Dragons’ World - A Fantasy Made Real movie review 

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If ur interested, I still remember what they said on the Animal Plant website for the origin of these speculative dragons. So, essentially, around 240 million years ago, dragons evolved from the same archosaur split that gave us the other great reptiles of the mesozoic: crocodiles, pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and others. They started out in the similar vein to the water dragon shown the documentary: long, aquatic, lizard-like creatures. Their aquatic lifestyle overtime allowed them to sport a pair of fins on their backs, which over time became more robust and more complex, eventually forming into tiny wings thatd greatly diversify once dragons started to leave the water.

Because of this TV Special, Little Kid Me actually believed Dragons were scientifically proven.

Concerning your dislike of the scaly dragons living in cold environments, the series and other media connected to it states that mountains are NOT the preferred habitat of dragons at that time, but they are forced there by the ever expanding human population. And they also state that they inherited a blood protein from their marine ancestors that lets them survive in below freezing temperatures.

I used to watch the fuck out of this when I was a kid, and it's still one of my favorite documentary films.

I remember watching this in like kindergarten and then the next day telling everyone at school that dragons were real

I remember the final scene before the credits ending on what appeared to be a cliffhanger and maybe a second Dragon documentary was coming hitting at a natural history series on Dragons and if it became very popular, a spin off on other Mythical Beasts like Griffins, Phoenix's, Hydra's and Unicorns.

I’m so glad I managed to find this on dvd! I still think it’s one of the greatest depictions of dragons in media. I think all the designs are amazing but the prehistoric dragons will always be my favorite. Why more people don’t make dragons right dinosaurs is beyond me.

This was one of my favourite documentaries as a kid...just seeing the majesty of these creatures was beautiful. Like Daenerys said “they filled them with wonder and awe”. Dragons have definitely stood the test of time.

So, when I was like, 11, I actually didn't see the part that said this was all fake- and thought it was all real for like a week. My mom didn't tell me otherwise. Fun times. I'm sure I embarrassed myself wholly.

because of this video, when i was 9 i thought dragons actually once existed

I legit was obsessed with this documentary, when the dragon burns the t-rex, oh man I loved that scene so much lol

Oh shit, i forgot about this show until i saw your video, i genuinely thought Dragon was real back then when i watched this show...man, this bring back memories...

I distinctly remember watching this on TV at my grandparents house as a kid. I remember pointing at the screen and saying "This is real!" and having to have explained to me that it was a fake documentary. That moment was both disappointing and humiliating.

There was a show about showing the origins of myths and speculating on what it could be like if these creatures were real. I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called, but I clearly remember seeing it. They had an episode on dragons and their explanation for how it generated fire used an electric-eel like system to spark the stored gas.

There was actually another documentary about dragons made sometime after, about the plausibility of these creatures' evolution. As for other mythical creatures... well em-- *coughmermaidsreal*

You would not believe the number of people in the comments of the version of this documentary on RU-vid that actually, sincerely believe in dragons and refuse to be told otherwise.

I seen that when I was a little kid and I thought Dragons were genuinely real for years.

You are bringing back so many documentaries I completely forgot I watched back when I was little.

I was introduced to this film through the Animal Planet version. I didn't even realise there was a story for the scientists until I saw the British release. I personally prefer the British version.

I loved this movie but it always bothered me how the prehistoric dragons had two sets of wings and legs, while the more modern ones had wings and four legs, that doesn't feel right to me, I think it would have been better if they were depicted as the more wyvern looking dragon while still diversifying in ways to match other dragons in mythology. Or maybe if they had the prehistoric dragons be four legged with wings and diversified from there into all kinds of different dragons.

As a 7 or 8 year old kid seeing this for the first time I firmly believed dragons were real.

Fun fact. In my country, they cut out the scientist except for when working on the dragon and opened the narration with "Imagine that we had found a body". Also, I think the title solidifies it as a mockumentary.

I remember being so fucking confused when I stumbled across it on old RU-vid as a kid

They kind of did that speculative "documentary" on mermaids.

Pretty much my biggest issue with this piece is how the prehistoric dragon, a biped with one pair of wings and two legs, supposedly eventually lead to a subgroup of quadruped dragons with wings. The jungle dragons made sense, they still had only four limbs, so the threatened dragons in the mountains and the aquatic species were outliers in their genus. Exploring the 6-limbed taxon more closely as it emerged might have helped it feel less jarring, because a leap from [x] amount of limbs to another count has never been seen in anything other than insects and some sea creatures, and it would have been interesting to see theories on how a reptile could possibly grow 'imitation limbs' for intimidation purposes, because growing fully functional limbs where there were none seems too farfetched to me to even to be featured in a mockumentary. It's also odd how we never see a nearer ancestor of the aquatic dragon, who must have been a 6-limbed dragon as well, because an aquatic creature would have no reason to grow wings with such a structure if they only swam (they are clearly too small to function like the 'wings' of flying fish), and so it had to be an evolutionary relic.

