6 Reasons Camp Cretaceous Is The Best Jurassic Park Sequel
This Netflix series captures the magic of the original better than any other Jurassic Park sequel.
The new Netflix series, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is nothing short of phenomenal. Acting as a side story to the 2015 film, Jurassic World, this CGI animated show seamlessly takes place shortly before, during, and just after the events of the movie
However, we would argue that this series succeeds more than the film it's based on and in fact more than any of the films since the original in capturing the spirit of Jurassic Park while feeling fresh and new.
There have been a total of four feature length sequels to the 1993 classic and while each of them is special in its own way, none of them can stack up to that first movie. It's totally understandable that they can't, Jurassic Park is a masterpiece of cinema. However good the sequels are, none of them could truly be argued to be a masterpiece… until now.
What Netflix has done is create nothing short of a masterpiece of television. We present you now with six reasons that this show is the greatest sequel to Jurassic Park ever made.
6. Respects Continuity
This show is meticulous in its care for the established continuity of the franchise, working hard to fit into canon and to integrate the events and characters of the film into the plot of the show. The series showrunner, Scott Kreamer described in an interview with io9 how the show is overseen by all of the major creatives of the franchise to make sure that it fits as an official piece of canon.
"The director of Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow, was very involved, continuously, as far as story, as far as canon, and as far as designs. All sorts of things. Everything that's onscreen was approved by Colin, and Frank Marshall, and Steven Spielberg. So yes, this is considered full canon."
In episode two, we meet Henry Wu and tour his lab. One of our main characters personally knows and is constantly namedropping Simon Masrani and the two camp counsellors keep trying and failing to get in touch with their boss, Clair Dearing - who, unbeknownst to them, is busy trying to survive the movie.
But this show doesn't just handle continuity with a cameo here and a namedrop there amid familiar surroundings. We get to see the events of the movie happen beat for beat, but from the completely different perspective of a group of kids who don't know what the hell is going on.
It's that sense of uncertainty and total powerlessness, of being caught in events much larger than themselves. That's where a lot of drama and suspense ends up building from. It helps recreate a sense of scope and lack of control that really only exist in the first film.
Because we as the audience don't need the events of the movie explained to us as they happen it creates more opportunity for the show to focus on more character development.