DinoSquad
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 They're in the DinoSquad! Not us.
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DinoSquad is an American animated series produced by DIC Entertainment and was one of the last shows to be produced by them before their merge in 2008. It aired on CBS' KEWLopolis block from November 3, 2007, to December 6, 2008.
Plot
The show was about five teenagers, each with the power to turn into a respective dinosaur. They use this power to fight the villainous Victor Veloci, who is intent on returning the world to the age of dinosaurs by turning humans and animals into new mutant dinosaurs and accelerating global warming.
Why It's Not in the DinoSquad
- The animation looks cheap and ugly, even by DIC's standards.
- Generic yet wasted concept of teenagers transforming into powered up dinosaurs, not to mention it is one of those "Go to School and Save the World" shows.
- Awful and cheesy theme song that keeps playing over and over, making it irritating to hear.
- It rips-off several other DIC cartoons, like Street Sharks and Mummies Alive!, even Extreme Dinosaurs, (which DIC produced as a co-production with BKN), alongside other cartoons such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Clichéd characters and personalities.
- Max (Rolf Maxwell) is the hunky, active leader.
- Fiona Flagstaff is the caring, extreme-sports-loving tomboy who thinks her friends are more important than her family.
- Roger Blair is the prankster geek.
- Caruso (Erwin Caruso) is the loner who only cares about his fame and appearance.
- Buzz (Neil Buzmati) is the mohawked coward who's "different" and obsessed with video games.
- Victor Veloci is one of those "I wanna revert the world because I'm a specific creature" kind of villains.
- Despite being an "educational show", the Dinosaurs featured in this series are ill-informed:
- Max's T-Rex form has three fingers and inwards facing hands. The real Tyrannosaurus Rex has only two fingers and kept its hands inwards. Its teeth are also exposed, when studies of its skull suggest they were covered by simple lip tissue to prevent them from trying out.
- Caruso's Stegosaurus form has five tail spikes, teeth in the front and no beak, which the real Stegosaurus didn't have. It had four spikes, a beak, and cheek teeth limited to the back of the mouth as their name suggests.
- Rodger's Styracosaurus form has three horns and skull shape which makes it look more like a Triceratops.
- Fiona's Spinosaurus form has a fin instead of a bony sail to it. Also, while this wasn't known until 2014, the Spinosaurus form is depicted as a long-legged runner, but Spinosaurus is a short-legged swimmer.
- All of the raptors properly known as dromaeosaurs, such as Veloci's and the show's mentor Ms. Moynihan, are large and scaly. Most raptors were relatively small and covered in complex, birdlike feathers.
- As for non-dinosaur related factual errors, one episode had a baby gorilla with a tail.
- For some reason, the series thinks anything mutated will be referred to as a dinosaur, including sharks and up to plants, which obviously aren't even animals.
- The show itself uses almost every single dinosaur-related trope or cliche you can think up; just to name a few:
- A T. Rex as the main lead.
- Villainous raptors.
- The voice acting is passable at best and poor at worst.
- The heroes in their Dinosaur forms have their voices deepened, which sounds rather silly to the ear.
- Like with fellow-DIC show Stargate Infinity, it shoehorns educational elements such as global warming, recycling, and life lessons very frequently in order to meet certain FCC E/I criteria, and so aren't even handled well at that.
- In fact, in the end credits of every episode, a PSA-like announcement is heard - "You don't have to be a DinoSquad hero to help save the earth. Be Cool! - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!" How does this show even connect to recycling?
- Despite featuring mutant Dinosaurs and action scenes, the series actually lacks any form of physical violence.
- The extremely cheesy nature of the series could have fitted more in the 1980s or 90s, not in 2007.
- The heroes' transformations and dinosaur forms for that matter are creepy and disturbing in the wrong way and might have given at least one kid during its day nightmares.
- Similarly, transformation sequences are played backwards to represent de-transformation, just to pad the runtime of each episode out without having to make new animation.
Qualities That Are in the DinoSquad
- The show's cheesy, trite nature and inconsistencies can lead to a "so bad, it's good" nature to some viewers.
- The background music isn't too bad, if generic.
- Victor Veloci has a genuine personality to him and menacing one at that.
- Some may find it nostalgic, though not many.
Reception
It has a score of 5.2/10 on IMDb.
Trivia
- The show was a bit of an outlier for KEWLopolis, as it was oriented more to boys while the block's other shows were intended for girls.
- Some of the voice actors from DIC's Strawberry Shortcake series voice roles in this series; including Sarah Heinke (Strawberry Shortcake) who voices Fiona's younger sister Terri, and Nils Haaland (Pupcake and most of the pets) who voices Buzz.
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