The CW4Kids Talkback: Dinosaur King [October 2009] (Spoilers)

D Dubbs · #1 10-03-2009, 10:10 AM

Season Premiere Today @ 8:30 AM

Meet the D-Team:

Max is a 12 year-old dinosaur fan and the leader of the D-Team, a group of friends devoted to learning all there is about dinosaurs. He is the son of Dr. Spike Taylor, a Paleontologist. May is a typical 12 year-old boy with lots of energy and curiousity which can sometimes get him into trouble. Max's dinosaur partner is "Chomp" the Triceratops.

Rex is 12 years-old, a member of the D-Team and Max's best friend. His dad is a Paleontologist and a friend of Dr. Taylor's. Rex is living with Max while his dad is out in the field studying fossils. He is a bit more level-headed than Max, but can sometimes be short on patience. Rex is great with computers and extremely knowledgeable about dinosaurs. He is the brainy one of the D-Team. Rex's dinosaur partner is "Ace" the Carnotaurus.

Zoe is a 12 year-old friend of Max's and a member of the D-Team. She is very fashion conscious and can be a little boy-crazy. Zoe is always calm in a crisis and not easily flustered. When there's a problem it's usually Zoe who comes up with the solution. Her older sister, Reese Drake, works at the Dino-Lab with Dr. Taylor. Zoe's dinosaur partner is "Paris" the Parasaurolophus.

Dr. Taylor is a world-renowned Paleontologist who loves his work out in the field and is a fanatic about dinosaurs. Dr. Taylor is the head of the Dino-Lab and is currently helping out the D-Team by investigating the mystery of the stones and dinosaur cards being found around the world. Nothing can make Dr. Taylor go a little nutty like talking about dinosaurs, so when he sees an actual real-life dinosaur... watch out!

Meet the Alpha Gang:

Dr. Z is the leader of the Alpha Gang, an evil gang of villains dedicated to capturing dinosaurs. They hope to make lots of money one day off of organized dinosaur battles. He is a zany, evil egotistical guy whose goal is to become "Dinosaur King" by collecting all of the dinosaur cards hidden around the world. He uses his team of three bumbling villains to go out and find cards for him while he stays in the lab on Zeta Point, researching and experimenting with the cards he has already obtained.

Ursula is one the members of the Alpha Gang. She is very conceited, act likes a queen and bosses around her cohorts, Ed and Zander who she thinks of as her underlings. Even though most of their ventures fail, Ursula is never convinced its her fault; it's only because her looser sidekicks bring her down.

Zander is a member of the Alpha Gang. He tries to act like he's smart and sophisticated when in reality he's akward, nervous and afraid most of the time. Zander is usually the one who comes up with the plan...however, his plan generally fails.

Ed is a member of the Alpha Gang. He is fairly quiet because whenever he does choose to speak, he gets yelled at by Ursula. He is a big coward at heart, and never wants to upset anyone, so he will follow his fellow teammates to the end of the world, no matter how scary the situation.

Rod is Dr. Z's 12 year-old grandson. He is smart beyond his years, especially when it comes to working on inventions with Dr. Z.

Laura is Dr. Z's 6 year-old granddaughter and Rod's little sister. She is a little genuis with numbers and makes money playing the stock market to help fund the Alpha Gang activities.

Seth is the only intelligent member of the Alpha Gang; however, he doesn't like to associate himself with Ursula, Zander and Ed. He gets annoyed with the other three members and is the only real threat to the D-Team.
______________________

Saturday, October 5th: Episode 50
English Title: "Time Napped"
Japanese Title: "The New Adventures"

Episode Description: Max’s house vanishes with everyone’s parents inside. The D-team and the Alpha Gang unite and travel through time to try to rescue them!

Ian · #2 10-03-2009, 03:12 PM

No new intro makes me sad: given that the premise is more or less completely different, it seems rather out of place.

Aside from that, a good episode, as usual. Aki is a much more patient person than I am, although I'm glad she's finally been told the truth. And I liked the quick back-to-back focus on the two Alpha gang romances.

**Light Lucario** · #3 10-03-2009, 04:49 PM

I thought that this was a nice season opener. I was kind of hoping for new images for the opening theme, but that's okay. I was also expecting that Rex and the others were gone for longer than a day just to make things more interesting. I was also pretty happy that Aki finally knew that all of the "dogs" were really dinosaurs. The focus attention with Dr. Owen's love for Ursula and Zander's love for Resse was funny and cute. I felt a bit bad for Dr. Owen since he didn't have to find a mother for Rex, but at least Rex still valued their relationship after finding his birth parents.

All of the parents being kidnapped like that was a nice twist. Dr. Taylor using his lasso was really funny. I understood why the D-Team was nervous with trusting Dr. Z with preparing the ship. It worked out until he started it up. I felt bad for Rod and Laura since they really wanted to go back to their parents. I was kind of surprised that they also went that far back into time. It was cool seeing the regular dinosaurs among the different teams' dinosaurs for a change of pace. I'm sure it was sad for Max to watch how the dinosaurs died out like that. The mysterious bird at the end looked pretty cool and it was a nice way to end the episode.