Always liked this documentary, it really fascinated me all those years ago when I first watched it, and it still does now!

The mountain dragons were chased to those mountains, so no wonder they don't look adapted into it.

Back when the 9 year old me though that it was real

I remember having a book as a kid that actualy did explain how dragons evolved, you also got some paper models of different types of dragons with It too. I remember a DS game based on the book as well.

I remember watching this when it first aired when I was a kid and BOY was I mad by the end of it! It was an enjoyable doc, don't get my wrong! But the advertising campaign made it sound like scientists HAD found a giant preserved winged lizard and I was so upset by the end when I learned that the WHOLE THING was a big WHAT IF situation. I had been so hyped, my grandma even bought a recorder so we could record it onto a vhs tape cuz HOLY CRAP MAN that's a big scientific discovery!

You might not see this, Hoops, but I just felt like sharing this. I think this was an awesome doc that did a great job at treating fantasy with scientific credence. However, I think it has two big issues. First, the runtime. Even when narrowed down by science, dragons (in my opinion) are simply too broad and diverse for just an hour or two and could probably benefit more from an episodic series. Second, this is my opinion, but I'm not sold on the forest dragon being killed by humans. In Chinese mythology, the dragon was revered so I think it'd make more sense if it were worshipped instead. Heck, maybe Chinese leaders could be currently keeping surviving populations of forest dragons for their own uses! Sorry it this is long, I just put a lot of thought into it.

Thank you my man! You did one of my favorite docufiction. Would you do one that I hate the most...."Mermaids: the body found"?

2:28 one other problem is that if dragons were real, they would have to be bipedal because in order to be a quad-ped while possessing wings would stuff up evolution, it's a really cool video by Trey the explainer, but on a more related note, I remember seeing the ice age segment of this when I was a really young kid, now I finally know what it's from, thanks

I remember this documentary, though I saw a version which cuts out the story with the scientists trying to prove the existence of dragons and it was narrated by Patrick Stewart. It certainly was on interesting experience to speculate that if dragons were a real animal how they would evolve and interreact with humans. I did also make me wonder how such a documentary would be applied to other mythical creatures. However I do sort of have some problems with the documentary. 1) It never really explained where dragons, as a group of animal, came from. What were their ancestors and how they evolved? Like say if they evolved from a group of gliding reptiles that maybe have been in the same group as dinosaurs and pterosaurs and may have evolved their body structure in a similar way dinosaurs evolved into birds, only bat like wings instead of feathers. Now that does sort leave the problem how an animal the size of T-rex could get off the ground in the first place...but lets not leave that for now. 2) The existence of six-limbed tetrapods. I like the design of the Prehistoric dragon since it is a more realistic take on how dragon naturally evolved but they don't explain how the other dragon have 4 legs and 2 wings since that couldn't happen with tetrapods. I could probably buy the idea for the Asian dragon being a species that adapted a aquatic lifestyle and then became a terrestrial dragon if they had cut out the tiny wings on its back. But I think for the last dragons we see, just have been something similar to prehistoric dragon, maybe evolving from a smaller species of those dragons and then becoming larger.

This is one of my favorite documentary ever! You are so awesome reviewing all these different documentaries!

I watch this as a kid, and now i watch for nostalgia. This is one of my favorite document/movie, really entertaining.

Makes me wish more people did more of those speculative biology on mythical creatures documentaries. Besides I like the idea of Walking with Cryptids. Basically the idea of what if these monsters were finally discovered and how would they interact in our natural world.

Honestly, there are quite a few concepts in this film that could have made for a great film on their own. If they'd had a bigger budget, they could have made a miniseries, with each episode representing a certain concept around dragons.

Very nice here. I wonder what might happen if the producers of _Walking with Dinosaurs_ decided to create their own documentary based on this called _Walking with Dragons_ and it wasn’t just dragons they featured, but other mythological creatures too?

I honestly wouldn't change a thing, the presentation is what got kindergarten me hooked because dragons are cool. But by the time it was over I was left with a lifelong love for nature and ecology.

Look up Trey the Explainer. He made a video on scientifically plausible dragons. In it, he says that the six appendages evolved billions of years ago when the first animal began morphing 4 appendages, somewhere after the Cambrian era. This may be incorrect.

They literally explain that the Mountain Dragons have been pushed out of their usual territory by humans. They don't want to live in cold ass caves at the peak of a mountain, there just isn't much else to choose from.

