Dinosapien


Dinosapien is an American/British/Canadian children's television program produced jointly by BBC Worldwide and Cambium Catalyst International with SEVEN24 Films.
Overall 15 episodes were made, each 21 and half minutes long. The series is filmed in Bragg Creek, Alberta. The program made its debut on March 24, 2007 on Discovery Kids and CBBC. The series ended on June 30, 2007. Each program contains around six minutes of CGI. Brittney Wilson stars as Lauren Slayton, Suzanna Hamilton as Dr. Slayton and James Coombes as the villain, Dr. Aikens. Because of the Native Americans role in the series, the show could possibly be loosely based on Turok. Dinosapien aired on Discovery Kids for its original run, and also briefly aired on The Hub until March 24, 2012.
Sci-fi veteran David Winning directed the pilot and first three episodes and Brendan Sheppard, known for his work on Doctor Who DVDs, directed five episodes.
, veteran of several award-winning animated series directed CG animation and Visual Effects/2nd unit for the series prior to filming The Pit and the Pendulum, a stop motion animated adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale. The Pit and the Pendulum was executive produced by animation icon Mr. Ray Harryhausen, joined by DINOSAPIEN producer Pete Denomme and Fred Fuchs.

Premise

The program focuses on what would happen if dinosaurs had continued to exist and evolve into more intelligent beings. It is set at Dinosaur Explorer Camp, a dinosaur-themed summer camp in Canada, where Dr. Hillary Slayton lives with her teenage daughter Lauren. Dr Slayton's husband Alan mysteriously disappeared on a fossil expedition into the Badlands and her daughter hasn't come to terms with his disappearance. Lauren is, however, the first human to encounter one of the evolved dinosaurs, which she eventually gets to know. Throughout the series Dr. Slayton befriends Dr. Aikens and Lauren makes lots of friends before finding out more about dinosaurs and her father's disappearance.

Cast

Eno - A theropod teenage dinosaur who is pale green with red and yellow stripes along his back, has a grey underbelly, pheasant-like feathers on the head and tail, yellow hawk-like forward eyes, feet like a dromaeosaur, and a short snout. In fact, Lauren confirmed that Eno's kind evolved from the species Dromaeosaurus. Like a parrot, Eno can copy and use words almost in context, but despite his intelligence, he has a four-year-old child's grammar when he talks. Eno is known to make squawking sounds similar to that of a bird, and quite sensitive to high-pitched sounds; they have a tendency to scare and drive him away. He is also known for climbing trees, but only for hiding or escaping. Judging from an incident when Eno was seen eating hot dogs and leaves, he is possibly omnivorous.
The Diggers - Two rather goofy bipedal cross-between Prenocephale and Pinacosaurus, but with little arms like a T. rex. Their species is described as "Ornithosapien" by Danny and Nelson in episode 12. They are insectivores. They are Eno's enemies, and they chase him persistently. They also chase everyone else and seem just evil. They can make things and use tools. They have a weakness though; they can be disabled temporarily by very bright lights. Lauren has nicknamed them Green Eyes and Cerepta. The Diggers were apparently killed in the final episode in the Badlands when the Thunderbird cloud ignited Aiken's dynamite stash. This is not certain, since Aikens survived the explosion making it possible that they could have as well. Since Cerepta is female and the leader of the duo it might hint that in their species the females are most dominant.

Episodes