Creatures Fantastic (remake)

Creatures Fantastic is a remake of a 1997 documentary series of the same name, produced by Dorling Kindersley and the BBC for the Discovery Channel. The remake will be aired on BBC Four. The series will be lengthened from 13 episodes to 20 episodes, with each episode also increasing from 25 minutes to 40 minutes, so as to examine each subject more broadly.
Both the original and remake of Creatures Fantastic are about mythology, examining the different stories of myth and legend, showing what may have inspired these tales and looking at their relevance in the modern day. Footage filmed on sets are coupled with CGI (updated from the much more primitive effects in the original series) and stock footage taken from other BBC documentaries.
== Full series overview ==
=== Episode 1. Creation ===
Remake or original episode: Original
Creatures or myths included:
* Tiamat (a draconic chaos demon from whose corpse the universe was created, from Mesopotamian myth)
* Maasaw, the skeleton man (a huge being with a mask that covers a bloodied, fearsome face, from Hopi mythology)
* Earth-diver mythology (stories of aquatic animals retrieving land from the bottom of a water-covered world from throughout native American mythology)
* The Great Honker (an Egyptian goose that laid the cosmic egg in ancient Egyptian mythology)
* Pangu (a hairy giant that emerged from the cosmic egg and created the world in ancient Chinese mythology)
* Rainbow Serpent (an enormous snake that is simultaneously a creator and destroyer, from Australian aboriginal mythology)
=== Episode 2. Creatures of the Night ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Grendel (a man-eating giant from the Anglo-Saxon tale Beowulf)
* Ghoul (a man-eating desert monster later linked with grave robbing from Arabic folklore, all derived partly from myths about hyenas)
* Nocturnal animal folklore (bats, owls and the aye-aye lemur have all been linked to death while the gecko, able to shed its tail, has been linked with leprosy in Arabic folklore)
* Sammabras (a gecko said to crawl on sleeping people and give them leprosy, from Arabic folklore)
* Tokoloshe (small sprites used to explain mysterious deaths while asleep in South African mythology)
* Vampire (an undead human that sustains itself on human blood, from medieval European myth)
* Edimmu (wind spirits that sucked out people's souls and are precursors to the vampire, from Babylonian myth)
* Jure Grando (a 1656 Croatian man that is said to be the first described case of a vampire feeding on blood)
* Black Shuck (a giant ghostly dog said to be an omen of death that stalks lonely roads at night in East Anglian folklore)
* Ghostly Hitchhiker (modern-day myth of ghosts said to ride in and disappear from cars near their place of death)
=== Episode 3. Dragons ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Apep (a serpentine dragon that attempted to swallow the sun every night, in ancient Egyptian mythology)
* Zmey Gorynych (a twelve-headed dragon also said to swallow the sun from Russian mythology)
* Chinese dragon (a benevolent weather spirit from Chinese mythology)
* Basilisk (a serpent monster that could kill with a single look from ancient Roman myth - probably based on a spitting cobra)
* St George and the Dragon (traditional story of a brave Christian hero slaying an evil dragon from medieval European myth)
=== Episode 4. Creatures of the Deep ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Kauhuhu (the god of man-eating sharks from Hawaiian mythology)
* Atargatis (mermaid goddess of fish from classical Syria)
* Suvannamaccha (benevolent mermaid goddess from the Sanskrit epic Ramayana)
* Mermaid of Zennor (sweet-singing and gentle mermaid from Cornish folklore)
* Siren (bird or fish-women who tempt sailors with beautiful singing from ancient Greek mythology)
* Cetus (a shark-like sea monster sent to kill the beautiful Andromeda in Greek myth)
* Kraken (whale or squid-like ship-sinking monster from Norse legend)
* Davy Jones (devil of the sea, an embodiment of oceanic fear from British sailor lore)
* Bermuda Triangle (modern-day mythology of boats and planes vanishing in part of the Atlantic Ocean)
=== Episode 5. Mythical Cats ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Sekhmet (lioness-headed goddess of war and vengefulness from ancient Egypt)
* Bastet (domestic cat-headed fertility goddess from ancient Egypt)
* Sphinx (part lion and part either pharaoh in Egyptian myth or woman in ancient Greek myth)
