Customer Reviews

Dinosaur Valley

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First off, this brings me back. I used to love to watch this series when it came on tv, and I'm so glad AMAZON has decieded to put it in their VOD service. The picture looks good, and overall I think if you are interested in the show, then this is satisfactory. That being said... WHERE ARE THE DVDS???! I would buy seasons of this show in a heartbeat. I don't understand why more owners of old children's programs try to cash in on us looking for a little nostalgia. Plus this is better than half of the crap that comes on tv today for youngsters. Five stars for the series, Five stars for AMAZON.COM, zero stars for there not being dvds available to purchase. blah

These VOD/DRM files will not play on many devices, including my WD HD TV LIVE media player, so this only gets three stars.
It's nice to have access but still want the rest of the episodes and would like to play them on the TV and not just the computer.
There are total of 65 episodes.
Please provide them.
Preferably the complete set on DVD.

I remember this show well, back in 1987 that's 25 years ago this year! Takes me back to when I was a teenager as I felt young when I watch them. Still got a major crush on Teryx. Everything was well done, but even some of the jokes mentioned were a little corny, but you have to admit everything was well drawn. I had once e-mailed Mr. Brett, who created the series. upon mentioning to him how much I enjoyed the show, he replied by telling me "Let's agree to disagree." He absolutlely hated the show, even from the start. At one point, he had plans to bring back the show with major updates to the Dinosaucers and Tyrannos, giving them a more realistic look. But he then scrapped his plans to update the series and even got the writers and such to just scrap the idea altogether. "The Dinosaucers are Dead." as Mr. Brett e-mailed me in reply. But the show will always be a part of my teen years as something that I will always remember and enjoy.

For many folks, "Dinosaucers" is a slice of nostalgic from the '80s, but I personally didn't come across the cartoon until recently. Since most things dino-related are cool by me, I was naturally drawn to the show and was pleased to find that in spirit, it's a good deal different from other animated action programming of the time. It's not nearly a perfect show, though, and its presentation on Amazon Instant Video isn't flawless either, but both fans and newcomers should know that it's worth checking out, if only that it's unlikely we're ever going to see it released in a different format.

The story: two factions of anthropomorphic dinosaurs - the good-hearted Dinosaucers and the power-hungry Tyrannos - collide on Earth, resuming a years-old and lightyears-long rivalry, with a group of four extraordinary teenagers - the Secret Scouts - in the mix.

I agree with the qualms that previous reviewers have voiced concerning the audio/video quality of the downloads. They're the same ones you can get off of iTunes, and if any remastering was performed of the source tapes, it was limited: the picture quality isn't crisp and the sound isn't flawless either, making viewing on a medium-to-large -sized screen with surround sound not very fun. However, I chiefly viewed the episodes on a portable device, and by this means negated the majority of these qualms. Small screen viewing is definitely recommended.

Concerning the content of the show itself, things are a little better. Though the plot of the program is generic and it's predictable that the Tyrannos are trounced at the end of every episode, the outplay of individual installments isn't. Were the show, say, written in the same vein as Power Rangers, the Dinosaucers would use their Dinovolving ability in every episode and the Scouts would activate the power of their rings in every episode; but they don't, as the writers chose to utilize these features only as situations required it, not by default. By the same token, the emphasis based on individual characters is constantly rotated: with the exceptions of Allo (Len Carlson, The Raccoons), Genghis Rex (Dan Hennessey, Inspector Gadget), and Ankylo (John Stocker, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin), there is no guarantee who will be appearing on any given episode or who will be taking precedence as the day's leads, which is overall pretty refreshing. Most surprising is the series' de-emphasis on physical violence: within the 21 episodes we have here, I think you can count the number of punches thrown on one hand, as teamwork and ingenuity is played over brute strength. In these ways, the show feel a lot less like action figure advertisement and more like a genuine adventure series.

On the downside, the series' animation isn't fantastic: this is one of the cartoons whose production was outsourced to Japan and whose opening sequence looks good but the rest of the show is so-so. It's passable, but the actual amount of onscreen action is limited and simplistic. Additionally, the dialogue is definitely among the most intelligent in the world - heaven forbid three minutes pass without a pun being dropped. These qualms even out the series' strengths, and along with the presentation issues, this equals an average cumulative score. It'd be great if Sony gave this franchise a complete DVD release with more effort made towards fixing up the ravages of time - the review I would write for that one would have at least one more star in its rating - but I have a feeling that's hoping for too much. Again, fans ought to buy this without much apprehension, because at the very least you'll be bringing us all closer to the release of the rest of the series.

Dinosaucers: A terribly cheesy cartoon from the late 80s that you had to be there to love. 5 stars for anthro dinosaurs.

Sadly, this download is terrible. 640x480, noisy old videos that look like they were duped right from 3/4" tape found in the junk bin at a UHF station, with enough interlacing artifacts to choke a small horse. To boot, you get a crapload of DRM, WMP11 (Anyone really still use this joker of a program?) and the not-needed service installing Amazon player. As soon as I am done with these videos, all of that crap gets uninstalled.

My first, and last download. Bet these can be stripped of DRM :)

Edit: Hey Sony, I know you're busy trying to figure out how the hax0rs are pwning you so hard, but hey. Put these out on DVD - all of them! - and I'll buy them.

As a child growing up in the 80's, this show takes me back, lol. I used to love this show as a kid and it's awesome that Amazon put this out; really though, we need DVDS and more seasons....c'mon!