Camp Cretaceous – Season 4 [REVIEW]

As a Jurassic Park franchise fan, I have been very reluctant to watch Camp Cretaceous as I felt the target demographic was aimed for a younger audience that is, in my opinion, unfitting for a Jurassic Park series. Let’s admit it, we never went into these films for the kids, we went in for the dinosaurs and the deep philosophical manufactured nature mumbo jumbo. Eventually, upon season 3’s release, I finally decided to give it a try. After binging the first 3 seasons I was impressed, well for a 9–12-year-old demographic show that is. 

Much like Avatar the Last Airbender or The Dragon Prince my key interest in this series was its worldbuilding. I wanted to see what this could explore in the Jurassic Park franchise. I liked that they expanded on Isla Nublar facilities and that there were other experiments 

The characters are also very solid. Even though their kids (well 13-16) have defined personalities and flaws. Many are kids from wealthy backgrounds or won in a competition. Despite that most of the kid characters are also well developed like Darius, a dino enthusiast who won his chance to go in competition and part because of his late father. Or Kenji who’s a spoiled teen who has an inattentive father who left him with the campers. 

Series Recap

In many ways, this series is Jurassic Park’s counterpart to the Star Wars: Clone Wars TV series. This is a canon animated expansion of Jurassic world which means elements introduced in this series could have bigger implications in the films. Camp Cretaceous follows a group of early teens and their once-in-a-lifetime camp known as Camp Cretaceous. Unfortunately, they happened to arrive right at the time of the escape of the Indominous Rex. With our campers trapped they spend the next six months building their camp waiting and hoping on the possibilities of being rescued. While waiting they discover a massive corporate conspiracy with a rival company, and a secret hybrid that has been unleashed on the island.

After 3 seasons (or 6 months) of our main characters constantly hiding and running from dinosaurs including a new hybrid named the Scorpius Rex. After being on the run, they are finally off Isla Nublar. However, thanks to an unfortunate encounter with the escaped Mosasaur they were thrown off course and landed on another Island. Despite my hopes, this was not Site B from The Lost World, this was another Island owned by Ingen’s Rival company Manta-corp. An Island unlike any seen in the previous series as it features a wide range of ecosystems from deserts to tundra-like environments. It is managed by BRAD drones which are 4 legged robots that manage the island’s ecosystems. In this new location, they encounter prehistoric dinosaurs both new and familiar to the franchise.

Clashing Tone

So, this show does have a problem from an adult’s perspective. Some characters get eaten of course but they often like Clone Wars the deaths are more implied rather than shown. It’s the idea of how brutal the deaths are and not the actual depiction itself that’s how they get around when a character gets eaten. This may deter many movie fans at first, however, it isn’t to say that it doesn’t have scary moments either.

That Scorpius Rex sequence looked like something from another movie.

Season 4’s Tone

So compared to the previous seasons this had a surprisingly Bleak tone. The little Compy dinosaur that followed them on the boat almost like a mascot was electrocuted to death by the BARC robot. Later there is a forced fight between an injured Trex and a Kentrosaurus that is surprisingly brutal; it drags for an entire episode. I understand that these movies want you to both fear and supervise with the dinosaurs but dragging it out for emotional manipulation is somewhat gratuitous.

Wasted New Characters

This bleaker tone I would be fine with if not for the execution of its characters, especially the new ones. We have a new scientist character named Mae who’s a dinosaur neurologist assigned to monitor dinosaur behavior. She seems like a cool character and for once a human character who wasn’t a villain. Unfortunately, after being mauled by a raptor, she’s effectively out of the picture in the second half of the season which is a big disappointment.

The other human character is the technician named Kash (funny enough voiced by Hailey Joel Osmond) and he’s an unlikeable antagonistic geek all he does in this movie is yell about how smart he is and tortures dinosaurs for no identifiable reason. Kash is just a dull, uninteresting, stalk-bad guy you see on other kids’ shows.

The main Characters themselves like Darius and Kenji hadn’t received too much development this season, but one part I loved Yaz’s PTSD which is not something I can see happening in this. However, 6 months of being chased by these creatures constantly have got to take a toll on their young minds. Indeed, in the films, Dr. Grant, Malcolm, and Sadler had some form of anxiety after their experiences in the first film. So to see this explored on a child was a surprise to see.

Dinosaurs

This island has a select group of dinosaurs from a variety of sources, some of them captured from Isla Sorna. In this Season we get both very familiar and very new creatures in the franchise. The most surprising inclusion in this season is for the first time in this franchise we have an Ice age mammal, in this case, a Sabertooth cat. This was a particular surprise to me as the JP series tended to avoid the inclusion of Ice age creatures. However, since the first season did feature Siberian Mammoth remains in Dr. Wu’s lab hinting there was a possibility both Ingen and Manta Corp were working on ice age animals as well.

Another major appearance is the return of the Spinosaurus from the Third Jurassic Park film. I appreciate the detail that’s its red colors have dulled as a sign of age. Curiously, according to Kash, the Spino hates Humans now, meaning he must have never forgiven Dr. Grant’s company that nearly burned it. Unfortunately, they never do anything significant with him this season aside from just another dinosaur to run from. We don’t even hear its original terrifying roar from the movie.

This is also the 1^st time since the original movie we have a canon appearance of the Dilophosaurus, unfortunately, they’re only for a few minutes before the cliffhanger ending.

There is also a pair of new hybrid dinosaurs called Spinoceratops combining the DNA from the Spino and the Sinoceratops DNA that one of the kids Sammy Gutierrez was forced to collect for Manta-Corp as a spy back in the first season, creating an unexpected and personal connection between Sammy and these baby dinosaurs.

Bots and Places

I appreciate this series for trying to further Expand the Jurassic Park universe, but this may be a little too far into the science fiction zone. The main menace this time are not dinosaurs this time but robots, yep your heard that right robotic drones called BRADs That shoot electric prongs and the later modules freaking lasers.

Now, this is something I’m conflicted about as the Jurassic Park universe has always had technology that’s just a decade ahead of our time. Considering how far we have come with AI and the way some of these robots are designed are plausible in our universe. That said, killer robots are not something we look for in a Jurassic park series, much less Dino-looking bots that are indestructible and firing lasers. I give this season credit for going into new territory, however, this may be too much of a stretch for this particular universe.

The same question could be said about the island itself that’s never been fully named in the show. It’s been split into several different biome environments, separated by cloaked airlocks. There are forests, desserts, and tundra in a relatively small nitch. Exactly how this is done is not 100% explained. Are these environments inside an invisible biodome? Is there a terraforming thing going on? I would very much like to know how this island works. Stuff like that needs to be explained well especially if it takes place in our relative timeline.

The Cliffhanger

Ending the season ends with our gang being cornered by robots and they come face to face with Manta Corp’s secret CEO who turns out to be Keji’s father. Certainly, there is going to be some family drama saved for season 5. Overall while I still enjoyed this season and certainly expanded the Jurassic lore I can’t say it’s as good as season 3. Still, given that they have now encountered Kenji’s father it is likely that the end of this series is just around the corner before our characters finally return to the mainland, so I eagerly await season 5 and its conclusion.