* Nemean Lion (giant man-eating lion with impenetrable hide from Greek mythology)
* Griffin (part lion, part eagle creature said to guard treasure in Central Asia)
* Moyang Melur (tiger demon that dwells on the moon according to Malaysian mythology)
* Chang and Bagh Bhut (ghosts of tiger attack victims bound to the cat, from Chinese and Indian myth respectively)
* Cats as the familiars of witches (a common myth from medieval Europe that associates cats with women)
=== Episode 6. The Apocalypse ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Fenris (huge wolf that is part of the Ragnarok tale from Norse mythology)
* Jormungandr (world-encompassing serpent that is part of the Ragnarok tale from Norse mythology)
* Garmr (hellhound that is part of the Ragnarok tale from Norse mythology)
* Shunka Sapa (a large dog preventing an old woman from accidentally ending the world, from Lakota myth)
* Musca Macedda (sheep-sized flies trapped in a barrel and waiting to devour the world, from Sardinian folklore)
* Tezcatlipoca (the god of night and judgement, responsible for four previous endings of the world in Aztec mythology)
* Armageddon (a final redemptive battle to defeat the devil from the Book of Revelation in the Bible)
=== Episode 7. Mystic Mountains ===
Remake or original episode: Original
Creatures or myths included:
* Mount Olympus (the dwelling place of the gods in Greek mythology)
* Benarty Hill (hill believed to have formed over a sleeping giant in Scottish folklore)
* Hobbomock (a giant who was drugged and turned into a mountain, from Quinnipiac legend)
* Giant Beaver (a man-eating beaver killed by Hobbomock and turned into two hills, from Quinnipiac legend)
* Typhon (monstrous serpentine giant buried between the volcanic Mount Etna, according to Greek myth)
* Troll (hostile mountain-dwelling beings from Norse folklore)
* Almas (mountain-dwelling hominids said to live in the mountains of Central Asia)
* Fear Liath (a tall thin humanoid, but more often merely a menacing presence, found in Scottish mythology)
* Usilosimapundu (male continent-sized mountain monster from Zulu mythology)
* Ugunqu-kubantwana (female continent-sized mountain monster from Zulu mythology)
=== Episode 8. Werewolves ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Zeus (a god capable of metamorphosis between human and animal forms, from Greek mythology)
* Skin-walker (a witch able to transform into any animal at will, from Navajo mythology)
* Werewolf (any human able to transform into a wolf, mostly from European folklore)
* Beast of Gevaudan (real man-eating wolf thought to be a werewolf, from France in the 1760s)
* Peter Stumpp (a German man executed in 1589 under suspicion of being a werewolf)
* Kami (positive spirits said to be messengers of the gods and protectors of crops, from Japanese mythology)
* Faoladh (either gentle and friendly or warrior werewolves, from Irish mythology)
=== Episode 9. The Underworld ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Osiris (green-skinned god of the underworld from ancient Egyptian mythology)
* Anubis (jackal-headed god of embalming from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Ammit (crocodile-lion-hippo hybrid that devours sinful souls in ancient Egyptian myth)
* Cerberus (three-headed dog that guards the entrance to the underworld in ancient Greece)
* Camazotz (a human-bat hybrid that inhabits Xibalba, the underworld of Mayan myth)
* Sedna (fingerless underworld goddess from Inuit mythology)
* Torngarsuk (a polar bear spirit that inhabits the underworld Adlivun, in Inuit mythology
* Satan (the devil, said to rule over Hell in Christian stories)
=== Episode 10. Man Beasts ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Khepri (sun god with a dung beetle for a head, from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Set (the god of chaos, often depicted as a man with the head of a fantastical creature, from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Ganesh (elephant-headed god of wisdom from the Hindu religion)
* Faun and Satyr (either goat or horse-legged men from Greek mythology)
* Minotaur (cannibalistic man-headed bull, from Greek mythology)
* Medusa (a snake-haired woman who could kill with a single look, from Greek mythology)
* Toad-Men (depictions of hybrids between humans and cane toads from Olmec mythology)
* The Fly (a nightmarish cross between human and fly from recent literature and film)
* Lion-Man (mammoth ivory carving of a human with a lion's head, from prehistoric Europe)
