Animal Armageddon
| Animal Armageddon | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Documentary |
| Format | 3D computer graphics |
| Narrated by | Michael Carroll (US) and Robert Fitch (UK) |
| Theme music composer | Alan Ett |
| Country of origin | USA/UK |
| Original language(s) | English/Spanish |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Jason McKinley |
| Running time | 43-45 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Digital Ranch Productions |
| Distributor | Discovery Communications |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Animal Planet and Eden in the UK |
| Original run | February 12, 2009 (UK (Eden Channel): 15 December 2009- Present) – September 24, 2009 |
| External links | |
| Production website | |
Animal Armageddon is an American paleontology-based documentary television miniseries that originally aired from February 12, 2009 to September 24, 2009 on Animal Planet. All the prehistoric scenes are created 100% in Lightwave. It is produced by Digital Ranch Productions and all the computer graphics are designed and created by Radical3D.
Reception
The show was entered for Emmy consideration in many categories in 2009. It failed to be nominated in any. CommonSense Media praised the program, giving it four stars out of five and saying that "the show's stunning CGI makes ancient geology and evolution as enticing as any thriller" and that "If you think ancient geology and fossilized biology are about as interesting as, well, a box of rocks, then you've never experienced anything like this impressive series. Even if you can't recall a single fact from high school science class, you'll emerge from each hour-long episode with a general idea of Earth's make-up, its prominent inhabitants, and the theories behind the monumental disasters that threatened life's survival at various turning points in the planet's history. The series' CGI literally brings the ancient past to life, giving viewers an amazing visual image of life long ago."[1] The show maintains a rating of 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb.[2]
Episodes
| Episode | Time | Event | Explanation | Locations |
| Episode 1 Death Rays |
450 million years ago Ordovician |
O-S | A dying star in the milky way explodes, sending gamma rays slamming into the Earth. Air molecules are broken up, realigning into toxic chemicals that block out the sun, changing the climate dramatically. There were huge mega-storms and an ice age. The ice age killed 2/3 of the world's animals. Our ancestors, the early fish Astraspis, must adapt or die to survive. It is not until thousands of years later that the global cooling ends. 70% of lifeforms are extinct, including the majority of straight nautiloids, paving the way for new species, like Pterygotus, to take their place. | Las Vegas, Mexico, Eastern Seaboard, Northern Europe |
| Episode 2 Hell on Earth |
377 million years ago Devonian |
Late D | A superplume volcanic eruption raises temperatures worldwide. It had the force of a 1,000 nuclear bombs and struck an area as large as Manhattan. Animals must adapt or die to survive. As their habitats evaporate, Tiktaalik, one of our ancestors, must adapt to land life in order to survive. The superstorm continues for 1.5 million years before it burns out. Most of the placoderms, including the enormous Dunkleosteus, are wiped out by this catastrophe; only Bothriolepis survive and descendants of Tiktaalik emerge as the first amphibian appears. Ichthyostega become the dominant vertebrates through the upcoming period. Volcanic eruptions in the ocean and then on land cause a global winter. 70% of all animals are extinct. | Siberia, Italy, Greenland, Morocco, Pennsylvania |
| Episode 3 Doomsday |
65 million years ago Cretaceous |
K-Pg (K-T) | An asteroid the size of Mount Everest is about to end the age of the dinosaurs, followed by powerful earthquakes, megatsunamis, and a lethal rain of flaming rocky debris during the first 24 hours. The other part of the extinction is in the "Panic of the Sky" episode. The episode closes with a view of Earth turned into a fiery red ball of baked rock, making it look like a red giant. This impact event sends several species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs to the brink of extinction, including Tyrannosaurus rex, Hadrosaurs, Triceratops, Byronosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and Troodon. However, when the initial blast is over, it appears that the mammals, Purgatorius, are getting along somewhat better than usual. 20 million mega tons of energy scorched planet Earth. | Alaska, Mexico, Montana, Texas, Western Sahara, Mongolia, Alberta |
| Episode 4 Panic in the Sky |
65 million years ago Cretaceous |
K-Pg (K-T) | Wildfires, acid rain, global darkness, and snow storms spell death for the dinosaurs during their last year. In the first 24 hours after the asteroid impact, wildfires consume all the vegetation on what is now the United States. Later, weather patterns bring sulphur and acid rain, killing off many animals on land and sea. After this rain stops days later, the world is engulfed completely in total darkness for up to 4 months, long enough to kill of most of the plant life, and all the herbivores starve to death, and it is too dark for herbivores to see to feed. After the darkness has cleared, global temperatures drop to freezing worldwide. A year after the asteroid impact, earth is close to being a dead planet: every dinosaur, pterosaur, ammonite and marine reptile is now extinct; the sea is almost lifeless; just a few species of fish and sharks remain. Years later, life on earth slowly recovers as the Purgatorius from the previous episode emerges. The global cooling wasn't because of darkness, but because of sulfur dioxide. | Mexico, Alaska, Texas, China, Mongolia, Alberta |
| Episode 5 The Great Dying |
250 million years ago Permian |
P-Tr | 250 million years ago, the Siberian Traps erupt into an active volcano. After 150,000 years the volcanic rock is over 1 mile deep and enough to stack 4 Empire State Buildings one on top of another.
