Jurassic World – The Official Trailer

So it has finally arrived, Universal Pictures have released the official trailer for Jurassic World, the fourth movie in the JP franchise.  We had been aware of the plot details for some time, now we can see the trailer.   When this film is released (June 12th 2015), it will be 22 years since the first Jurassic Park hit the screens – gosh, we are excited.

Jurassic World

The Official Trailer – Jurassic World

Video credit: Universal Studios

Remember, the Park opens June 2015.

We at Everything Dinosaur can’t wait although the marine reptile looks a little oversized.  Perhaps it has been genetically altered, not the only thing on Isla Nublar to have been genetically modified?

“Patchi” and Friends in a Coming of Age Saga Set in the Cretaceous

Just in time for Christmas comes the release of the long-awaited “Walking with Dinosaurs in 3-D” a film that features an array of Late Cretaceous prehistoric animals (dinosaurs mostly) with the narrator of our story being Alex an Alexornis, an ancient bird* who via a segue that manages to link the present day to the Late Cretaceous of North America, is introduced as our guide to the adventures of a horned dinosaur called “Patchi”.

“Patchi” the Pachyrhinosaurus

The fact that there were many different types of prehistoric bird around, is just one of the snippets of information that can be gleaned from seeing the film.  The movie is a collaboration between BBC Earth and 20th Century Fox and although it shares the same title as the BBC’s ground breaking television series “Walking with Dinosaurs” that first aired back in 1999, this is a very different “beastie”.

In the six part BBC television series, each half hour episode was narrated by Sir Kenneth Branagh, (although he wasn’t a Knight at the time), these programmes combined the BBC’s tradition for making excellent nature documentaries with ground-breaking computer generated special effects.  Back in 1999, seeing a dinosaur come to life on the screen or to view a prehistoric habitat was something very memorable.  After all, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park may have resurrected the Dinosauria and shown for the first time how powerful CGI could be, but the back drops to the fearsome dinosaurs were all modern day locations.

Walking with Dinosaurs

In the BBC television series, the programmes managed to create the effect that here was an actual nature documentary shot in the Mesozoic.

Much the same look is achieved in this cinema offering, the background scenery (the location shots were taken in New Zealand and Alaska) is breath taking, however, fourteen years on, we are so used to CGI that the effects seem to have lost some of their impact.  With so many fantasy films, computer programmes and in the Youtube generation, perhaps our senses have been dulled somewhat.

Pachyrhinosaurus Adventures

The story seems to follow the typical plot of a film aimed very much at young viewers.  An underdog, the runt of the litter gets into all sorts of scrapes and adventures before finally growing up to become a hero.  There is even a love interest, yes, romance in a film all about dinosaurs, but more of that later.  “Patchi” and his big brother (“Scowler”) are pachyrhinosaurs, horned dinosaurs that are distantly related to the more famous Triceratops, but lack the impressive nose and brow horns.  Thanks to an encounter with a speedy, carnivorous Troodon, “Patchi” gains a hole in his frill, which is very distinctive, a useful cinematic device to make him distinguishable from all the other pachyrhinosaurs in the herd scenes, helpful for very young viewers so that they can follow the story line more easily.

The film has been described as “infotainment”, as periodically the action is frozen and the Latin names of the prehistoric creatures and other supporting data is displayed on the screen, perhaps this is a nod to the grown-ups who can take solace in the fact that this film might have some educational value.  The film is very reminiscent of Disney’s offering “Dinosaur”  (released in 2000), the dinosaurs even have American accents – apt, as the action does take place in North America.

The characters depicted in the film may be largely reptilian (there are mammals and birds too), but all of them have been anthropomorphosised and often they come across as mere caricatures although it is hard to consider how human-like, a two tonne, extinct ceratopsian might possibly have been.  The story jogs along at a merry pace and covers ten years in the life of the herd, time enough for “Patchi” to prove that brains are sometimes better than brawn.

The dialogue can be a bit grating at times, there are all sorts of modern-day references, (as if dinosaurs, knew anything about chew toys or ninjas) and the film makers seemed to be passionately concerned with ensuring that there must dialogue for every frame of the film.  For animals capable of only screeches, bellows and roars, the dinosaurs certainly do talk a lot.

“Patchi” – The Runt of a Litter of Pachyrhinosaurs

Do animals that lay eggs have a runt in the litter?

Gorgosaurus

“Patchi” with his brown eyes meets “Juniper” a female Pachyrhinosaurus from a neighbouring herd (she has blue eyes), eye colour in ceratopsians is something that we at Everything Dinosaur haven’t actually considered.  “Patchi” and his brother get separated from their herd after a forest fire, they join up with another group of migrating pachyrhinosaurs and “Patchi” is thrown together with “Juniper”.  When these young dinosaurs get lost again, thanks to an attack by a gang of Gorgosaurus (tyrannosaurids similar to T. rex but smaller and lighter), another set of adventures begins and the love interest with “Patchi” falling head over his ceratopsian heels for “Juniper”.