* The Sorcerer (cave drawing of human-horse-deer hybrid, from prehistoric Europe)
* Sulawesi cave drawings (humans drawn with bird or lizard heads, from prehistoric Indonesia - the oldest interpretive art known)
=== Episode 11. Spirits of the Forest ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Green Knight (a strange nature figure from Arthurian legend)
* Green man (depictions of a vegetation deity recorded from around the world)
* Yggdrasil (a giant ash tree that supports the universe, from Norse mythology)
* Wendigo (an evil spirit that induces cannibalism, from Native American myth)
* Baba Yaga (an ambiguous forest witch that lives in a chicken-legged hut from Russian stories)
* Ghillie Dhu (a male shaggy-haired forest fairy that is either kindly or wild, from Scottish folklore)
* Bigfoot (a hairy humanoid creature that guards the forest, from Native American myth)
* Woodwose (a hairy wild man said to live in forests in medieval European myth)
=== Episode 12. The Undead ===
Remake or original episode: Original
Creatures or myths included:
* Ishtar (goddess who threatens to raise the flesh-eating dead, from ancient Mesopotamian myth)
* Walking skeleton (reanimated skeletons, common symbols of death in medieval Europe)
* Draugr (the returning bodies of evil people, from Norse mythology)
* Frankenstein's monster (a corpse reanimated by science, from Victorian literature)
* Mummy (raised corpses of mummified Egyptians, from Victorian literature)
* Zombie (originally a risen corpse from Haitian lore, now a modern monster of films and video games)
* Ro-langs (stiff-legged zombie-like creatures from Tibetan folklore)
=== Episode 13. Mythical Horses ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Unicorn (horned horse-like creature from mythology throughout medieval Europe)
* Chalk horses (chalk cuttings showing ancient horse worship, from Celtic Britain)
* Pegasus (winged horse ridden by Bellerophon in Greek mythology)
* Chimera (lion-goat-serpent monster slain by Bellerophon while riding Pegasus, from Greek myth)
* Kelpie (a river and stream-dwelling water horse from Scottish mythology)
* Each Uisge (the more dangerous loch and sea-dwelling water horse from Scottish mythology)
* Diomedes Horses (flesh-eating mares that appear in Greek myth)
* Centaur (man-horse hybrid that originated from Greek mythology)
=== Episode 14. Bogeys ===
Remake or original episode: Original
Creatures or myths included:
* Bogeyman (shapeless creature of terror from mythology worldwide)
* Bag Man (a mostly male sack-carrying figure from mythology worldwide)
* Isitwalangcengce (a hyena with a basket for a head, from southern African folklore)
* Haakapainiži (a giant flesh-eating, basket-carrying grasshopper from Kawaiisu myth)
* Krampus (human-goat Christmas bogey from Germanic folklore)
* Gryla (female Christmas ogress from Icelandic folklore)
* Jenny Greenteeth (carnivorous water hag from English folklore)
* Qallupilluit (carnivorous ice-edge hag from Inuit mythology)
* Abuhuwa (beaked forest demon from Colombian mythology)
* Yara-Ma-Ya-Who (frog-like swallowing monster from Australian aboriginal myth)
* Camacrusa (disembodied flesh-eating leg from French folklore)
* Spring Heeled Jack (a high-jumping demon used to warn against going out at night, from Victorian literature)
* Slenderman (a faceless skinny humanoid monster from modern internet mythology)
=== Episode 15. Birds and Things with Wings ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Roc (giant flesh-eating bird from Arabian folklore)
* Thunderbird (monstrous man-eating bird, from Native American mythology)
* Icarus (youth who falls to his death after trying to fly, from Greek mythology)
* Garuda (man-eagle hybrid used as a mount by Vishnu in Hinduism)
* Harpy (woman-bird hybrid from Greek mythology)
* Huginn and Muninn (two ravens that communicate wisdom to Odin in Norse mythology)
* Thoth (ibis-headed god of wisdom, from ancient Egyptian mythology)
* Tawusi Melek (an archangel in the form of a peacock, from Yazidi myth)
* Phoenix (immortal bird that rejuvenates by burning, from Greek mythology)
* Ba-Bird (a man-headed bird or saddle-billed stork, representing the human soul, from ancient Egyptian myth)
=== Episode 16. Water Demons ===
Remake or original episode: Original
Creatures or myths included:
* Boiuna (giant intelligent river snake with unstoppable powers, from Amazonian myth)
* Munuanë (a blind arrow-firing river ogre from myths of tribes along the Orinoco River)
* Kori (a water anteater that causes riverbank subsidence from myths of tribes along the Orinoco River)