The eruption of the Traps puts land ecosystems under serious stress, due to severe climate change caused by basalt flow volcanic eruptions in Siberia and accompanying volcanic gas emission. This modifies the chemical composition of the atmosphere. The result is the largest mass extinction in Earth's history. Gorgonopsids, Most Dicynodonts, and numerous other creatures became extinct. However, Proterosuchus (the ancestor of archosaurs) and Thrinaxodon (the ancestor of mammals) and Lystrosaurus all manage to survive the mass extinction, and go on to become extremely successful, inheriting the Earth, and fighting with each other for supremacy during the succeeding Triassic Period. The extinction lasted for 500,000 years although previously it was thought that the Siberian Traps eruptions for over 15 million years. |
Siberia, Kansas, South Africa, Egypt, Arizona |
| Episode 6 Strangled |
200 million years ago Triassic |
Tr-J | Volcanism in the Central Atlantic magmatic province starts as Pangaea starts to break up as (Eurasia splits from Gondwana along the Appalachians). Scorching lava, suffocating heat and toxic gas violently causes a mass extinction 200 million years ago. Pangaea is filled with exploding volcanoes until 500,000 years later, when many species have gone extinct, allowing the dinosaurs to take the dominant role. The, Eudimorphodon, Desmatosuchus, and Rutiodon became extinct while Staurikosaurus and Megazostrodon survived the mass extinction. | Eastern Seaboard, Arizona, South Africa |
| Episode 7 Fire and Ice |
74,000–10,000 years ago Pleistocene |
Qp | The eruption of Lake Toba 74,000 years ago kills the giant mammals in prehistoric Asia and around the world. The earthquakes and lava affected Sumatra and the ash and global winter spread to the whole world driving Elasmotheriums, Sumatran leopards, Asian pumas, and Gigantopithecus, Cave Lions, and Stegodons (and probably other animals) to extinction. Our ancestors, the earliest Homo sapiens, also nearly become extinct because of global climate change. However, humans manage to survive, although they suffer a genetic bottleneck in their population. However, the extinction was a surprise, the extinctions pave the way for new species, such as the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinos (not seen in the episode), to replace them and the others that survived the extinction will be living with their replacements. However the survivors and newcoming species will go extinct once again. | Chicago, Sumatra, Vietnam, India |
| Episode 8 The Next Extinction |
Future Holocene |
Qe | An asteroid like the one that killed off the dinosaurs strikes New York City. There was fire, shockwaves, earthquakes, and darkness. The human race has to revert to the nomadic people that their ancestors were. | New York City, Mexico, Arizona, Siberia |
Sound
Animal sound effects in Animal Armageddon were produced like the filmmakers of Jurassic Park. For example, Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus both had a low pitch roar, which was produced by combining a walrus and an Asiatic lion together. For Velociraptor, a parrot screech was added with a combination of a chimpanzee and a yellow warbler. For Lystrosaurus, the creators used an African elephant and combined it with a bison and a cheetah. For Desmatosuchus, a combination of a frigate bird, a gull, and an leopard was used. UKTV's Eden picks up Animal Armageddon:
The 8 x 60-minute series, made by Digital Ranch Studios for Animal Planet in the US, has also been sold by Parthenon to broadcaster’s across the world. They are: Discovery (Latin America & Taiwan), France 5, Super RTL in Germany, Canal D in Canada, CCTV in China and Foxtel in Australia.
The show uses scientific research to explore a range of natural disasters that took place in ancient times, and which could have caused many species of animal and plant life to become extinct. Filmed entirely in HD, the series reveals the catastrophic causes and consequences of mass extinction.
Separately, DVD rights have been licensed to FilmExport Home Video in Eastern Europe and Studio Blu in Poland. In-flight sales were acquired by Spafax on behalf of United Arab Emirates and Inflight Productions on behalf of Malaysia Air.
Parthenon Entertainment commercial director of factual Peter Pas said: “It’s really encouraging to secure these kind of deals at a time when the industry is at its toughest. This is a great achievement and a testament to the efforts of our global sales team.”
Notes
- ↑ "Animal Armageddon TV review". commonsensemedia.org. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
- ↑ "Animal Armageddon". imdb.com. Retrieved May 23, 2011.