Denver the Last Dinosaur Review

Hi, this is Pat Fraley, purveyor of Doc Doug

and Dellen Voices, and you're listening to the

GeekCast Radio Network. Welcome to the 50th episode

of Tooncast Beyond brought to you by the GeekCast

Radio Network and audible .com I am your host

TfJohann Mike and today. I am joined by Puppet

Deval from toyworldorder .Deval Mm -hmm Yeah,

no a little bit yeah, hey at least I use something

different this time, but no Jason Deval is here

with me yay He is from toyworldorder .com. He

also does Married to the Collection and David

Duvall's Toys and Collectibles. It's November,

Jason. Well, you know, Mike, I'm sitting here

listening to your lucid tones. And I'm thinking,

my god, does the man never get excited? Do you

not ever get excited? I'm excited. Thanksgiving

is like, I don't know, 10 days away. But. That's

fine. I mean, I'm hungry just as much as you're

hungry, but You know, you could you could I don't

know I don't know be like, yeah What's wrong

with you? Well, we can't all be like you and

spit out that promotional stuff without taking

a breath. Hey, I rock. That's all So yeah, Thanksgiving

is right around the corner and Yeah today, we're

gonna be talking about Denver the last dinosaur

the last dinosaur He's my friend and a whole

lot more Denver the last dinosaur showed me a

world I never saw Before that's all I got yeah

Actually the the coolest thing about this episode

of to cast beyond not counting my saying dates

well no Well, that you're in it, yeah, okay.

Yeah, but what am I singing, though? Rocks. Give

you the ego. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The coolest thing

about this Tooncast Beyond episode 50 is that,

not counting interviews and not counting little

updates we might have released on the RSS feed

for Tooncast Beyond and Tooncast Classic, this

marks, overall, the 150th episode of the Tooncast

franchise. Wow. Yeah. That's a whole lot of talking.

that's a whole lot of cartoons yes it is so uh

yeah we're gonna get right into it with the uh

the history lesson for denver the last dinosaur

which is a us slash french cartoon for children

originally released in 1988 by world events productions

well that's what i find that's what i find interesting

is that it's it comes from the same company that

did voltron it's like yeah really it's like this

really yeah you guys did voltron and then you

moved on to denver the last dinosaur It's got

a cool theme song, so that's true. It's pretty

damn catchy Yeah, so this was a world events

production thing and what I absolutely love about

this is I actually looked it up on Netflix It's

not there however Legally and perfectly honestly

you can go on YouTube you can search Denver the

last dinosaur episode one and World events productions

YouTube channel will come up with a playlist

for season one and season two of the show. You

can watch it completely for free. What I find

very interesting about the show on YouTube on

WEP's YouTube channel is that you know how when

you watch a YouTube video that has ads enabled

and you have at the very beginning it's either

an ad you can skip or it's an ad you have to

watch? Right, yes. I don't know how they did

this, but World Events was able to do that for

breaks. So now they have the whole thing of,

Denver the last dinosaur will be back after this

or whatever else. They were able to put YouTube

ad breaks in there. You can still skip the ads,

but it was just really unique and funny to watch

it on YouTube. Well, I'm pretty sure that with

the latest updates with YouTube is that you can

actually... program your own breaks in there.

You can program the ad. So that's all they did

was they just went in and programmed the ad breaks

on there and programmed it to coordinate with

the show, which that's kind of cool. It is very

cool. It is very cool. Very, very awesome. It

was nationally syndicated throughout the U .S.

in 1988 and reruns airing until 90. Episodes

often focus on the issues of conservation, ecology,

and friendship. What are your general memories

of Denver, sir? I want to say that I used to

watch it on the friggin' U .S .A. Cartoon Express,

but I could be wrong. It might have been gone

by the time this showed up. I don't remember

where I used to watch what channel used to watch

this on but I remember watching it I remember

not being a large fan of it really because it's

it's one of those shows that was For me at the

time in my childhood was a little bit too Lovey

-dovey, I guess I could say it almost was very

it was one of those very very very unoriginal

ideas where You know, here's a group of California

teenagers and, oh, they found a dinosaur. You

know, it's like, OK, well, this is kind of the

same hackneyed plot that many other cartoons

have used, not to mention this was pretty much

the plot of Encino Man. Oh, God, I remember Encino

Man. Like they just added more people and turned

the caveman into a dinosaur. And it literally

is the plot for Encino Man minus the. the very

hackneyed concert promoter trying to kidnap the

dinosaur. For me, as a kid, I probably caught

maybe one or two of these episodes, but the theme

song always stuck in my head. In 88, I was too

into Turtles. Sadly, Transformers was gone, Mask

was gone, Thundercats was probably still in reruns,

but it wasn't airing new episodes. uh... and

i was all about turtles then uh... and you know

i've watched the first ten episodes of season

one i didn't like uh... i'd try i was trying

to get through all of them i was trying to get

through both seasons i just couldn't uh... and

it's it's not that i can watch the show i love

the show it's my wife today i i had like like

nothing stood out to me and said oh my god what

the fuck why did they do this it did it wasn't

anything like that it did just it almost transported

me back to watching the Saturday morning cartoons

with your cereal and milk and everything else

and all that. And it was great. But as a kid,

I don't remember watching this show at all. As

an adult, I can pretty much point out the fact

that Rob Paulson has two voices in that show.

