Credit: Universal City Studios LLC and Amblin Entertainment / Saber InteractiveA new Jurassic Park animated film has arrived online, and it’s a lot darker than Netflix’s Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. The latest short comes from the YouTube channel InGen 2D and gives plenty of food for thought about the future of the iconic Jurassic franchise.
While the live-action sequel Jurassic World Rebirth is currently storming through theaters, and though the animated side of the franchise is now eight seasons deep (five seasons of Camp Cretaceous and three seasons of Chaos Theory), a darker animated entry would go down a treat with fans, who’ve been calling for an entry with an R-rated edge for decades.
Similar to InGen 2D’s previous animated features, this latest short film (which isn’t official, by the way) is based on a scene from Michael Crichton’s original 1990 best-seller “Jurassic Park” as opposed to the iconic 1993 film of the same name from director Steven Spielberg.
Crichton’s novel is widely known for its darker tone and graphic content. One of InGen 2D’s previous videos, “The Fate of Dennis Nedry,” depicts the death of the titular disgruntled InGen employee as seen in the book, not the film (although there are many similarities).
The channel’s latest animated short re-creates the book’s Tyrannosaurus Rex attack, in which Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, Tim Murphy, Lex Murphy, and Ed Regis are stuck in their jungle explorers in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm when the huge beast escapes due to the island-wide power outage. Watch the thrilling short film from InGen 2D below:
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Despite being animated, “The Main Road” feels as thrilling and as tense as the original 1993 blockbuster — perhaps even the novel, too. With the official animated content continuing to prove popular with fans, could a darker Jurassic Park animated series or feature-length installment similar to InGen 2D’s shorts work? The short answer is: more than likely.
Fans have been calling for a Jurassic film that’s closer to Michael Crichton’s novels (“Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World”) in tone for a long time. While Spielberg’s original 1993 film certainly borrows plenty of dark elements from the source material, most of that horror has been lost along the way and diluted by the Jurassic World sequels in particular.
Meanwhile, there are several official Jurassic Park sequels to look forward to.
In terms of “animated” sequels, there’s the first-person action-adventure video game “Jurassic Park: Survival” (TBA) in the works (expected sometime next year), and the third entry in the popular park management simulation series, “Jurassic World Evolution.”
Jurassic World Rebirth is in theaters now.
Per the official synopsis, the film takes place “five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion” to find that “the planet’s ecology has proven inhospitable to dinosaurs,” adding that “those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived.”
Scarlett Johansson’s character, a covert operations expert named Zora Bennett, is “contracted to lead a skilled team on a top-secret mission to secure genetical material from the world’s three most massive dinosaurs” that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.”
The film stars Scarlett Johansson (Avengers: Endgame), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Lincoln Lawyer), Rupert Friend (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Mahershala Ali (The Green Book), Luna Blaise (Manifest), David Iacono (Dead Boy Detectives), Audrina Miranda (Lopez vs Lopez), Philippine Velge (Station Eleven), Bechir Sylvain (BMF), and Ed Skrein (Deadpool).
What do you think of this Jurassic Park animated short? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!