How did ancient peoples who had no contact with each other come up with the same basic concept of dragons? Working with production crews from around the world and collaborating with top scientists, artists and animators, Animal Planet's new special combines scientific fact and theory, CGI animation, and cutting- edge special effects to bring dragons to life.
Why am I posting this, because they covered all of the basics that have graced a number of boards over the years. And they did it with coolest CGI I have seen in a while.
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Animal Planet's Dragons Made Real. Patrick Stewart's resonant voice introduces the viewer to the many cultures that have dragon stories and art. As he relates the similarity of each culture's depiction of the mythological beast, he asks "How did they fly and how did they breathe fire." Then poses the question, what if they found a body?
Stewart leads us to the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. According to legend, it's where the dragon made its last stand. The story now takes us to a fictional account of skiers who come upon ice caves opened during an unseasonably warm winter. As a team explores the caverns, they find the remains of 15th century men dressed in armour. As the team enters the final cave, they find the perfectly preserved corpse of a dragon.
Questions are asked, and we are taken further back to the Cretaceous Period to an examination of the prehistoric dragon. A T-rex and a dragon are battling for food. With a piercing shriek that stuns the dragon. The cry travels for miles, but the t-rex continues to attack. The dragon tries one more "trick," its mother comes flying in. The Dragon is larger than the dionsuar. As it attacks and tears its wing, the dragon lets go blasts of fire. The t-rex will die during the night. The injured dragon has received a fatal blow from the T-rex. The young dragon must learn how to fly on its own or it won't be able to hunt and survive.
Stewart introduces us to a hypothetical scientific team investigating how the dragon could fly. It is compared to creatures such as a bat. The size of the heart, skeletal structure and weight are studied. A pair of leathery organs, like a second set of lungs are "discovered" and exmained. They contain hydrogen. How the gas is produced is explained (acid plus platinum). How fire is made by the dragon. How they fed, mated, and raised their young. How dragons survived the meteor strike that made extinct most of Earth's life. Whether there is a connection between dragons and sea monters. How they survived predators, such as tigers and Man. It also explains their extinction in the 1300s.
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Dragons: A Fantasy made Real uses the same computer-generated imagery (CGI) as was used for Discovery Channel's Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, as well as for the Harry Potter movies. We'll see dragons from the inside out as the special imaginatively presents how they could have evolved into various species through the ages and around the world. The story will also speculate about how each species physically adapted to and developed specialized behaviors for its unique environment. They will be portrayed as real animals mating, raising young, protecting their turf and struggling to survive the presence of human beings.
http://familyscreenscene.allinfoabout.com/tv/dragons.htmlanimal.discovery.com/convergence/dragons/dragons.htm
OR IT COULD BE MAGIC!