Walking with Cavemen (2003) on Netflix
NR20032hDocumentary
Ethiopia, 3.2 million years ago. Australopithecus afarensis is the first of the extinct hominins whose lives are reconstructed on the long path toward modern humans.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.6/101,579 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
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Plot summary
Filmed as a nature documentary, the series reconstructs extinct hominins and the world they lived in. It begins in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago with Australopithecus afarensis, the best documented early hominid, and moves through key developments on the path to modern humans. Actors in makeup and prosthetics portray the ancestors, since computer graphics alone could not convey their expressions and movement; more than 1,500 pieces of prosthetics were made, and fourteen actors trained with scientific experts, movement coaches and voice coaches. Live animals appear where possible, while creatures such as mammoths are computer generated, and a technique called deep timelapse compresses millions of years of climate and geological change into moments. A team of 111 scientists advised the production to keep the time periods, locations and behavior consistent with research.
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Walking with Cavemen (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Walking with Cavemen was named to play on the outdated stereotype of human ancestors as cave-dwellers, even though the programme puts hominins in caves only in its final episode; the title was meant to turn viewers' expectations on their head.
- Over 2,000 actors applied to portray the hominins in Walking with Cavemen and fourteen were selected, then spent five weeks training with scientific experts and movement and voice coaches, because one wrong movement would have broken the illusion.
- Filming in the Southern Kalahari Desert was hard on the cast of Walking with Cavemen: temperatures hit 30/40 °C while they wore full makeup and bodysuits, so medical professionals traveled with the team to hand out rehydrating solutions and salts.
- The makeup process for the actors on Walking with Cavemen took five hours every morning of filming, and the costumes were so cumbersome that actors in Paranthropus boisei suits struggled to eat lunch, with most drinking through straws.
- Walking with Cavemen pioneered a visual technique it called the "deep timelapse", which compressed scenes of climate, environmental and geological change spanning millions of years down to just a few moments.
- Partly because of scientific criticism of earlier Walking with... series, the producers of Walking with Cavemen recruited 111 scientists, among them experts on stone tools, geologists, primatologists, geneticists and climatologists, to advise on the series.
- The American version of Walking with Cavemen was originally going to be hosted by Nigel Marven, who had appeared in Walking with Dinosaurs and Sea Monsters, but the production instead made a version hosted by the actor Alec Baldwin.
- The behavior of the Australopithecus shown in Walking with Cavemen was modeled on chimpanzees and was particularly inspired by Jane Goodall's research on the animals.
