Dino-Riders

There is nothing more awesome than a bunch of armored dinosaurs blasting the snot out of each other with lasers. I can't believe it's been 20 years since this show first aired, and it still hasn't been revived for TV or the movies. I'm actually going to be going to animation school this fall, and one of my dreams is to one day create a new Dino-Riders cartoon series for TV. The franchise may not have had the widespread popularity or recognition of GI Joe or Transformers, but at its heart Dino-Riders is just as classic. If they were to make a new Dino-Riders show today, I think it would be far more popular than when it had originally aired, if they'd do it correctly. This franchise is a goldmine waiting to happen. All it needs is someone with the vision and someone with the means.

If there is one thing that young boys love it is Dinosaurs. Another thing they love is high tech weaponry. Dino Riders combined both Dinosaurs and high tech weaponry to create a very entertaining action packed show.

THe basic story of Dino Riders takes place on a planet Valoria. Valorians, telepathic humans, are forced to leave their planet due to an invasion of an evil race of beings called the Rulons. The valorians power crystal called the S.T.E.P (Space Time Energy Projector) rips a hole in the fabric of time and sends both the rulons and the valorians back to prehistoric earth. Using their telepathic devices the Valorians befriend the dinosaurs and become Dino Riders. The Rulons use their evil brain controlling devices called brain boxes to control the dinosaurs and force them to be their slaves. Soon both the Valorians and Rulons engage in battle against each other equipping their dinosaurs with immense weaponry. Thus begins the story of Dino Riders.

The Valorians are basic humans. Questar is their leader, a very brave and considering leader. Other notable Valorians are Turret (an inventor), Gunner (tested warrior), Serena (healer), and Youngstar(young guy with lots of confidence).

The Rulons have human bodies but the head of various animals. Rasp has the head of a cobra. Rasp is the typical cowardly assistant who wants to impress his leader to help his own good. Hammerhead has the head of a Hammerhead shark. Hammerhead is very over confident and downright arrogant but is no doubt skilled at hunting missions. Antor has the head of an Ant. Antor is the loyal one to Krulos. The Rulons leader is Krulos who has the head of a frog and has his head covered with a bubble that is filled with water. Krulos is quite the opposite of Questar and imposes fear upon his own troops and only cares for his own good. Krulos is my favorite character and is truly one of the best and most under rated villains ever in an animated series.

Voices used in this film are very similar to the cast of Transformers. Frank Welker provides the voice for Krulos, sounding similar to Soundwave and Megatron. David Gilvezan is the voice for Questar while Peter Cullen is Gunners voice. It is often believed that Chris Latta was Rasps voice but Latta is not in this series at all.

There is a great variety of Dinosaurs that are greatly animated and portrayed in this show. THis could quite possibly be animated dinosaurs at their best, in fact I think that it is. SOme of the dinosaurs include Diplodocus, Monoclonius, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Torosaurus, Kentrosaurus, and of course Tyrannosaurus.

This show is a lot of fun. It is must see t.v. and one of the best animated cartoon shows that I have ever seen. I recommend that if you are lucky enough to have a chance to watch this show to do it.

Classic--absolutely classic.

Dinosaurs dressed in full battle gear armed with lasers and missiles. It doesn't get any better than that. OK, so half the show's dinosaurs appeared in the Jurassic period and the other half in the Cretaceous period (and there's the Dimetrodon, which appeared in the Permian period, quite a few million years before the Triassic), the whole thing was a marketing ploy to sell the toys, and the lasers never did anything but annoy the dinosaurs and never hit any of the Valorians or Rulons...ever, but who cares? They're dinosaurs with guns that blow stuff up! It's unfortunate that nobody really remembers it anymore. Everybody's heard of it, and swears they've watched it, and everybody probably has half of all the toys ever produced, but nobody really remembers what the show's about anymore. After all, it ran for only one season, and according to TV Tome, 14 episodes, though I could swear there were at least two or three more.

The short of it is that there were these people being chased by these other people, and both got sent back in time into the era of the dinosaurs. While the good guys wanted to stay and rebuild their civilization, the bad guys wanted to go back to their original time--except that going back required a crystal the good guys had. So, they fight. Here's where things get interesting. Instead of duking it out by themselves, both sides notice the abundance of dinosaurs that are around them, and use them to fight instead. Bristling with weapons, the good- and bad-guy dinosaurs clash upon the battlefield.

