If you鈥檝e been jonesing for a Jurassic Park fix, you can relax. You鈥檒l find the next best thing at Imax Victoria on Friday, when Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D thunders onto its big screen on Belleville street.
Ostensibly inspired by the BBC documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, this 40-minute blast from the past is both pure edutainment and a colourful creature-feature.
There鈥檚 lots to learn from its mammoth frames if you can distract yourself from its captivating action sequences and eye-popping visual effects, as some amazingly lifelike computer-generated beasts do what comes naturally on screen.
The film, effectively narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, immediately grabs us as a toothy red-feathered bird soars into one of the film鈥檚 real live-action landscapes, as if approaching from our theatre seats.
Indeed, Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D makes terrific use of the theatre鈥檚 Imax 4K laser 3D system, immersing us in the action and putting some toothy creatures in our faces when least expected.
Set 70 million years ago in Cretaceous Alaska, the film focuses chiefly on a herd of Pachyrhinosaurus 鈥� huge, plant-eating dinosaurs, who, as they roam the Earth, demonstrate that there鈥檚 safety in numbers when confronted by menacing predators.
We see youngsters being fed after hatching from a nest of giant eggs, before they face obstacles ranging from extreme weather to epic battles with predators during their constant battle for survival.
The film鈥檚 鈥渟tar鈥� is Patchi, the plucky young Pachyrhinosaur whose experiences on his family鈥檚 annual migration serve as the film鈥檚 narrative glue.
During their journey across backgrounds filmed in Alaska and New Zealand, we meet some fascinating dinosaur characters that were painstakingly animated with guidance from paleontologists. Highlights include the Hesperonychus, dubbed 鈥渒iller chickens鈥� because of their poultry-like appearance, and one that is sure to make Albertans smile 鈥� the Edmontonosaurus, a vegetation-munching dinosaur.
If any of this sounds familiar, it鈥檚 because this documentary is essentially an abbreviated and reworked version of Walking with Dinosaurs, a kid-friendly 2013 animated feature narrated by John Leguizamo.
As visually stunning as the Imax film鈥檚 action is, notably the impressive CGI effects that give it an air of at times astonishing authenticity, a cautionary note is in order.
Dinosaurs will be dinosaurs, and they鈥檙e wandering a harsh, unforgiving landscape, so some of what transpires will be too intense for younger children.
This include scenes when the dinosaurs are threatened by the deadly Troodon, or are literally walking on thin ice.
It鈥檚 during such harrowing moments that you鈥檙e reminded how fluidly integrated with real backgrounds the realistically rendered digital action can be. And, as in classic wildlife documentaries, reality can be unsettling.
These darker moments are offset by playful, viewer-friendly touches that make the material more palatable, as when dinosaurs are virtually freeze-framed when they first appear, their image accompanied by bold text identifying them and whether they鈥檙e carnivores or omnivores.
It recalls those moments in classic Looney Tunes cartoons where suddenly, during a chase sequence, Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner would stop dead in their tracks, with their made-up Latin or scientific names appearing on screen long enough to identify them.
What: Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D
Where: Imax Victoria, Royal sa国际传媒 Museum
When: Opens Friday, daily 10 a.m., noon, 3 and 6 p.m.
Tickets, info: imaxvictoria.com,
250-480-4887
Rating: Three and a half stars (out of four)