Last week I watched “Denver, the Last Dinosaur” because I wanted to see something fun with dinosaurs in it, and partly because I couldn’t find the “Problem Child” animated series online anywhere. Except for a single segment of cool dino history, running about a minute long, “Denver” was sort of a disappointment.
Keeping in the theme of dinosaurs, forever searching for some really cool dino content, this week I watched…
“THE ADVENTURES OF T-REX” Episode 1.1 – Hijack (6 out of 10) – Created by Lee Gunther and Michael Wahl; Starring Michael Dobson, Kathleen Barr, Michael Beattie; Originally aired 1992.
I had never heard of this cartoon before this morning and didn’t look into it at all other than to type it into the YouTube search bar and find the first episode. Based on the title alone I thought this was going to be a show about a single T-Rex and his super awesome adventures. I was wrong.
First things first, this show has one of the most overbearing title sequences I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if you guys know this about me. But I’ve watched a considerable number of cartoons and seen a lot of intro sequences. I don’t know why this one just bowled me over. The way the title of the show keeps popping in to remind you what you’re watching.
This show is seemingly about a world inhabited by anthropomorphic dinosaurs, five of which are brothers who are in a musical group at a club. The club owner pull one of the brothers aside to tell him that some of their shipments have been getting hijacked and the club may have to shut down because they’ve run out of drinks and food. She mentions getting in touch with the elusive “T-Rex” from the title.
In the next seen we see a truck on its way to deliver to Dragon Company, the name of the club the five brothers work at when all of a sudden they are held up by a group of nefarious looking reptiles. Wait a minute their guns seem to only freeze other people. When you’re a reptile that’s either a death sentence or the key to eternal life.
All of a sudden, holy shit, those brothers aren’t just a musical act my grandma would probably enjoy, they’re crime fighting superheroes saving Rep City from the evil Big Boss Graves who, by the way, has a head that’s way too big for his body and he totally looks like a Gremlin.
Perhaps Denver just set the bar really low but I actually really liked “The Adventures of T-Rex” maybe it was just because I was caught off guard. Who knows? It’s something we’ve seen before, it feels a bit like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” but different enough that it doesn’t feel like it was… hijacked.
And that ladies and gentlemen is how you bring something full circle.
Cheers.
PART ONE
PART TWO