March of the Dinosaurs

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March of the Dinosaurs (2011) is a feature-length Speculative Documentary film made by ITV. It tells the story of two different dinosaur youngsters: Scar, a small Edmontosaurus trying to keep up with his herd on their long journey south; and Patch, a sub-adult Troodon who struggles to survive and find a mate in the freezing wilderness of the North Pole.

Its complete imagery has been created with the help of CGI, as opposed to many similar programs that use real-life environments and only CGI the animals. The film features no cut-away scenes or any talking heads, but instead (much like the famed Walking with Dinosaurs) focuses on telling a story through its visuals and narration provided by Stephen Fry. It can be seen as the first of a new generation of CGI dinosaur documentaries.

Due to the way it "humanizes" some of the dinosaurs, the program is also very similar to Discovery Channel's Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Revolution.

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Tropes used in March of the Dinosaurs include:

• Anachronism Stew: But such a mild case that only the hardest paleo-buffs might notice it.
• Badass: The Albertosaurus, though mostly through Rule of Cool, as well as the Pachyrhinosaurus in general. Arguably the ankylosaur, too, being the only large herbivore that stays behind in winter, although she almost meets a comparatively humiliating end through a fall. She immediately displays her Badassery once she recovers, however.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Pachyrhinosaurus herd comes in to unintentionally escort Scar across the river.
• Chekhov's Skill: Troodon "seeing in slow motion".
• Crapsack World
• Eats Babies: Troodon. The Albertosaurus, Gorgosaurus, and mosasaurs also hunt Scar.
• Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Even better than with just penguins.
  • Which are of course, also dinosaurs.
• Disney Villain Death: The Albertosaurus.
• Feathered Fiend: Gorgosaurus and Albertosaurus. Technically also Troodon, but those are portrayed in a more sympathetic light.
• Giant Flyer: The Quetzalcoatlus that appear in a minor role.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Scar has a "good" one.
• Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted with the mean Pachyrhinosaurus.
  • And there is a scene in which herbivores are forced to eat fatty larvae.
• Hope Spot: Scar finds his herd. Except here's a huge river filled with mosasaurs separating him from them.
• Infant Immortality: Averted.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Tyrannosaurids did not live that far north, and their absence (and therefore the lack of competition) is the reason that northern troodonts were able to grow larger and adopt a more carnivorous lifestyle than their southern counterparts.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Troodon wait for the incapacitated ankylosaur (who has been turned on her back after a fall) to weaken and are almost ready to finish her off when the Gorgosaurus arrives and tries to drag the ankylosaur away from them. He pulls her onto an incline, allowing her to right herself and stab him in the leg. This leads to his death.
• Noisy Nature: Not as apparent as in some other dino-docs.
• Pet the Dog: Not intentional on their part, but after being hostile and aggressive towards the Edmontosaurus for the entire journey, the Pachyrhinosaurus are the reason Scar survives the last lap of his trek. (Their presence provides him with food, protects him from scavengers, and guarantees safety in numbers so that he can cross the river.)
• Predators Are Mean: A mix of aversion and playing it straight. Patch, one of the main characters, is a carnivore you can feel sympathetic towards, however the tyrannosaurids appear as the default-villains.
• Prehistoric Monster: The Gorgosaurus may seem to be this at first, but the winter cold puts The Worf Effect on him. The Albertosaurus, on the other hand, are thorough monsters, though it's justified: they're starving.
• Ptero-Soarer: Holy crap. This film managed to screw up Quetzalcoatlus' anatomy, badly. Besides the usual scales, it was depicted as a biped, and actually lacked its three small wing fingers. On top of that, the narrator claimed it was a scavenger, which is a notion which should have long been forgotten by docu-makers.
• Raptor Attack: The Troodons.
• Real Is Brown: Not a colorful cast, save for the patches of yellow feathers on the male Troodon.
• Rule of Cool: The Troodon who see in slow-motion, and the Albertosaurus that somehow makes a HUGE leap out of nowhere.
• Science Marches On: An interesting case in that the science was already there, but the movie still used the outdated portrayal of Quetzalcoatlus as a scavenger, and gave it a terribly obsolete bipedal stance. The ceratopsids and ankylosaur also have old-school, wrongly positioned "elephant feet", and the mosasaur lacked its tail-fluke. On other fronts, the creators went with the latest ideas, such as depicting tyrannosaurids with speculative feathers, and not giving the hadrosaurs claws. Weird.
  • In a legit example, it appears that Edmontosaurus didn't migrate.
• Sea Monster
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The brain-tumored Edmontosaurus.
• Shown Their Work: As said above, some animals are incredibly accurate in their portrayals, save for perhaps a few anatomical details. Bonus points for the non-pronated theropod hands, as well as showcasing some new discoveries such as male deinonychosaurs brooding nests.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World
• Small Taxonomy Pools: Averted. Instead of the overused T. rex, generic dromaeosaur, Triceratops and Anyklosaurus, the program uses Gorgosaurus and Albertosaurus, Troodon, Pachyrhinosaurus, and an unnamed nodosaur (most likely an Edmontonia).
• Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying: As with anything dinosaur-related. Most notable examples are:
  • Troodon having feathered arms instead of clawed wings, and the strange, almost human-like theropod arms in general.
  • Incorrect number of claws on the ceratopsians and ankylosaur.
  • The whole freakin' Quetzalcoatlus. For some, the whole freakin' Troodon as well.
  • Not enough feathers!
• Speculative Documentary
• Stock Dinosaurs: Edmontosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus, Troodon, and... that's it.
• Super-Persistent Predator: The Albertosaurus is the very definition of this. His feathers catch fire? Mild annoyance. A volcanic flood drags him away? Temporary setback. He's falling down from a cliff? Not going down without its victim.
• Too Dumb to Live: The Troodon who bites the Gorgosaurus in the leg.
• Tyrannosaurus Rex: The king himself doesn't make an appearance, but its very close relatives, Gorgosaurus and Albertosaurus fill in the same role, which is pointed out by the narration.
• The Worf Effect: The Gorgosaurus, thanks to the freezing cold, the ankylosaur, and persistent little Troodons. It Gets Worse for him.
  • Subverted with the ankylosaur. She's been turned on her back and is about to be finished off by a swarm of Troodon. Then the Gorgosaurus has his Nice Job Fixing It, Villain moment...
• Zerg Rush: The Troodon try to do this with the incapacitated ankylosaur. The intervention by the Gorgosaurus causes this to fail.