Well, so is Cam Clark. So is Katie Seuss. Yeah.

I mean, it's like everybody pulled double time

on this show. I mean they normally do they'll

pull double triple time on certain shows, but

it's like you're watching this going wow they

really Really needed these guys's talent for

the show because it still didn't make it any

good I Don't know I I think it's good for someone

who For a kid who likes dinosaurs and as a kid

I'm sure we all liked dinosaurs at least the

boys did I don't know about girls because at

eight years old girls were icky um fair enough

but uh you know every 28 days they're still icky

oh my god i can't believe you went there thank

god i'm just i'm just i'm just saying um but

the thing is is like i can see this you know

appealing to an 8, 9, 10 -year -old kid who loves

dinosaurs. Right. You know, and going back and

watching it, I don't see it being that bad. Yes,

I will give to you that the concept is a little,

you know, late 80s, early 90s type of stuff.

But that's with everything from the past. But

overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes that

I watched in preparation for this. uh... but

the voice cast uh... how do you go from being

crying to being denver and pat pat freely pat

howard freely is uh... is the voice of denver

and then they're really doesn't hey it's really

grunts and calling now you know i mean it's not

really he's not talking like we would talkers

not talking with the kids with talk and i can

get that but he's learning from them right on

I just find it very cool and very unique that

Pat Fraley could go from voicing a brain inside

of a stomach and then voicing this. Well, think

about, I mean, it's no different than Welker.

I mean, think about Welker, who's the voice of

Freddy and has been since that show began, but

he also does everything under the sun, you know.

He's basically a human sound effect machine.

You know, I mean, it's no different than that.

They were just like, hey, come do this role.

And he was like, yeah, all right. Yeah. You also

have, as you said earlier, pretty much everybody

on the show pulls double duty as far as the main

cast. You got Adam Karl, who plays Wally and

Jeremy. You got Cam Clark, who plays Mario and

Shades. You got Kath Susie, who plays Casey and

Heather. Which, you know, it's a very unique,

cool cast. Oh man, I thought Morton Fisbeck at

first. I thought it was... Rodney Dangerfield

because that's what he kind of sounds like. Probably

who he was going for was just a really bad, you

know, a lot of times they'll say, you know, if

you listen to some of those podcasts, they'll

talk about how the voice came from a really bad

impression of someone doing a good impression.

Yep. Yep. You got, you got Brian Cummings as

Morton Fisback and Professor Font and Jack Angel

was Professor Chin and June Foray was Birth of

Bird. I mentioned earlier that Rob Paulson was

Nick. A bunch of other characters as well. Overall,

I like the voices in the show. I think Cam went

a little bit too overboard on a certain accent

from one of the kids. On the Mexican accent?

Yes. I was like... A Mexican Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtle? That's too weird. Yeah, it's a little

creepy to hear that, and you're like, ah, now

we know what Leonardo would sound like as a Mexican.

Maxi Turtle. Oh my gosh. So getting into the

plot of this, the show revolves around the adventures

of Denver the Last Dinosaur, a Corythosaurus

or a Thorisaurus who was released from his egg

by a group of multicultural modern California

teens, Jeremy Mario Shades, Wally, and Casey,

along with tag -along older sister Heather. The

kids taught Denver the finer points of skateboarding

and other pastimes, while protecting him from

concert promoter Morton Fisbeck, who wanted to

use the dinosaur to make money. This show in

this plot, it's good. I don't know. I just find

myself just enjoying it when I was watching it.

