Dinosaur Revolution: Difference between revisions
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'''''Dinosaur Revolution''''' is the [[Discovery Channel]]'s major [[
Calling it a "documentary" may however be deceptive. [[Genre Busting|It combines elements of various genres]]: traditional wildlife documentaries, [[Body Language|silent movie-style "acting"]] and comic cartoon [[Slapstick]], and presents them in the form of [[Vignette Episode|vignettes]] or longer, cohesive stories, focusing on the characterization and the relationships between the animals. As always, whether this makes the show more entertaining or just plain dumb is up to the viewer to decide. However this isn't [[Dinosaur Planet|the first time]] that Discovery uses this borderline-[[Edutainment Show]] format for its dino-shows.
There has been a lot of buzz surrounding the production, due to the bold claims of its creators, which can be read [https://web.archive.org/web/20110906161725/http://press.discovery.com/us/dsc/programs/reign-dinosaurs/ here]. Basically, what the show set out to avoid was [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|making paleontologists cry]], and to show off some [[Visual Effects of Awesome|breath-taking]] [[
A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op31dcC5FIM feature film version], re-cut to a format truer to the production's original intent, titled ''Dinotasia'', was released in UK theaters on May 4th, 2012. It received a brand new narration by [[
''Dinosaur Revolution'' was [[Working Title|formerly titled]] ''Reign of the Dinosaurs''.
{{tropelist}}
* [[All Animals Are Dogs]]: Some people have observed that the ''Allosaurus'' cub acts suspiciously like a playful pup.
* [[All There in
* [[Always a Bigger Fish]]: Non-predatory example. After eating a young ''Majungasaurus'', one of the ''Beelzebufo'' is stepped on by a ''Rapetosaurus'' passing through.
** The ''Castorocauda'' is spotted by the ''Guanlong'' while chasing... [[Fridge Logic|a fish]].
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** {{spoiler|The herd of ''Cedarosaurus'' in the ''Utahraptor'' story.}}
** The old bull ''Protoceratops'' in the ''Protoceratops'' story, and later an entire herd of ''Protoceratops'' do the same.
* [[Big Guy, Little Guy]]: The ''Allosaurus'' and ''Rhamphorhynchus''. The ''Rhamphorhynchus'' also switches over to a ''Torvosaurus'' in a brief stint.
** The ''Rapetosaurus'' and ''Rahonavis'', though in this case the ''Rahonavis'' sticks with whichever ''Rapetosaurus'' that passes by instead of any particular individual.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|The ''Protoceratops'' story ends with the young ''Protoceratops'' finding a new family, but the old ''Protoceratops'' who protected it chooses to abandon them and die alone.}}
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* [[Book Ends]]: The first episode starts with an extinction, and the last episode {{spoiler|ends with an extinction.}}
* [[Bullet Time]]: The ''Cryolophosaurus'' fight had a lot of this.
* [[Butt Monkey]]: The poor ''Torvosaurus'' turns into this, since every animal around the water hole is out to get him, even the much smaller ''Allosaurus''. He does have a brief [[
** The ''Ornitholestes'' (both one particular individual as well as the species as a whole).
* [[Camp Straight]] / [[Camp Gay|Gay]]: Matt Lamanna seems to be trying to invoke this as much as possible with his voice '''alone'''.
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* [[Edible Bludgeon]]: The still moving tail of a ''Dinheirosaurus'' slaps the ''Allosaurus'' eating it in the face. A mild subversion, since the food is acting ''by itself''.
* [[Enemy Mine]]: {{spoiler|The broken-jawed ''Allosaurus'' and enraged adult ''Dinheirosaurus'' combine forces to defeat the ''Torvosaurus''.}} [[Friendly Enemy|They don't fight each other ever again.]]
* [[
* [[
* [[
* [[Exit, Pursued
* [[Eye Scream]]: Happens a few times in the ''Utahraptor'' segment.
