Jurassic World Just Got Bigger with Camp Cretaceous

When Steven Spielberg‘s massive blockbuster, Jurassic Park, hit the big screen in 1993, it was an immediate success. Based off Michael Crichton‘s book about a theme park filled with genetically created dinosaurs, we now have a multi-billion dollar franchise with 5 live-action films and counting.

Enter, Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, the newest collaboration between Netflix and Dreamworks. Released today, this CGI animated series follows a group of teens sent to a summer camp on Isla Nublar during the events of the first Jurassic World movie that was released in 2015.

The new series gives a new look on the events that unfolded during the movie as we take a look at what happens on the other side of the island.

The characters are a diverse group of personalities fitting the classic movie high school teen types – the popular girl, the athlete, the rich kid, the nerd, and the down to earth type. However, the series mainly follows Darius Bowman, who has a life long dream to visit the island. Through a video game sweepstakes, Darius’ dream comes true by winning a spot at the camp and represents the one kid who actually seems to genuinely care about dinosaurs. From here we learn more about his tragic past and how his hope and innocent wonder drives this story forward.

In classic Jurassic Park style, of course, the ineptitude of the people running the park causes all havoc to run loose. This time though, because the series intertwines with Jurassic World’s storyline – it’s an easter egg filled adventure that shows you what’s happening on the other part of the island when a new experimental dinosaur escapes and runs amok in the park.

Easter Eggs
The new series is filled with references to the original film. From a character cameo of Dr. Henry Wu (who was played by BD Wong in the original film), John Williams‘ original score, and various mentions of the original Jurassic Park cast like John Hammond the new series gives some serious nods for the true Jurassic Park fans out there.

But the strongest and most obvious ties is the interweaving of Jurassic World events, such as the finding the broken Gyrosphere that the main characters of the film rode, watching Simon Masrani’s helicopter attack from another vantage point, circling back to the Mosasaurus pit, and so much more. There’s even a funny reference to Jimmy Fallon‘s tutorial that was featured as a pre-ride video in the Jurassic World film.

Superficially the series looks to be geared towards kids, but there’s a ton here for older fans. With Steven Spielberg and Colin Trevorrow as executive producers, the series is action packed and exciting and shows a lot more suspense than traditional animated series. In between there are also enough “Breakfast Club” moments to break up the storyline and appreciate the characters.

Camp Cretaceous Toys
And of course with a new Jurassic World show, there’s always the cool merch that comes with it. For this series Mattel teamed up with Target with a few new exclusive toys and merchandise.

Jurassic World Camp Adventure Set

The Jurassic World Camp Adventure Set comes complete with Bumpy the baby Ankylosaurus (which will be a very popular character), a Baryonyx, and a Stegosaurus. Exclusively at Target: Buy it here

Jurassic World Minis
For smaller playable figures with good variety, the Jurassic World 15px Minis features all the popular characters from the franchise including Camp Cretaceous. From Blue the velociraptor to Bumpy from the new series, this is a great complete set to encompass the franchise. Exclusively at Target: Buy it here

Jurassic World Epic Roarin’ Tyrannosaurus Rex

And of course how can we forget the king of the dinosaurs: The T-Rex.

This 22-inch long Tyrannosaurus Rex has a cool roaring feature where you can ‘puppet’ the figure through its tail and have control it’s mouth along with a cool roaring sound effect and shaking mechanic. It really is amazing how much you can do with this figure.
Buy it here

To celebrate today’s release of the all new series, the good folks at Dreamworks and Netflix also sent this amazing release package.

This cute camp kit came with a S’Mores kit, a handy backpack, and these adorable Jurassic World toys called Snap Squads.

These little guys are a bit hard to find but are available at most retailers.

Overall, there’s a lot of excitement for the new series that’s exclusively available today on Netflix. Whether you’re a hardcore Jurassic Park fan, a kid at heart, a dinosaur geek, this show is a can’t miss.

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