Would u ever do Primeval the series. I would recommend it, it's full of fun and action

Well, the mountain dragons arn't from the snowy mountain areas of the world and where forced to live there because their prey sources where getting smaller and smaller and so they had to migrate from warmer climate, such as the male which was said to be from North Africa.

I wish they had more dragons,the whole thing was longer, and I wish they focused a lot more on telling us about dragons because I would have fallen in love with a BBC style documentary about if dragons were indeed real animals

I think the point was with the last segment with Dragons as humans, it was supposed be a commentary on how the Alps were not these creatures natural habitat; they look very much suited to living in Tropical areas because that’s where are are from but have been pushed out by Humans and are living in remote areas. A Twilight zone styled Aesop on man being a monster in its own right. Also I think the mountain dragon called on some of its vestigial adaptations from the water era to help it adapt to the harsher climate.

You should do a video of the mermaid one!

As a kid I thought that if dragons existed they would have been descended from the same archosaurs that dinosaurs descended from. Like one branch split off into dinosaurs and the other into dragons

Saw this when I was a kid and it led to years of me telling friends and stuff that dragons were real

Well, innocent creatures in the same way that wolves are. As long as you, your family, or your livestock aren't in danger of being eaten, then you can co-exist; the moment it becomes a matter of life and death, only one can survive. Edit: Personally, I wouldn't mind a speculative zoology on man-beasts, like centaurs, merfolk, and the like. Shapeshifters would be neat too.

YEES!!! ONE OF MY FAVORITE (fake) DOCUMENTARIES EVER!!! SO GLAD YOU REVIEWED THIS!!!!

2:12 that's the point it's supposed to show that they aren't ment to be there but they have to be because of humans

You should review The mermaid documentary that came out a few years ago

Two things to say: 1. I recommend Lost Tapes if you're interested in how mythical creatures could impact humans. 2. I have more suggestions for the mythical creature docs: I imagined Sasquatch/Yeti with a fight scene between either a Daeodon or Smilodon fighting a bigfoot during the ice age. I would also like to see vampire, werewolf or wendigo. I could imagine a fight scene between a vampire or wendigo and a Neanderthal or a werewolf squaring off with the short-faced bear or the woolly rhino. Finally, I imagined aliens with aliens mutilating dinosaurs the way they mutilate cattle or appearing to ancient civilisations.

Another great video from another underrated RU-vidr! Subscribed!

All I think about when I hear speculation about real dragons is massive _Yi qi._ Had that dinosaur been discovered earlier, it probably would've been used as the dragon's ancestors for this documentary.

Idk how but I saw this documentary when I was 7 and thought that dragons were real lmao

When I was a kid I had straight-up thought Dragon's World was a real documentary.

Only real problem that I have with these dragons is their wings they are way too small for flight unless they went the humming bird route where they flap their wings quickly but they arent. Mayby the one with wings and 2 legs could glide poorly but thats about it.

please do the tv show primevil!!

There is one on mermaids that's pretty good if. If you like this you'll like mermaids

i find it interesting that the actor who played the scientist also starred in the Supervolcano mini-series which depicted a hypothetical scenario in which Yellowstone produces a super eruption in our lifetime and did so in the style of a documentary

I remember watching this when I was 11 and believed dragons were real for years

You seriously need to do Primeval.

The dragons really fit well with dinosaur type animals

They should have just stuck with similar designs to wyverns in the cretaceous part as hexapods would require a very very early evolutionary split from basically the time fish started to transition into amphibians

I Watched this Movie and It's Awesome.

I have both versions: one is the UK version with the narration of the late Ian Holm while the other is the US version with Patrick Stewart. Nothing wrong to own both since these are amazing. I mean, I could watch those alternatively.

as a young kid watching this I actually thought it was real lmao

I certainly do love more bird like dragons. I find that dragons that are covered with feathers instead of scales look much cooler. My personal favorite would be the Dragon that the Forgotten King rode on in Dark Souls 3.

There was a spiritual successor to this with mermaids, but we all know how its reception went.

I was ten when i watched this. I actually belived this.

*somewhere in Australia* "WHAT ABOUT THE DRAGONS?"

This was a good documentary

Please review Lost Tapes!

I bought the DVD. I love Dragons and their mythology. 😅I can imagine the chaos in the scientific world if a preserved Dragon was found in a glacier Scientists=🤯

Well I think they said the dragons were being forced out of their natural lowland habitats in the medieval section

In the scene when the two Prehistoric Dragons are chasing each other above the desert, I think there should have been some Triceratops below.

They really could have done this with more creatures like Sasquatches considering like Dragons, there are many stories and sightings about them, that date back thousands of years from many different countries.

