Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real

Glad I got this it brought back memories from when I was a kid

Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real is a speculative question which asks the question "if dragons were real creatures, how would they have worked?"In the age of the dinosaurs, a Tyrannosaurus rex meets a most unusual creature. A young dragon. T-rex almost succeeds in killing the young dragon, but before it can inflict any real harm, the mother dragon arrives on the scene. The T-rex vs dragon scene is truly fascinating, and is my personal favourite part of the documentary.Fast forward to the modern day London Museum of Natural History and Science, and we see fictional palaeontologist Dr. Jack Tanner (played by actor Paul Hilton) explains that the claw marks and scorch marks on a T-rex skull show that the mighty theropod was killed by a creature undiscovered by science. A creature that could breathe fire. A dragon. Yes, the skull belonged to the same T-rex who had fought the prehistoric dragon mother.Unfortunately for Dr. Tanner, his colleagues consider his theory as to the T-rex's death to be absurd, and poor Tanner's reputation is ruined. However, hope comes to him when he learns of a centuries old frozen corpse of a bizzare creature, recently found in the mountains of Romania.Investigating the corpse in Romania, Dr. Tanner is amazed to learn that it is the corpse of a real dragon, capable of flight and fire-breathing just as the legends had claimed. As the autopsy on the frozen corpse progresses, it is learned just how such a seemingly impossible creature actually worked.Dragons had very light-weight bodies and strong wing muscles, but still would have been too massive to achieve flight by conventional means. However, that problem was solved by a quite fascinating biological feature. Dragon stomachs contained bacteria that produced hydrogen, the lightest element in existence. The hydrogen was then sent into two huge flight bladders. This hydrogen provided extra lift that allowed the dragons to get off the ground despite their size.The fire-breathing abilities came from the dragons blasting out some of their hydrogen through their throats and mixing it with powdered platinum which acted as a catalyst to ignite it (the platinum concept is the documentary's strongest weak point, but more on that a bit later in this review).As with the wings of birds, bats and pterosaurs, the wings of dragons evolved from the forearms. In later forms of dragon, a genetic mutation caused an extra pair of forelimbs to develop, resulting essentially in the world's only six limbed tetrapods (terrestrial vertebrates).The documentary presents us with four different types of dragon:-The Prehistoric Dragon. A winged biped larger than a T-rex, though considerably less heavy. It could fly, breathe fire, and emit a painfully loud screeching sound. This dragon lived in the age of dinosaurs and was wiped out in the K-T extinction event.-The Marine Dragon. Marine dragons were the only dragons that survived the K-T extinction. The marine dragon's flight bladders have become swim bladders, its wings have become fins and it is the first dragon to evolve the extra forelimbs.-The Chinese Forest Dragon. A terrestrial descendant of the marine dragon, this dragon has a long slender body and is flightless, though its small flap-like wings can still be used for gliding, and its regained the fire-breathing capabilities of prehistoric dragons. This dragon can also mimick animal noises in order to trick its prey.-The European Mountain Dragon. Another descendant of the marine dragon, but one that has regained not only fire-breathing but also true flight. Though called a "mountain dragon", it only stays in mountains because humans have forced it out of the forests and plains. The courtship rituals of these dragons involve a spectacular aerial dive done by both the male and the female together. Because of the coldness of their home, the dragons' two eggs are incubated in a stone mound heated by the mother's fire-breathing. The mountain dragon was wiped out by humans in the 15th century (or so it would seem...) and it was a member of this species found frozen in Romania and investigated by Dr. Tanner and his team.Overall, this was truly a fascinating documentary that offered some truly intriguing "what if" speculations. The concept of hydrogen bladders allowing such massive creatures to achieve flight was quite interesting and I found it to be quite plausible.The concept of a six limbed tetrapod sounds rather unusual, as does the concept of using fire to incubate eggs, but nature can do some pretty strange things, so I'm open to these ideas.However, the whole thing with the dragons using platinum as a component of their fire-breathing was rather silly I think. Platinum is a very rare element, and thus not a very likely thing for the dragons to use. Better suggestions for the fiery breath could have been, say, using phosphorous or perhaps spewing burning liquids.Also, while the documentary said that the bipedal prehistoric dragon went extinct, leaving no descendants, it should be noted that mythology and folklore contains bipedal dragons called wyverns. So the documentary could have said that at least some of the bipedal forms survived.Nonetheless, the documentary still managed to portray dragons quite well. And who knows, maybe one day some news really will come from Romania telling of the bizzare frozen corpse of a strange winged reptilian creature...