All right, my little synopsis doesn't actually do the show any justice. It's a lot less boring to watch. And, in addition to the explosions and fighting, like all good 80's cartoons, there's always a lesson to learn at the end. What it is isn't explicitly stated, and the lesson ranges from obvious to downright philosophical.

The character designs, including the dinosaurs' armaments, are absolutely amazing. Forget that everyone's either obviously the good guy or obviously the bad guy and concentrate on the dinosaurs themselves. The triceratops have a pair of double-cannons mounted on their side that rotates to point up or forward and doubles as armor. The torosaurus are enclosed in a shell that opens up like a peacock to reveal a pair of cannons tucked away inside. Then, there are the flying reptiles, with their weapons mounted on the wings, the dimetrodons whose fin is used to hide an operator who sits in a chair that pops up above the fin to surprise the enemy, and the ankylosaurs, with only a giant crossbow mounted on its back, as its armor gives sufficient protection against laser fire.

Going back to the designs of the real characters, the bad guys (Rulons) are all animals that have a humanoid upright body. Krulos is a frog, Rasp a snake, Hammerhead a fish, and Antor a bug. The good guys are human, all beautiful people, all sporting their own special powers or abilities. Serena is a healer. Mindzye is a telepath. Gunnar's the artillery specialist. Turret does the weapon designs. Lhad is the boy. Pretty much standard fare for the 80's. Even the voices are all big names, especially in the 80's. Lots of GI Joe and Transformers voice actors also did the voices for majors characters in Dino Riders. Some of them are easily recognizable, like Chris Latta who's Rasp, Starscream, and Cobra Commander.

The artwork in the three VHS episodes are absolutely amazing. Lush, vibrant colors, amazing detail everywhere, and there's even one shot that looks like it could have been an oil painting. It isn't so good for the other episodes, where the colors seem faded and everything seems cruder, but there aren't any glaring problems either. Besides, it's the other episodes that introduce all the cool characters (like the commandoes) and dinosaurs.

Regardless, even if the artwork was a bunch of doodling and the voice acting was done by college graduates from another country, the premise remains absolutely amazing. Forget tanks and planes that explode without adequate protection and have to be refueled every so often. Just pop the weapons on a dinosaur and achieve the same functionality without any of the hassle.

I wish I could tell every curious person to watch it for themselves, but except for the occasional ebay item, there isn't a trace of Dino Riders left anywhere. While it's been a long time since they last came out, there are still GI Joe toys, still Transformers, and Masters of the Universe is being revived. Yet, there hasn't even been a legitimate DVD of the shows out. Needless to say, because the show and everything connected to it has been wiped out of existence, there's probably no purpose to writing this review except to glorify what was and what could have become something better than all the other shows of its time.

All in all, its sudden disappearance was never really explained well. Almost overnight, everything disappeared. Toys, tapes, the TV show, lunch boxes--everything. It'd be easy to say that people lost interest and ratings fell, so Tyco cancelled the toys and NBC the show, but I think that unlikely when there isn't a single person I know of from that era who does not at least know the name, if not have several of the toys. The only thing I can think of that would even begin to explain its sudden demise is certain religious influences. But I won't even begin to go there.

Hey everybody remember Dino-Riders. No well that's too bad because i know everyone has heard of it. i might have been a little guy when i saw it but i could tell it was destined to become a classic. So what happened? Where is the legacy now. I think Dino-Riders is in need of an update or remake. and i don't usually approve of remakes. but this generation of minds needs Dino-Riders it could be bigger then Pokemon.

Yes, Dino-Riders was, in the end, basically a half hour toy commercial dedicated to selling overpriced plastic dinosaurs to young children. As a cartoon, it was inseparable from its toy line. That said, it did the selling very well.

As a six year old child obsessed with dinosaurs, this series was a dream come true. It combined sci-fi action with dinosaurs-everything a boy wants! When you're that young, you don't recognize commercialism, no matter how crass.

Looking back, the show is obviously silly. One of the smaller plot holes is the fact that the alien Valorians look just like humans. Still, it's a fun piece of nostalgia.