by Alec Baldwin. Walking with Cavemen is the third installment in the Walking with... series of documentaries, following on from Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) and Walking with Beasts (2001), and like its predecessors uses computer-generated imagery and animatronics, as well as live action footage shot at various locations, to reconstruct prehistoric life and environments. In order to ensure that Walking with Cavemen was consistent with scientific understanding of human evolution and that it portrayed the time periods and locations accurately, the production team employed a team of 111 scientists from various fields to advise on the series. In addition to the techniques also used in previous series, Walking with Cavemen uses actors to portray extinct hominins since it was deemed impossible to evoke convincing human expressions and emotions using just computer graphics. The hominins in the series were portrayed by fourteen different actors wearing makeup and prosthetics. The series garnered a positive reception among both critics and scientists. Though there were concerns of conjecture being presented as fact, the series was praised for making the scientific theories concerning human evolution accessible to a wider audience. A companion book, Walking with Cavemen: Stand Eye-to-Eye with your Ancestors, was also released in 2003 and received positive reviews. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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