* [[Facial Markings]]: The male ''Tyrannosaurus'' appear to have a striking white skull-pattern on their head, in contrast to their otherwise fully black body.
* [[Feathered Fiend]]: The feathered dinosaurs ''Gigantoraptor'', ''Rahonavis'', ''Tyrannosaurus'', and ''Troodon'' are protagonists in their respective stories, but ''Velociraptor'' and arguably ''Guanlong'' and ''Utahraptor'' are antagonistic and play this straight (and there's also an antagonistic ''Tyrannosaurus'', although it's never shown in its fuzzy juvenile stage). [[Shown Their Work|Properly]] feathered carnivorous dinosaurs on TV, finally! At least, as properly as their budget allowed them to, feathers and fur being tough to animate.
** What more, this is [[March of the Dinosaurs
** The one coelurosaur that lacks feathers (due to time constraints) is ''Ornitholestes'', though it also happens to be one of the more [[Hand Wave]]-able instances because of its uncertain phylogenetic position. For most part it serves as something of a [[Plucky Comic Relief]].
* [[Foot Focus]]: Happens frequently with the deinonychosaurs.
* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: The K-Pg extinction in the last episode.
* [[Frogs and Toads]]: ''Beelzebufo'', a frog that ate small dinosaurs.
* [[Giant Flyer]]: ''[[Seldom
* [[Giant Swimmer]]: ''Tylosaurus'', but the sharks and various aquatic pseudosuchians are also fairly large.
* [[Gorn]]: Difficult to avoid when making a flashy dinosaur show.
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** Subverted by the antagonistic ''Cryolophosaurus'', which gets a [[The Bad Guy Wins]] treatment at first{{spoiler|, but then shows up in the ''Glacialisaurus'' story where it encounters a swarm of mosquitoes...}}
* [[Kick Them While They Are Down]]: Averted in several cases, such as at the end of the ''T. rex'' duel, when the victor lets the loser go.
* [[Knuckle
* [[Lethal Lava Land]]: Much of Earth's surface turns into this when the Permaian extinction occurs.
* [[Mama Bear]]: The mosasaur, ''Tyrannosaurus'', and ''Eoraptor''. {{spoiler|Subverted by the ''Cryolophosaurus'', which just stands there and allows her eggs to be destroyed.}} The ''Dinheirosaurus'', ''Cedarosaurus'', and ''Miragaia'' are probably either this or [[Papa Wolf]], as their genders are never specified.
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* [[Mighty Roar]]: By courtesy of none other than the king of roars<ref>At least in media, we have no way of knowing if the real animal did this</ref>, ''Tyrannosaurus rex''.
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]: ''Ornitholestes'' in Portugal.
** Azhdarchid pterosaurs flying over the ocean.
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: One moment we see the young ''Tyrannosaurus'' playing, the next {{spoiler|they are killed by an adult ''Tyrannosaurus''}}.
** Also later in the same episode, much hilarity is happening around the old ''Ankylosaurus''. We first see the ''Troodon'' chasing a juvenile pachycephalosaur, which tries to seek shelter underneath the ''Ankylosaurus'', while the ''Ankylosaurus'' is seemingly oblivious to all this, even accidentally sitting on the male ''Troodon''. Later, the young ''T. rex'' playfully tries to attack the ''Ankylosaurus'', only to get knocked to the ground. Funny stuff. Then it chases the pair of ''Troodon'' into a cave. How cute. {{spoiler|Oh, shock, the meteorite hits and almost everyone outside is killed! The ''rex'' finds the twisted corpses of its parents. How tragic. But wait, the solemn moment can't last, there is a mammal to catch. And the clumsy juvenile trips and falls. How funny. And there the ''rex'' lies on the bottom of the cliff, with a broken skull, in a puddle of blood. How... what now?}}
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* [[Mushroom Samba]]: What befalls the ''Shunosaurus'' who tries some tasty-looking mushrooms.
