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‘Camp Cretaceous’ brings ‘Jurassic’ fun to the small screen

by TYLER WILSON/Coeur Voice contributor
| September 26, 2020 1:00 AM

The 2015 sequel/reboot “Jurassic World” showed audiences what a fully-functioning dinosaur amusement park/zoo would look like under ideal circumstances, i.e. a park where the tourists don’t get eaten by monsters.

Of course, by the end of “Jurassic World,” people ARE eaten and the park closed once again. Its direct sequel, 2018’s “Fallen Kingdom,” ditches the dinosaur island completely around the 45-minute mark, instead diving into an absurd premise that should have been titled “Jurassic Haunted Mansion.”

The new Netflix animated series, “Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous,” takes place before the events of the 2015 film, allowing the series to explore what it might be like for kids to attend a summer camp on an island full of dinosaurs.

Spoiler alert: The dinosaurs STILL get out and wreak havoc. Apparently just not enough to get the whole place shut down.

The 8-episode first season follows six lucky (?) teenagers selected to be the first campers at Isla Nublar’s Camp Cretaceous, where the kids enjoy ziplining over dinosaurs, “cattle driving” herds of herbivores in those neat hamster ball vehicles (Gyrospheres, for the nerds), and living in a giant treehouse that hopefully sits just above the typical biting range of a stray Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The group is a cross-section of stereotypical teens, from the rich kid, to the social media influencer, to the meek kid who is uncomfortable with being outdoors, let alone outdoors alongside man-eating beasts. The main character is Darius (voiced by Paul-Mikel Williams), a dinosaur nerd who wins a slot at the camp after beating a near-impossible video game (by utilizing a trick first seen in “Jurassic Park III,” no less).

As the episodes progress, all the campers get some decent development, as the show mixes and matches the kids in order to explore some nuance to their personalities. It isn’t particularly deep characterization, but for a kid’s show about dinosaur attacks, the attempt is admirable.

“Camp Cretaceous” delivers on its promise of showing cool dinosaur theme park attractions and the eventual mayhem that comes with such a dangerous enterprise (at least one dinosaur puts a kid in mortal danger every single episode). There’s a greater mystery at play too, first apparent on the kids’ visit to the InGen cloning lab, where series staple Dr. Wu makes an appearance.

As a kids show, “Camp Cretaceous” doesn’t skimp on the danger and violence that comes with the “Jurassic” franchise, though you won’t see anything near as graphic as a guy getting bitten off of a toilet seat (death is generally avoided, or at least depicted off-screen).

Fans of the series shouldn’t let the “kid” label keep them from “Camp Cretaceous,” as the series is canonical and depicts a fun time period within the franchise that only really got to be explored in the first half of “Jurassic World.”

Considering the varying quality of the “Jurassic” films after the original in 1993, “Camp Cretaceous” should be celebrated for leaning into the franchise’s best qualities. If anything, it’s considerably better than “Jurassic Haunted Mansion,” and it provides hope that the upcoming “Jurassic World: Dominion” film will be a return to form.

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Tyler Wilson has been writing about movies professionally since 2000. He is the co-host of Old Millennials Remember Movies, available anywhere you get podcasts. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com