‘Chaos Theory’ the perfect gift for ‘Jurassic’ June

Happy Jurassic June to all who celebrate!

While not officially recognized for mainstream commemoration, fans of movies and television about dinosaurs know the month of June often brings about new “Jurassic” content.

The original “Jurassic Park” film opened June 11, 1993. All three installments of the reboot franchise, “Jurassic World,” opened in June as well.

June 2024 brings the best drop of any “Jurassic” content in a long while: Netflix’s animated series, “Jurassic World: Chaos Theory.”

The kid-friendly (ish) series is a sequel to Netflix’s first (and also terrific) animated series, “Camp Cretaceous,” which ran for five seasons and took place during and after the events of 2015’s “Jurassic World” live-action film. It followed six teenage campers struggling to survive on Isla Nublar after being accidentally abandoned by those upstanding corporate theme park operators.

Canonically, “Camp Cretaceous” ended before any dinosaurs escaped onto the mainland. The “Chaos Theory” series takes place between the second and third reboot movies. It focuses on the campers back home, now young adults and still dealing with their dino-PTSD. When one member of their group is killed in a seemingly random dinosaur attack, the rest of the group begin to suspect a life-threatening conspiracy.

“Chaos Theory” is suitable for older kids — people get eaten by dinosaurs, but the “kills” happen offscreen. The series nevertheless includes several tense sequences with some truly terrifying-looking dinosaurs, even in animated form. The most effective action involves, you guessed it, a pack of hyper-intelligent raptors that are deployed to silence the surviving campers.

The last film in the franchise, 2022’s “Dominion” made a bunch of money for two key reasons: 1) It brought original cast members Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum back into the fold with meaty roles and 2) Marketing sold the movie on the premise of dinosaurs running amok all across the globe. Even as a “Dominion” apologist (the movie earned the worst cumulative reviews in the franchise), I can admit the movie did very little with that premise, to the point where about half the movie takes place in a single, mostly unpopulated location.

“Chaos Theory,” on the other hand, delivers on the dinosaurs-in-the-human-world premise that didn’t materialize in “Dominion.” The show touches on how the government manages an exploding population of meat-eating monsters, and it places cool dinosaurs in fun new backdrops. Raptors terrorize a farm! Dinosaurs make a mess of suburbia!

Come for the cleverly staged dinosaur action and stay for the thoughtful character arcs. Just as in “Camp Cretaceous,” our main characters go through their own messy, relatable conflicts … all made worse by intruding beasts (with the exception of Bumpy, the fan-favorite ankylosaurus who plays an integral role again).

Sure, “Chaos Theory” is a “kids” show, but the action sequences rival and/or exceed the live action work, and the story and characters are much better developed and executed compared to the sequel trilogy (or, let’s be honest, basically every movie in the “Jurassic” franchise except for the first film).

A new live-action “Jurassic” project arrives in theaters next summer, touted as something “separate” from the recent cannon. While a fresh take is necessary for the uninspired movie franchise, here’s hoping “Chaos Theory” continues into future seasons to better explore a true “Jurassic World” full of dinosaurs and humans living together (mass hysteria!).*

*As of this writing, Netflix has not confirmed another season of “Chaos Theory,” but the season ends on a pretty good cliffhanger …

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.