The production features computer-animated dinosaurs in live-action settings with actors John Leguizamo, Justin Long, Tiya Sircar, and Skyler Stone providing voice-overs for the main characters.

The crew filmed footage on location in the U.S. state of Alaska and in New Zealand, which were chosen for their similarities to the dinosaurs' surroundings millions of years ago.

Though the film was originally going to lack narration or dialogue, 20th Century Fox executives decided to add voiceovers, believing it would connect audiences to the characters.

The Hollywood Reporter stated the film's global box office performance was disappointing in context of the production budget and marketing costs.

A paleontologist named Zack takes his nephew Ricky and his niece Jade on a fossil hunt in Alaska while their parents are on vacation in Europe.

Alex tells Ricky of a story set in the Late Cretaceous period, 70 million years ago, about his best friend Patchi.

Gorgon's pack attacks them again, and in the ensuing chaos, Patchi, Scowler, and Juniper fall into a river and are swept downstream to the ocean, with Alex following them from above.

After years of making the same migration from north to south and vice versa, a grown up Scowler becomes the herd's new leader after defeating Major and chooses Juniper to be his mate, much to Patchi's disappointment.

Enraged and mistakenly believing that Patchi is going to usurp him and try to take Juniper from him, Scowler confronts his brother and challenges him for a battle in exchange for leadership of the herd.

As Gorgon easily overpowers and injures him in battle, a repentant Scowler orders Patchi to save himself and lead the herd to safety.

The brothers reconcile before Scowler concedes leadership of the herd to Patchi, who goes on to have Juniper as his mate and has a family with her, with Alex acting as an uncle.

[11] Nightingale and BBC Earth's managing director, Amanda Hill, sought to produce film adaptations to extend the arm's brand of nature programming.

[13] By the following November, BBC Earth entered a deal with Reliance Big Entertainment to finance the production of three films, including Walking with Dinosaurs.

Forbes called Walking with Dinosaurs an independent film with an unconventionally large budget since the production did not originate at a major studio.

[29] The natural history unit archives were used to create a "behaviour matrix" that matched the dinosaurs' anatomically correct gestures to their moods.

[20] Cinematographer John Brooks worked with consultants and stereographers from the Cameron Pace Group to use a two-camera setup and capture film in 3D.

He said, "I think originally, we were looking at a film that could stand alone as a virtual silent movie... You can turn the soundtrack off and still get involved with the story and feel the emotions of the characters.

The powers that be decided to add narration and voice-over to reach a wider audience and the characters became slightly anthropomorphized to make them more attractive to younger kids.

"[24] Variety reported, "[Director] Nightingale describes the project as 'mainstream entertainment' rather than natural history... but draws accurately on the latest discoveries in paleontology.

"[29] National Geographic said, "Many paleontologists and dinosaur fans are disappointed that CGI docudrama's villains, a gaggle of iridescent Gorgosaurus, are devoid of any fluff or fuzz."

[40] The film is an extension of an existing franchise that started with the BBC miniseries and continued with an arena show that put animatronic dinosaurs on display.

"[51] Box Office Mojo commented in its December 2013 forecast, "It should do some solid business among families with younger children, though in a highly-competitive season this is the kind of movie that can get lost in the pack.

[60] In the United States, it is one of only twelve feature films to be released in over 3,000 theaters and still improve on its box office performance in its second weekend, increasing 2.6% from $7,091,938 to $7,276,172.

[33] The Wall Street Journal reported that film critics thought that Walking with Dinosaurs's "majestic visuals are seriously undermined by pedestrian storytelling".

The website said, "Walking with Dinosaurs boasts painstaking visual brilliance, but it's unfortunately clouded by a clumsy script that's dominated by juvenile humor.

"[64] It also reported, "The pundits say the filmmakers seem to have worried that a quasi-nature documentary approach might have turned off the youngsters, but the narrative is so poorly executed that the end result isn't all that entertaining, much less educational.

He said, "The film's attempt to make its story broad and accessible at times sits uneasily alongside the spectacular computer animation.

[67] Tom Meek, reviewing for Paste, also praised the effects as "a visual wonderment" but disparaged "the cutesy animal voices and personas".

Aside from highlights like the line "Think outside the nest" and the song "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac, Meek was disappointed by the dialogue and choice of music.

Unlike the movie, this documentary is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch in a style similar to that of the TV series, and removes the character names and dialogue.