Why a Dinotopia Reboot Is Ripe for Modern Television - CBR - Comic Book Resources
Back in the '90s and early 2000s, author and illustrator James Gurney's Dinotopia stunned readers and television viewers with its gorgeous fantasy world and unique combination of prehistoric life and ancient human culture. It breathed life into the imaginings of every 10-year-old and introduced the world to a land unlike any other. It's time to bring Dinotopia back.
In recent years, Hollywood has been busy reaching back into iconic franchises of the past and reimagining fully fleshed-out worlds. Since studios have only been going for some of the largest and remaking them, a lot of the more deserving franchises have been left completely untouched. With today's VFX capabilities and the fantasy genre's current place in the mainstream, studios and networks should absolutely be looking at Dinotopia.
Gurney was an illustrator who specialized in lifelike renderings. With his skills, he often worked on assignments for National Geographic, for which he would create realistic recreations of ancient civilizations and prehistoric life. According to him, the research that went into all of that inspired two specific pieces: "Dinosaur Parade" and "Waterfall City." Therein lay the beginnings of what would become Dinotopia.
Spurred on by retired publishers Ian and Betty Ballantine, Gurney went on to write and illustrate the first Dinotopia novel, Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time. This would become the first in a long line of novels set in this unique continent, as well as the mysterious World Beneath. In total, Gurney himself wrote four novels and worked with other authors to publish 18 short novels that fleshed out the fantasy world.
The success of these novels eventually led to Dinotopia's jump from Gurney's breathtaking illustrations to the screen. In the early 2000s, Hallmark Entertainment and Walt Disney Television released one miniseries and a TV show adapting the events and characters of A Land Apart from Time. The 2002 limited series featured the likes of Prison Break star Wentworth Miller, Downton Abbey's Jim Carter and Harry Potter's David Thewlis. Back then, the special effects that brought the dinosaurs to life were groundbreaking, earning the miniseries an Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.
The show's success led to the short-lived television series. Unfortunately for the series, none of the miniseries' stars reprised their roles, and the production budget was nowhere near as great -- a fact evidenced by the lackluster special effects, which have not aged as well as those of the miniseries. That's not necessarily a critique of the show since it was as much as could be expected from television in those days before hits like Game of Thrones instilled confidence in network execs.
There was one more traditionally animated movie featuring a star-studded cast in 2005, but Dinotopia's popularity in mainstream media had waned by then. It's been nearly 30 years since Gurney's illustrations captivated the imagination of children and awed television with the creativity behind them. Some might argue that dinosaurs and fantasy worlds like that might not be able to impress in the same way as more established fantasy works like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones and their respective spinoff shows.
The closest thing to Dinotopia audiences have seen on television over the last decade or so was the Steven Spielberg-produced series Terra Nova. Premiering in 2011, the show followed the Shannon family, who left Earth in 2149 to a time stream resembling the Cretaceous Period. There, humans set up a colony to start civilization again, free from the pollution and overpopulation that virtually destroyed Earth.
The series received widespread praise upon its premiere, with many fans expressing excitement over the visual effects and strong potential in the show's premise. However, that potential was never fully realized. By the end of the series, audiences and critics had seemingly grown tired of Terra Nova's uninteresting characters and the quality of its dialogue. That doesn't need to happen with Dinotopia.
It's true that the novels and that world were primarily aimed at children. But the readers who adored the novels and artwork are grown now. Dinotopia can grow with them and still appeal to both older and younger audiences, both of which are now fully engaged in fantasy as a genre in mainstream television. Gurney's fantasy world has a strong past there. Moreover, there continues to be a rarity in dinosaur-focused projects. That's not to say there needs to be more, but rather, there is a huge place for a T-rex-sized world like Dinotopia.
It isn't as though dinosaurs aren't popular. The Jurassic World franchise's latest -- and seemingly final -- installment earned close to $1 billion at the box office. Television can take advantage of that enthusiasm and bring back all those ancient reptiles with an even more compelling and imaginative story. While franchises such as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire or J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and their respective adaptations can transport audiences away to beautiful landscapes like those that comprise Westeros or Middle-earth, they all arguably recycle or reuse the same basic elements of fantasy. Obviously, no one can dismiss the vast amount of potential left using the staples of classic fantasy, but revisiting Dinotopia would help add variation to the genre's landscape on television and help keep it fresh and exciting.
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