The horses have been hitched to the publicity wagon and it's about to hit the road. Discovery Channel announced yesterday that to promote their 2011 Reign of the Dinosaurs series, they'll be hosting a panel at the impending San Diego Comic Con. It will include a bunch of artists who worked on it, including paleoart veterans and artists from Pixar and Disney. Richard Delgado, Iain and Mishi McCaig, David Krentz, and Pete Von Sholly will all be there, and I wish I could be, too.
Reign is being touted as the most scientifically accurate, up-to-date depiction of dinosaurs yet. Like Matt Martyniuk said at DinoGoss, it's about time for a big dinosaur series to come out again. I watched the Australia episode of Walking With Dinosaurs recently, and that tail on Leaellynasaura seemed a bit short... and it would have been cool to see some dinofuzz on them.
The press release quoted at /Film says that the series will combine "the latest paleontological research with Hollywood storytelling," which probably means Raptor Red-style stories rooted in single environments for each episode. Or, if we're lucky, a Babe-style romp with a couple of rascally baby dromaeosaurs.
I see from the artwork that we will have the traditional "T-Rex and Triceratops square off!" scene included.
ReplyDeleteI'm so spoiled by these shows. I remember back in the day when I would have to watch drek such as "Land of the Lost" (the original, not the Will Farrell remake), just to see a T-Rex come to life.
With all the mummified fossil impressions surfacing recently, there is a real opportunity to ramp up the realism as far as the reconstructions go. Unfortunately, realism doesn't always go hand-in-hand with the "terrifying monsters" theme that sells these shows. As my friend Utahraptor demonstrates, it is tough to look bad-ass when you are wearing feathers: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=996
Tell that to a cassowary.
ReplyDeleteWhile I really respect the artists involved that allosaur is already looking like 'Hollywood scary monster' rather than 'reconstruction'....
ReplyDeleteMeh, I'll look forward to it anyway.
Yeah, it's hard to tell if that allo is supposed to have sickly yellow eyes, or that's just because of the light hitting it. I remain cautiously optimistic. Well, not cautious. There's no way it won't contain some cool stuff. Heck, we even got Giganotosaurus vs Therizinosaurus from "Chased by Dinosaurs."
ReplyDeleteStill hopeful for a Mesozoic Milo and Otis.
Wasn't that Tarbosaurus vs Therizinosaurus?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I await the release of this series with baited breath!
Hold on, I didn't realize this was the Pixar production.
ReplyDeleteIt's bound to be brilliant, unless Pixar breaks its track record.
Fins - Was it Tarbo? My memory is so awful at remembering these things! I'll have to fire up "Chased" on netfilx pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteMatt - Discovery and Disney are being pretty careful about the Pixar point - the production does employ Pixar talent, but is not a Pixar project.