The three animals have to find their own way to the winter feeding grounds.  This part of the film has echoes of the “Incredible Journey” another Disney offering about three pets trying to make it back to their owners.  The original “Incredible Journey” came out in 1963 with a re-make thirty years later starring the voice over talents of the likes of Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Don Ameche.  From this perspective dogs and cats seem easier to anthropomorphosise than dinosaurs.

The film carries a “U” certificate, although parents of particularly young children will need to be mindful that this film does depict predators attacking,  it is very much a case of nature “red in tooth and claw”.  At eighty-seven minutes, the film is fractionally shorter than the “Walking with Dinosaurs” stage show, but unlike the live event there is no fifteen minute interval.  To the delight of the young viewers the humour has lots of scatological references, our hero “Patchi” literally gets “dumped on from a great height” at one point.

No doubt the film will do very well which then could bring about the prospect of a sequel, or indeed an entire franchise of these dino-inspired, infotainments.  For us, we can always put on one of the BBC “Walking with Dinosaurs” episodes from that ground-breaking television series, which in our view are far superior.

Blue-Eyed “Juniper” – Romance in the Late Cretaceous?

A blue-eyed, horned dinosaur.

Note about Prehistoric Birds from the Late Cretaceous

*Alexornis is a member of the Enantiornithines, a clade of prehistoric birds that were relatively abundant towards the end of the Age of Dinosaurs.  Something like fifty different species of Enantiornithines have been named so far.

A Model of an Adult Pachyrhinosaurus (P. canadensis)

A Pachyrhinosaurus model.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the model range that features the Pachyrhinosaurus replica shown: Papo Models and Prehistoric Animals.

The Beasts of the Mesozoic model range (articulated figures) also includes a replica of a Pachyrhinosaurus.  To view this excellent range: Beasts of the Mesozoic Prehistoric Animal Models.

Jurassic Park IV Due for Release in 2015

With problems over the filming now resolved it seems there has been new life breathed into the once extinct Jurassic Park IV movie and a new release date has been proposed.  Originally scheduled for June 13th 2014, the world-wide release of this long awaited film, the fourth in the Jurassic Park franchise, is likely to be summer 2015.  Although, there have been a number of leaks relating to the storyline the plot is a closely guarded secret.  However, it does seem that the action will mostly take part on the island of Isla Nublar, this was the location used largely for the first film in the franchise, the site of John Hammond’s dinosaur-themed safari park.

Jurassic Park

A source claims that the prehistoric animals shown in the movie will include marine reptiles for the first time.  There will be dinosaurs that had appeared in the previous films, the fearsome, over-sized Velociraptors and the monstrous T. rex, for example, but giant carnivorous sea monsters will make an appearance too.

Isla Nublar is now a fully operational theme park, a tourist attraction on a huge scale.  theropod dinosaurs roam but they are muzzled.  In one sequence, a giant marine reptile will perform in a Sea-World like attraction, a sort of prehistoric version of Shamu the Killer Whale.  The huge beast leaps out of the water to devour a strung up Great White Shark, all for the pleasure of the tourists.  Looks like the shark from “Jaws” is put in its place in terms of the prehistoric pecking order.

Mosasaurus in the Movie

There were certainly many very large and dangerous marine reptiles in the seas of the Mesozoic, pliosaurs and mosasaurs for example.  Tylosaurus (T. proriger) a mosasaur whose fossils have been found in North America, may have reached lengths in excess of fourteen metres.  The pliosaur, known as Liopleurodon (L. macromerus), may have been even bigger, perhaps twenty metres in length, although estimates of a weight in the region of 150 Tonnes in our view are a little excessive.

The Nanmu Studio Jurassic Series Mosasaurus Figure

Nanmu Studio Mosasaurus “Lord of the Abyss”.  A replica of the marine reptile from the movie franchise.

The picture (above) shows a Nanmu Studio Mosasaurus model.

To view the Nanmu Studio Jurassic Series range: Nanmu Studio Jurassic Series Models and Replicas.

A New Dinosaur Villain

Insiders claim that there will be a new type of dinosaur villain in this film, one that has not appeared in the previous three movies.  This dinosaur breaks out of its cage and rampages across the park, killing and eating a number of people that get in its way.  We at Everything Dinosaur have speculated what this new dinosaur might be – an abelisaurid such as a Carnotaurus or a member of the carcharodontosaurids (Great White Shark Lizards – back we go to “Jaws” again); a predatory dinosaur such as Carcharodontosaurus or perhaps a Giganotosaurus.

We shall have to wait and see.  Roll on 2015.