Review Monsters We Met, Before We Ruled Earth, Wild New World,Truth About Killer Dinosaur,

I remember how a dumbass kid in my class kept on insisting that dragons were real because of this documentary.

You know I feel like it would be more plausible if they had dragons evolve after the KPG extinction event. I know having them face dinosaurs looks great but like it seems extremely implausible that such a large animal would somehow survive an extinction event like that. I think it would be much more interesting to have them evolve in a way similar to birds after that, maybe you could even explain their fire resistance by saying that's how they got through the extinction event and then maybe from there try to explain how fire breathing evolved.

you should review Dinotopia. And I don't mean the animated movie but the live actions tv special that was immensely long and the tv show that followed it despite them using different actors

Excellent review ! When I first watched this about a decade ago, I had the same issues as you had. The premise is all right, but I feel they confused their format when conceptualising this piece of docufiction. It comes across as neither one thing or the other. My final impression was that the structure (i.e. exploring the myths, rather than usig them in an at-face-value manner) and science-grounded explanations (e.g. the six-limbedness, minerals for fire-breathing, etc.) could have been conceptualised a lot better.

I wish if the Cretaceous Segment was bigger

Dinosaurs🦖Rule the land The Dragons 🐉 Ruled the skies 🌌🌴

They did this with mermaids to

4:08 which makes sense not just on a religious point but also if you were a king who farmers who are growing the food for your kingdom are terrorized by a flying fire breathing demon animal it makes sense to call highly devoted brave Catholic knights who risked their lives to save their homes as any other soldier in war or at least pay mercenaries a fortune to risk life or death for money for their loved ones or own greed

My main with the movie is that the "scientific" explanation did not make much sense. The dragons are simply too massive to be able to fly, and filling an animal with hydrogen is only going to add a few pounds of lift. A cubic meter of hydrogen only generates 1.21 kilograms of lift. A hydrogen-filled air sack the size of an African elephant, it would only generate around 7 (16 lB) kilograms of lift. Also, there is no explanation for why 6 limbed tetrapods exist, and there are no transitional forms. The dragons appear out of nowhere in the Cretaceous, survive the mass extinction as aquatic reptiles, then re-evolve into the exact same terrestrial dragon that went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. If "dragons" were portrayed as late-surviving pterosaurs, the science would have made more sense.

I suppose that the mountain dragon has, perhaps, thermoendurance.

Some dragons have Lived in prehistory, i an exaple of which is the harpactognathus.

These wing tissues are too shortly connected to the dragon's body, how can it maintain stability in flight?

I listened to a podcast where a popular RU-vidr from my country was so Salty from this documentary, just because it bored him and was obviously a what if documentary, which he just called it "f*cking fake". I lost all my years of respect for him since that day no matter if he's classified as a veteran or not.

i remember watching this fictional documentary when i was young but i dont really like the way how they to mixed up reality and fiction.

Have you heard of Werewolves: Dark Survivors? It's vastly overrated. There's also Mermaids: Bodies Found, which isn't too bad. And there are the Megalodon ones which ruined Shark Week for some people.

2:11 so you think that mountain dragons should look more like the bewilderbeast in HTTYD 2, RIGHT?

I loved this docufiction as a kid. good balance of physics and sound science principles to have it plausibly uphold and ground in reality what is of course fantasy to support suspension of disbelief, which buck's the trend of ignoring reality to create suspension of disbelief. While dragons are not real, it satisfactorily entertained the possibility that they are biologically and mathematically plausible creatures with enough specialized evolution. And, with the earliest dragon species in the show being from the time immediately before the K-Pg extinction (approx. 66 mya), by chance it also leaves enough room for speculation to mesh nicely with the more recent scientific discoveries of mid-Cretaceous scansoriopterygidae, a group of avialans that are dinosaurs with wings more akin to bats than birds. I would love to see someone expand on this work by delving further into speculative evolution of dragons with the scansoriopterygidae as a starting point, which could also serve the purpose of broadening horizons of dinosaur biodiversity in a way that also captures the imagination of people who would otherwise never know, or even outright ignore, the world of dinosaurs outside Jurassic Park/Jurassic World. And it could also serve to provide a foundation to resolve the mentioned critic in this video of scaly dragons living in high altitude, cold, snowy habitats with no insulation, since members of scansoriopterygidae have been preserved with filamentous feather impressions. Feathered dragons would just be re-expressing traits that go back to their days as fluffy Cretaceous, tree dwelling dinosaurs.

There's another documentary like Dragons called Mermaids: The Body Found. You can take a look at it if you want.

I think seeing a little ''proto-dragon'' flapping through a Cretaceous forest would have been neat.