The Dinosaurs
A four-part CGI nature documentary on Netflix that follows the complete rise and fall of dinosaurs across 170 million years, narrated by Morgan Freeman with photorealistic visuals by Industrial Light & Magic. It plays more like a blockbuster film than a classroom lesson, full of genuine wonder but also honest about hunting, extinction events, and the raw reality of prehistoric survival.
Confident nature-documentary watchers around 7 and up; sensitive children or those under 6 may find the predation and extinction sequences upsetting.
Episodes to know about
Dark, spike-backed Tanystropheus reptiles ambush small hatchlings in a shadowy forest; the creatures are designed to look unsettling.
A supervolcanic eruption begins, trapping a large predator and leaving the fate of featured animals unresolved as the episode cuts out.
A dinosaur is shown trapped between lava flows with no escape; the scene implies it burns to death, shown with cinematic realism.