Overall, it was a fun new episode and I look foreword to seeing the next new episode next week.

D Dubbs · #4 10-10-2009, 12:08 AM

Saturday, October 10th: Episode 51
English Title: "Ancient Roman Holiday"
Japanese Title: "Ancient Rome and Armored Dinosaurs"

Episode Description: The D Team’s time machine lands in Ancient Rome where they battle a space pirate who has his own Dinosaurs and Dinosaur cards.

D Dubbs · #5 10-16-2009, 11:12 PM

Saturday, October 17th: Episode 52
English Title: "Desperately Seeking Spartacus"
Japanese Title: "The Second Cosmos Freebooter"

Episode Description: In Ancient Rome, Max and his friends help a girl named Sofia who is carrying a powerful jewel to her brother, the great gladiator Spartacus. The stone turns out to be the first of the legendary Cosmos Stones, and soon a battle for its control breaks out.

D Dubbs · #6 10-24-2009, 02:43 AM

Saturday, October 24th: Episode 53
English Title: "Coliseum Clash"
Japanese Title: "The Swordsman Spartacusr"

Episode Description: Dinosaurs and Gladiators battle in Rome’s ancient Coliseum.

Golfkid · #7 10-24-2009, 08:49 PM

Three Questions from this episode:

1. Why didn't Spartacus grab/touch/do whatever he needed to do with the stone when he was given it?
2. Why are there this many episodes to complete the Romain story? I like the story, it is enjoyable, but could we move it along?
3. What was with the goofy animation when Zoe and Rex were making fun of Ursula? I was saying to myself, "What was that all about?"

Mesousa · #8 10-26-2009, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golfkid

Three Questions from this episode:

1. Why didn't Spartacus grab/touch/do whatever he needed to do with the stone when he was given it?
2. Why are there this many episodes to complete the Romain story? I like the story, it is enjoyable, but could we move it along?
3. What was with the goofy animation when Zoe and Rex were making fun of Ursula? I was saying to myself, "What was that all about?"

Second question: This season is divided into arcs.

Third question: Humor moment, so facial expressions, AWAY!

Golfkid · #9 10-26-2009, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesousa

Second question: This season is divided into arcs.

Third question: Humor moment, so facial expressions, AWAY!

Thanks! Good episode!

D Dubbs · #10 10-31-2009, 09:01 AM

Saturday, October 31st: Episode 54
English Title: "There's No Place Like Rome"
Japanese Title: "Dinotector, ON!"

Episode Description: The legendary gladiator Spartacus is forced to battle a Dinosaur in Rome’s Coliseum. Max and the D-Team join the battle and become part of history.

Ian · #11 11-02-2009, 05:03 AM

Now that the arc is over, some random thoughts:

While I appreciate the change of pace this new structure brings, I do wish future stories are better-paced; four episodes may have been too much time spent in Rome.

I remember there being some concerns about the editing for this season, particularly after the Las Vegas episode; if this arc is indicative of future ones, I think it'll be fine.

The three pirates are alright, so far, even though I wish they had more memorable names--I mean, Gavro, Foolscap, and Sheer? Jeez. While the voices for all three of them are obviously in the cartoony end of the voice acting spectrum, it works--although I'm wondering who voices them.

Given the Japanese intro to the season, I was hoping that we'd get more involvement from Reece, Rod, Laura, and the parents. While it's still early, I miss them already.

jackie0109 · #12 11-02-2009, 06:45 AM

Given the right plot plus interesting characters, I appreciate cartoons but I have to watch more episodes for me to say that this one is ok.

PC! · #13 11-02-2009, 11:21 AM

I really like how this "season" is divided into arcs. Definitely makes for a more interesting story than the usual "dinosaur of the week" plotline.

Mesousa · #14 11-02-2009, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PC!

I really like how this "season" is divided into arcs. Definitely makes for a more interesting story than the usual "dinosaur of the week" plotline.

It could've worked better if it had more episodes, but Sunrise, for some random reason, dicided to just do 30 episodes. Kind of a shame, really.

**Light Lucario** · #15 11-02-2009, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PC!

I really like how this "season" is divided into arcs. Definitely makes for a more interesting story than the usual "dinosaur of the week" plotline.

That's true, but I think that they dragged on this Rome arc a bit too long for my tastes. I liked the new structure for the season, but I really think that they could have covered Rome in three episodes, instead of four. The space pirates are pretty cool with their new dinosaurs and their voices seem to work well enough.

Chomp's new armor at the end of the last episode was really cool. I hope that Ace and Paras are able to get some awesome armor too. I was kind of disappointed that Alpha Gang caused more problems in less than two minutes when they got back on the time machine. They were pretty funny in Rome, but I just didn't like how they caused another problem so soon. I also miss Rod and Laura and I hope that we'll be able to see them again in the near future.

Overall, it was a nice arc to introduce the new season. I hope that the pacing doesn't drag on too long, but I'm still enjoying it for the most part.