March of the Dinosaurs

March of the Dinosaurs
Written byMatthew Thompson
Jasper James
Directed byMatthew Thompson
Narrated byStephen Fry
Simon Kerr
Music byMark Russell
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Canada
Original languageEnglish
Production
ProducerMike Davis
EditorMatt Platts-Mills
Running time85 minutes
Production companyWide-Eyed Entertainment
Original release
NetworkITV1
Release23 April 2011 (2011-04-23)

March of the Dinosaurs is a CGI film which has aired on ITV 1 in the UK on 23 April 2011 and was released on DVD on 27 May 2011. The film was produced by Wide-Eyed Entertainment in association with Yap Films, and executive produced by Jasper James, who had previously worked on the Walking with... series and Prehistoric Park. Set 70 million years ago in the Cretaceous in North America, the film follows the journey of a young Edmontosaurus named Scar and his herd as they migrate from Northern Alaska to Alberta during the winter. This film depicts recent findings and speculation about dinosaurs, such as North-American Tyrannosaurs having feathers, and hunting in packs, dinosaurs in the snow and migrating.

It shows a 1000-mile autumn migration of Edmontosaurus and Pachyrhinosaurus from their summer grazing in northwest Canada (then well inside the Arctic Circle, so that the winter night and summer day were each 4 months long) to their winter grazing in the south-west USA, and the young Alaskan Troodon which had to stay and endure the Arctic winter. The hazards met are land and water predators, an Arctic blizzard, thin ice, crossing a foodless volcanic wasteland, a lahar, and a wide river inhabited by predators. All the scenery and vegetation are CGI. It served as a reimagining of the comic book series Age of Reptiles.

The DVD says that this is inspired by recent dinosaur fossil discoveries in the Canadian Arctic, and that the Arctic CGI trees are modelled on Sequioa.