* [[Never Smile At a Crocodile]]: Several crocodile relatives show up, including ''Saurosuchus'', a generic aquatic Cretaceous crocodyliform, some generic aquatic Jurassic crocodyliforms, and a generic notosuchian. Just about all of them are antagonistic.
* [[No
* [[No Peripheral Vision]]: The ''Saurosuchus''.
* [[Noisy Nature]]: Delightfully averted. The predators tend to stalk and ambush their prey quietly. When the ''Torvosaurus'' and inexperienced young ''Majungasaurus'' fail to do this, {{spoiler|they get killed.}}
** Played pretty straight sometimes though. The baby Mosasaurs chirp like baby birds while getting attacked by the sharks. Even when they go to the bottom to hide they don't shut up.
* [[The Obi
* [[Off
* [[Oh Crap]]: The ''Ornitholestes'' when it realizes that it has landed on the ''Allosaurus''. Later, both the ''Ornitholestes'' and ''Rhamphorhynchus'' when the ''Torvosaurus'' shows up at the watering hole.
* [[One
* [[Papa Wolf]]: The male ''Eoraptor'' and ''Tyrannosaurus''. The male ''Cryolophosaurus'' tries, but his opponent is just too strong.
* [[Elephant Graveyard|Protoceratops Graveyard]]
* [[Ptero
** Also note that ''Rhamphorhynchus'' is thought to have had behaved like modern nocturnal sea birds (avoiding thus competition from diurnal pterosaurs that also hunted fish in the same regions), thus seeing one far from the open sea and on daylight would not be very common.
** We do get to see the ''Quetzalcoatlus'' (or at least a similar azhdarchid; none of the azhdarchids shown are reffered to as any particular genus) up close in the third episode (in a blink and you miss scene in the ''Protoceratops'' segment); they are largely quite accurate, if maybe displaced in time and space (if they're not just generic azhdarchids).
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* [[Recurring Extra]]: Cockroaches show up ''everywhere''.
* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: The ''Rahonavis'', at least in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OFunlQdDfk&feature=related original storyboard art]. The baby ''Zalambadalestes'', baby ''Eoraptor'', baby ''Protoceratops'', and juvenile pachycephalosaur also qualify.
* [[Road Runner vs. Coyote]]: The ''Ornitholestes'' trying to catch the ''Rhamphorhynchus''. Done as a [[Shout
* [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]]: {{spoiler|The last episode, naturally.}}
* [[Roger Rabbit Effect]]: In a few shots (particularly those after the end credits), some of the CGI animals show up at the lab that the talking heads are shown in.
* [[Rule of Cool]]: Some features of certain animals, like the crest of ''Cryolophosaurus'' or the tail club of ''Shunosaurus'', had to be enhanced at the expense of scientific accuracy, just so that the audience would find them more interesting.
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** The ''Castorocauda'' uses a skunk-like musk to defend itself.
** The ability of the ''Rahonavis'' to mimic sounds.
* [[Rule of Funny]]: As awkward as such moment are in a documentary, this show does have a sense of humor, as animation allows for much better timing than filming real animals would.
* [[Science Marches On]]: The discovery that mosasaurs likely had tail flukes was published just as the mosasaur models were finished up.
** ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20191102145450/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/04/04/yutyrannus-a-giant-tyrannosaur-with-feathers/ Yutyrannus]'' shows that large tyrannosauroids were feathered as well as smaller ones.
* [[Sea Monster]]: ''Tylosaurus'' and ''[[
* [[Seldom
** Even among [[Stock Dinosaurs|Stock Dinosaur]] genera, the show tends to use [[Seldom
* [[Sexy Discretion Shot]]: Not quite. We see a pair of ''Tyrannosaurus'' getting it on, and only after a few seconds does the camera cut to another scene.
* [[Shout
** A segment fittingly titled "Pterosaur [[Looney Tunes]]" puts a tragic spin on the character of Beaky Buzzard's momma from the cartoon shorts, in the form of a strange ''Anhanguera'' mother who's [[Too Dumb to Live|too dumb to let her hatchlings live]].