* Underwater panther (mostly malevolent water-dwelling cats from folklore of the Great Lakes tribes)
* Lernaean Hydra (many-headed lake monster from Greek mythology)
* Will-o-the-wisp (glowing fairy lights that lure travellers into deep swamps from European folklore)
* Bisimbi Bi Masa (disease-causing water fairies from Congo mythology)
* Sobek (a crocodile-headed god of fertility, power and protection, from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Taweret (an anthropomorphic hippo goddess of fertility and childbirth, from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Heket (a frog-headed goddess of fertility and the flooding of the Nile, from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Sewer alligator (real alligators said to be living in city sewers, from modern American folklore)
=== Episode 17. Tricky Tricksters ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Loki (a well-known trickster figure from Norse folklore)
* Reynard (an anthropomorphic fox from western European medieval folktales)
* Kitsune (nine-tailed fox tricksters from Japanese folklore)
* Mujina (good-hearted badger tricksters from Japanese folklore)
* Anansi (spider trickster from West African folklore)
* Ngofariman (mean chimpanzee trickster from Malian folklore)
* ǀKaggen (a shape-shifting trickster god of the southern African San people)
* Sang Kancil (a mouse deer trickster from Malaysian mythology)
* Sun Wukong (supernaturally powerful monkey trickster from ancient Chinese literature)
* Fairy (diminutive humanoids with magical powers from European mythology)
* Leprechaun (a solitary male fairy with a penchant for trickery from recent Irish folklore)
* Trojan Horse (wooden horse used to trick an enemy army, from Greek mythology)
* Polyphemus (a cyclops tricked by the hero Odysseus, from Greek mythology)
=== Episode 18. Horns of Magic ===
Remake or original episode: Original
Creatures or myths included:
* Bull of Heaven (destructive force in the form of a bull, from ancient Mesopotamian myth)
* Auðumbla and Ymir (cosmic cow and giant from Norse creation myth)
* Water bull (an aggressive water-dwelling wild bull from Scottish folklore)
* Dun Cow (giant cow that can be both giving and fearsome, from English mythology)
* Lamassu (a winged, human-headed and bull-bodied protective deity from Assyria)
* Chrysomallos (flying ram, source of the golden fleece, from Greek mythology)
* Colchis Bull (giant bronze-hooved, fire-breathing bulls, from Greek mythology
* Hathor (cow-horned goddess of maternal care and joy, from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Apis (son of Hathor, a living sacred bull in ancient Egypt)
* Khnum (ram-headed god who created the Nile and human babies, from ancient Egyptian myth)
* Deer Woman (beautiful but vengeful woman with deer hooves from Native American myth)
* Maricha (a flesh-eating demon in the form of a deer from the Sanskrit epic Ramayana)
* Akhekh (eagle-headed and winged oryx from ancient Egyptian mythology)
* Catoblepas (a shaggy-maned creature with poisonous breath from ancient Roman mythology, based upon a wildebeest)
* Eland-headed men (depictions showing the close bond between man and his wild prey, from San artwork)
=== Episode 19. Aliens ===
Remake or original episode: Remake
Creatures or myths included:
* Hopkinsville Goblin (small silvery creatures from a 1955 encounter in the United States)
* Nordic (tall blonde human-like aliens from recent alien encounters)
* Grey alien (the most common alien, small of stature with huge eyes, originating from American folklore)
* Mantis alien (telepathic giant praying mantises from several recent alien encounters)
* El Chupacabra (a blood-drinking creature of alien appearance, from recent Puerto Rican folklore)
=== Episode 20. Creatures Alive ===
Remake or original episode: Original
Creatures or myths included:
* Loch Ness monster (an unidentified water creature from Scottish folklore)
* Yeti (a humanoid, bear or ape-like creature from the mythology of the Himalayas, probably based on bear myths)
* Mokele-Mbembe (dinosaur-like creature said to live in the Congo, actually co-opted from Zambian myth by new-age creationism)
* British big cat (real-life big cats said to be living wild in Britain according to recent British folklore)
* Thylacine (an extinct marsupial predator thought by some to still be alive, from recent Australian lore)
Category:Documentaries
Category:Dorling Kindersley
Category:Nonfiction
Category:Television Series
Category:Remake