When I was a kid, I used to look at construction trucks or those oil rigs along La Cienega and pretend they were dinosaurs and my parent’s car was the Jurassic Park Jeep. On especially long boring car rides this pastime was essential to make it to wherever we were going. Those kind of memories are definitely shared and kids totally still do that today because otherwise how else do you explain the awesome combo of that fantasy in Netflix’s orignal series and Dreamworks’ newest show Dinotrux!
Recently we got invited to spend a whole day exploring the world of the show over at Dreamworks studios. Here are some highlights about what we learned:
Building a new world to play
When producers Ron Burch and David Kidd told us about the inception of the idea, they shared that the first thing they did was play. Play with the figure of main Dinotrux Ty, a T-Rex and an excavator, and they talked about who would they wanna be if they were in school. The idea sprung from pretend games when you’re a kid when you roleplay and creating a Mech-Dino team that could function as superheroes stood out. Kids could be this team composed of Dinotrux and Reptools that build a community and cool structures.
Trucks and Tools and Dinos
Ty is the leader of the group we follow who sees his world is full of conflict and kinds that don’t mix. He’s isolated because he’s seen as the scary king but in reality he just wants to belong. Hist first ally is a cute little Reptool (lizard and rotary drill) and its a never before seen friendship in their world. While they try to help their little crater home get along to survive they find allies in Skya, a sassy and capable Craneosaur (brachiosaurus + construction crane), Ton-Ton, a daredevil Ankylodump (ankylosaurus + dump truck) and Dozer, a grumpy but kind-hearted Dozeratops (triceratops + bulldozer). Together they learn what it takes to help their community unite.
Virtues
While there are lessons in the show, they don’t beat you over the head with it. It’s a fun action show with comedy for kids and kids at heart alike. The production team wanted to come up with stories where their characters behave how we ourselves would want to behave. That the characters are victorious and most importantly always do the right thing. However they also live in a world where a terrritorial bad guy named D-Structs lives by the motto: I don’t share. So the show has real conflict in which the characters learn ways to live and work together.
Girls represented
It’s not just a boys TV show. One of the integral characters on the team is Skya. Aside from her skills she becomes the driving force behind Ty and Revitt’s big idea. There are also more girl characters on the show that we didn’t see introduced in our preview but even so girls in the audience and others who’ve seen the show like it despite what conventional ‘wisdom’ says. They responded to Revitt and interestingly enough Skya was latched onto by boys as well. It’s no longer boys can only like boy characters and vice versa.
We can’t wait to binge this show and find out more! You can check it out too when the Netflix original series DreamWorks’ DINOTRUX, premieres August 14.