*** Similarly, the character designs and relationships between the ''Rhamphorhynchus'', ''Ornitholestes'', and ''Allosaurus'' are [http://vonshollywood.blogspot.com/2011/08/cartoony-naaahhhhhhh.html based on] Tweety, Sylvester, and the bulldog.
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*** The mosquito in the amber that appears just before the ''Glacialisaurus'' scene is also an obvious homage to ''Jurassic Park''.
** The sequence where everyone beats up on the ''Torvosaurus'' was inspired by the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM Battle at Kruger] wildlife video.
*** Episode 3's opening battle also has elements of the Battle at Kruger, and actually has more in common with it rather than the Torvosaurus beat-up scene.
** The end of the second episode has a ''[[
** The cold opening of the third episode is similar to a scene in ''[[Raptor Red]]''.
** Several elements of the show were inspired by a French film about grizzly bears called ''The Bear'', which (as was originally planned for ''Dinosaur Revolution'') told a story about wildlife without using narration.
** The way one of the ''Cedarosaurus'' kicks away the ''Utahraptor'' is similar to to a scene portrayed in the accompanying artwork for the description of the sauropod ''[http://svpow.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/please-welcome-brontomerus-mcintoshi-2/ Brontomerus]''.
** A clip of the show on Discovery's website is called ''[[
* [[Shown Their Work]]: The theropod hands aren't pronated, most of the coelurosaurs are well feathered, and [[Noisy Nature]] is averted.
** Their ''Triceratops'' skin is even based on their personal examination of the skin shown on an unpublished ''Triceratops'' specimen.
** The ''Troodon'' are shown to be omnivores, and the males are responsible for brooding the nest.
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** The juvenile pachycephalosaur in the last episode is not intended to be any particular species, in order to avoid the whole Hell Creek pachycephalosaur ontogenetic debate (and because the model was [[What Could Have Been|going to be]] used for ''Prenocephale'').
* [[Slapstick]]: There is a considerable amount. Yes, it's a "documentary" with tons of animal slapstick from grotesque to cutesy, deal with it.
* [[Small Annoying Creature]]: One scene features a small dinosaur who just won't shut up in the middle of the night, and annoys the hell out of a nearby dinosaur family who are just trying to sleep. [[Off
* [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying]]: The people behind the show went out of their way to avert this, and mostly it works very well. However, a few errors still slip through.
** Due to time constraints, the ''Ornitholestes'' is the one coelurosaur on the show that lacks feathers.
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* [[Stock Dinosaurs]]: Not as many as one might expect. They include ''T. rex'', ''Triceratops'', ''Allosaurus'', ''Ankylosaurus'', ''Velociraptor'' and ''Protoceratops''. Non-dinosaurian stock creatures include ''Quetzalcoatlus'', ''Rhamphorhynchus'' and mosasaurs.
** However, it's worthy to note that even among many stock genera, the show tends to use the less often-portrayed species of those genera (such as ''Allosaurus europaeus'', ''Velociraptor osmolskae'', and ''Protoceratops hellenikorhinus'' instead of the stock ''Allosaurus fragilis'', ''Velociraptor mongoliensis'', and ''Protoceratops andrewsi'').
* [[Super
* [[Tail Slap]]: The ''Dinheirosaurus''.
* [[Talking Heads]]: In spite of original plans not to have these in the show itself.
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* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: The pair of ''Guanlong''. They ''never stop bickering''.
* [[Voice Changeling]]: The ''Rahonavis'' amuses itself with its ability to copy the noises around it almost perfectly.
* [[What Happened to
* [[Whip It Good]]: ''Dineheirosaurus'' tail, of which a poor ''Allosaurus'' cub [[A Taste of the Lash|get a taste of]]. He does so again as an adult, [[Incredibly Lame Pun|but this time literally.]]
* [[The Worf Effect]]: To the ''Torvosaurus'' in the "Battle at Kruger" homage scene.
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