A young paleontologist with a promising career discovers one of the most complete T-Rex skeletons in the world. Studying the skeleton of the animal, he finds a set of wounds at the top of the dinosaur's skull, wounds he thinks could have only come from the talons of an aerial predator. More perplexing is a coat of carbon scoring on either side of the face, too precise to be anything but an aimed blow. The paleontologist, Dr. Tanner of the London Museum of Natural History, concocts the theory that the T-Rex was attacked and killed by a prehistoric dragon, a beast that could have never existed, a thus ruins his rising reputation.A then comes a call from Romania...So begins "Dragons' World: A Fantasy Made Real", a 100 minute "what if" scenario in which a real dragon corpse is discovered in a glacial cave high in the Carpathian Mountains. Not sure if the corpse is real or a hoax, the protagonist, with nothing to loose, heads for Romania to determine what he's dealing with."Dragons' World" is the latest offering by the BBC, Discovery Networks, and Framestore CFC, the same effects company behind the successful "Walking With..." series. The producers of this made for TV movie have taken one of the most famous monsters of myth, fantasy, and literature and asks the question "Could they have been real?" The program then takes us on a journey through the efforts of Dr. Tanner to not only prove they were real, but to discover the scientific methods in which they flew, how they expelled fire, how they evolved, and most importantly, how they lived. Between these scenes, we are witness to the lives and habits of four different dragon species, from 65 million years ago up until the 15th century.The dragon is perhaps the most widely recognized monster of myth and legend; virtually every civilization, from the frozen north to the Outback of Australia, has a dragon in its legends. The dragon has been a favorite of mine for some time, and when I heard that this program was going to air on Animal Planet, I was practically salivating. There are so few movies and TV programs that feature dragons, perhaps in part do to the technical difficulties involved in rendering a six-limbed, reptilian, fire hurling beast and still be believable to an audience. "Dragons World" is not only an excellent story, but a testimate to how far computer technology has come in the last two to three decades.It should be noted that the video release of "Dragons World" is not what aired on Animal Planet. The US broadcast, while similar in the general plot, is presented in a more "third person" format than the version sold here. Patrick Stewart narrated the US broadcast, while in the version sold here, the narration alternates between Paul Hilton as Dr. Tanner investigating the dragon corpse and Ian Holm for the scenes involving the "living" dragons. I think the involvement of the scientist makes for a more interesting program, however, I would have prefered to hear Stewart's voice rather than Holm's, just as a personal preference.The story is well written, smoothly transitioning between Dr. Tanner and the dragon scences without making it seem like an intrusion into either. The effects, as usual for Framestore, are fantastic; the CGI dragons look incredibly realistic. And the corpse Tanner and his assistants autopsy looks incredible; Framestore has a sad habit in that they can't seem to keep their animatronics from looking like rubber puppets. They did an incredible job this time. Perhaps my favorite scene in the program was the mating flight of the mountain dragons, a scene inspired by the real-life rituals of eagles.Spoiler: There is another favorite scene of mine, at the end; a year after the discovery of the dragon corpse, the curator of the LMNH comes to Tanner and shows him a picture of something the audience doesn't get to see. We're left wondering what it is that Tanner and the curator have seen. It's a great way of leaving the ending open for a possible sequel.I do have a few complaints about the way some of the dragons' habits are presented in the program. The method by which the dragons "breathed" fire seemed a bit... stretched to me, especially the part where the dragons ingest platinum. But I'm not a chemist, so I can't really say. Also, I can't swallow the idea that dragons "cooked" their eggs during incubation; it just doesn't seem right to me.Misgivings aside, this is an otherwise excellent program, perfect for the fantasy or dragon aficianado's collection. As they say, watch this program, and for a moment, you too will belive in dragons.

Nice, but not the one I was looking for ! I was looking for the Discovery Channel one narrated by Patrick Stewart.

VERY VERY DISAPPOINTING - DVD only suitable for USA machines unless you have lots of extra stuff on your laptop / dvd player, and it took for ever (and a number of phone calls) to get a refund after returning. Felt there should have been a MUCH CLEARER message on the sale page warning buyers of the USA glitch.............

Anyone who missed this in the UK when channel 4/discovry channel showed it will be in for a surprised put together as a "real" life discopvery of a dragons remains it's mind blowing and the efx are top notch.

Really good mockumentary, highly recommended

This was an amazing price, and in 'good' condition

Consider the possibility that dragons weren't only mythical beasts. This "mock"-umentary expands on that thought. If you love dragons, this is definitely a movie you'll want to see. The CGI was done very well. Indulge your willing suspension of disbelief and see when dragons walked and flew on the earth.