Let’s get to the important stuff first. My 7-year-old nephew loved Walking with Dinosaurs, and other nearby kids who seemed to be about his age appeared similarly excited. That said, the bespectacled know-it-all in the row behind us (approximately 10 or 11 years old) seemed less impressed. To be fair, yes, you can see the legs of the men who wear the raptor costumes, and yes, you can see the stabilizers, complete with semi-visible cockpit-and-driver, underneath all of the bigger dinosaurs, and yes, these aspects were rather conspicuous. None of them, however, bothered my nephew much, and I can rightly say they didn’t really bother me either. For every slightly underwhelming detail I noticed, there were several impressive ones to distract me from caring. For the most part, the dinosaurs’ movement—be it from the human-powered raptor costumes or from the giant, robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex—was pretty convincing. The narrator kept things moving along at a decent clip, and the script was fairly cheese-free. Props to BBC for keeping things mainly factual and scientific, and at about 80 minutes (not including the obligatory merchandizing intermission), the proceedings concluded right about when they should have.

Or, for a more concise review, take it from my nephew Riley:

What did you think of Walking with Dinosaurs overall?

Riley: It was awesome! What time is it?

How realistic were the dinosaurs?

R: Very real, like, 100 percent real. [Minutes later he said that if a dinosaur ate him, he would just go into its stomach and “take control of the robot part.”]

Were you ever scared?

R: No.

Do you think younger kids would be scared?

R: Yeah, but not really scared.

Do you think older people would be bored?

R: Maybe some teenagers, but most people would like it, I think.

There you have it.

Verdict: Go see it, just make sure your kid isn’t sick first.

Photo by Joan Marcus