Dinosaur King: Kids' Anime Show is Another Pokemon

Note: The following is based on a viewing of the first episode of Dinosaur King. As the series progresses, more insights may pop up from time to time. That is, if I still want to watch.

The good news: Veronica Taylor is once again voicing a young, anime protagonist who controls and catches monsters. The bad news: The anime's not Pokemon, so we're still stuck with that dub cast, which is a different matter entirely.

All right, although Taylor is listed in the voice credits for Dinosaur King, her role isn't specified, but I swear the main protagonist, Max Taylor, sounds like Ash. In fact, the premise of Dinosaur King is similar to Pokemon except instead of cute and cuddly creatures, it's dinosaurs. No Pokeballs, but the dinosaurs are being stored in cards. It's...something.

Max and his friends Zoe and Rex, who dub themselves the D-Club (the D stands for "danger" according to Max), investigate a meteor crash site. There, they find three stone tablets and two cards, one containing a triceratops. Max accidentally releases the dinosaur, but manages to reseal it and bring it out again as a cute version of itself, which he names Chomp. Meanwhile, an evil organization called the Alpha Gang is out to get all the dinosaur cards in its quest to help its leader, Dr. Z, become king of the dinosaurs (heh, gotta catch them all). Eventually, the two sides duke it out in a dinosaur battle.

Okay, let's go down the "monster collecting and battling anime aimed at kids" checklist. Young protagonist who's usually a boy? Check. His friends, one of which is a girl? Check. Supporting characters, some goofy? Check. Evil organization led by scheming bad guy and staffed by incompetent underlings? Check. Monsters, some of them cute? Check. Jokes in the lines? Check. On the surface, it's Pokemon again, and both are based on games. Pokemon is based on a video game from Nintendo while Dinosaur King is based on an arcade game and collectible card game from Sega (hence the dinosaurs being stored in cards).

The artwork is colorful, and the character designs are all right. Max sports spiky hair and a cap with dinosaurs horns. His father, a dinosaur expert, is dressed like an adventurer. Chomp is adorable. Wacky hairstyles abound. The dinosaurs in full-grown mode are doing in computer graphics, which is questionable when compared to the predominant cel animation. I can't understand why some shows mix the two mediums, but I'm sure if it's done well, no one will notice. The problem with the CG dinosaurs is that they scream "fake!" when you look at them.

As for characterization, it's Pokemon all over again. Max wears a hat and is enthusiastic like Ash; they almost sound the same. His dad's enthusiastic about his work, but his intelligence is questionable (FYI: If you're going to catch a Tyrannosaur, be sure to use a net that won't just cover its snout). Dr. Z's trio of field agents remind me of the antagonist triad from Yattaman as well as Team Rocket. Each member has a pose and introduction, but thankfully no recitation of the Alpha Gang's motto, and no sign of crossdressing. Ursula, the leader of the trio, acts like and sounds like Jessie, and her male cohorts fit the bungling henchman role. From what I've seen, Dr. Z should've sent his grandkids and his more competent henchman Seth. Jokes abound; at one point, Max's dad tosses him a Dino Holder along with its owner's manual, which is as thick as a phone book. Max decides to figure out the device on his own. An old lady remark from Zoe sets Ursula off. Amusing, but it's been done before.

The premise is simple: collect dinosaur cards. Judging by the end of the first episode, Max and company are gonna go dinocard hunting with occasional scrapes with the Alpha Gang. When you think about it, the villains' plan is questionable. Why try to conquer the world with dinosaurs? Is there something special about giant reptiles? Why couldn't Dr. Z just build an army of robots? Come to think of it, why couldn't he hire a more competent group of goons? Come to think of it, everything in Dinosaur King can be questioned. If Chomp can be stored in a card, why give him a cute form to walk around in? How can Max's mom mistake Chomp for a dog? What's so important about being the Dinosaur King? More likely, everything will make sense as the show progresses, but since this is a kids' show telling its target audience, "Get this product, it's so cool," I don't expect anything deep a la Ghost in the Shell or even Gundam Wing.

Being a 4Kids show, Dinosaur King was Americanized. The opening theme is replaced with a song that contains the show's title. Characters are given English names. I have no idea about dialogue changes, but a map of Japan is shown without its name being mentioned when Dr. Z is shown the location of a dinosaur card. I was surprised the dub didn't call it "some island out there."

Overall, Dinosaur King is a kids' anime, and it shows. Simple characters and cute creatures say it all, and the jokes are pretty much standard. It's not the worst anime out there, but it's not the best either. It's Pokemon all over, except you can actually stand the dub voices. From what I can tell, I recommend this show for little kids, dinosaur enthusiasts, fans of shows of the monster collecting and battling genre, fans of mixing CG with cel animation regardless of quality, and Pokemon fans who can't stand that show's current dub cast.

Dinosaur King is produced by Sunrise and airs on 4Kids TV, usually on Saturday mornings. Check your local listings.