I don't know why. Maybe it's because that I never

really watched it as a kid. Right. Outside of

hearing the theme song and stuff like that. There's

so much going on with the different plots. There

was one episode in season one where they make

a dinosaur model and it breaks somehow I forget

how and then they go to use Denver as the model

and they're like oh well this is a this is a

problem of you know this is a crisis of conscience

here because we didn't make Denver the science

fair says we have to make the thing um and it's

just I don't know it just if I know it's a world

events production but it almost feels like Captain

Planet with dinosaurs That was that's what I

that's what I meant by it was a very hackneyed

plot device I mean, it's just very much. Yeah,

you know it By that point. I think Captain Planet

had been out for a little bit And it's just it's

one of those things you watch and go it's been

done better Well, I don't know if Captain Planet

did it better, but I don't know at least Captain

Planet tried you know at least they put in you

know actual supervillains and You know tried

to give the the show some sense of danger whereas

Denver never really sent felt I mean it was just

more of a That sure was targeted more towards

four to eight year olds than anything Yeah, yeah,

I can agree to that The The music and it's really

not even it the show doesn't even really have

music itself It just had it has the everybody

you know in the eight nine ten episodes. I watched

I always heard Jeremy humming the theme song

You know because the theme song is just so awesome

Yeah, I was it was a fun theme song. I mean it

was uh Of course I sang it you know, but yeah,

it's something that stuck with me for you know

a couple decades now And I mean, it's fun. I

mean, overall, the show was built for kids that

were much younger than I was at the time. And

it works well for that age group. And I think

it still holds up to this day for that age group.

But watching it now and thinking about it now

just makes me shudder, because I'm like, oh,

god, I have Doctor Who episodes I could be watching.

Why am I watching Denver the Last Dinosaur? Dear

lord. I don't know. The thing for me is that

it's... I do agree with you that it is for like

that four to eight year old range. Right. At

the same time, I think because of the theme song,

I think a lot of the shows in the 80s, a lot

of the ones that kind of might have slipped under

people's radar. I mean, I'm not counting G .I.

Joe, Transformers, Mask, Jam, Turtles. You know,

I'm not counting all of those. A lot of those...

other shows like Inhumanoids and Gobots and Centurions

and all this and all that. They have great theme

songs, but when you actually go back to watch

the show itself, it's like, why am I watching

this? A lot of those shows just don't hold up

over time. I mean, it's just it's the unfortunate

part of it that they weren't well written. I

mean, one of the only shows I know from the time

period that still holds up to this day. is the

syndicated version of the Real Ghostbusters,

the ones that had Stravinsky writing, and it

had all these amazing, amazing writers writing

the shows. That show still holds up to this day,

but the actual first run Real Ghostbusters episodes

are very much in that same category as you watch

them and go, why am I watching this? This is

not good at all. Yeah. I can't. This is so funny.

Moving into the legacy of the show, apparently

Knott's Berry Farm offered a Denver promotional

tie -in with its new Kingdom of the Dinosaur's

attraction, which would later take its last run

in 2004, as did Ralston Purino with its new cereal

brand Dinosaur's. Dinosaur's. Oh boy. And then

of course, as we said, The world events productions

did release the release Denver on DVD for two

two different volumes as we said before it's

on YouTube Denver is something that I could go

back to every now and then As far as watching

the actual episodes The theme song I could play

that on on repeat all day long I'm looking at

the... I'm trying to find the actual Denver stuff

at Knott's. Was it a show? Let me see. Offer

Denver promotional tie -in. On Wikipedia it just

says promotional tie -in. It doesn't say what

it is. I will discover this. Because now I'm

curious. Well, and while you're discovering it

we're gonna go to a quick commercial break and

we'll come back after that Like animation come

listen to animation aficionados And if you disagree

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Good journey! Hey Chuck, what's up, right? You

know how we talk about doing a podcast? We'll

have some ideas run past you. Yeah, what do you

got? I thought we should base it on comics. Well,

there's thousands of podcasts about comics. You

kind of want to narrow it down a bit. Well, what

about Star Wars? Still, there's a ton of those

out there. What else you got? We could always

do G .I. Joe comics. There's still a ton of those

out there. What about the 80s franchises? There's

already a few of those as well. Well, let's forget

about comics. Let's focus on toys and action

figures. Dude, then we're back to thousands of

podcasts. Well, is anyone covering all those

things I mentioned in one podcast? No one would

be crazy enough to do that. Then that's what

we'll do. Are you serious? Yep. Come and listen

to Star Joe's podcast. You can find us at starjoes

.com or find us on iTunes. We cover comics, TV

shows, and movies based on Star Wars, G .I. Joe,

and all your 80's favorite franchises. And don't

forget about the toys. How can we forget about

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to check out their service use audible trial

comm slash keep cast radio ooh Yes, ooh, I may

have to go download a book on tape Good or book

on mp3 from audible. I guess anymore Yes, that's

right. But Audible's got like thousands and thousands

of amazing titles that are available for your

listeners to check out. And of course, why not?

Why wouldn't you sign up and get a free book,

for God's sakes? Just do it. Yep. Very, very

awesome. Okay, Denver, final thoughts here. I

loved it. My final thoughts on Denver? Nice.

That's because you're old fuddy -duddy. No, no,

no, that's Dave Draper. I'm nowhere near... Here's

my take, okay. I'm not a fan of the show. At

all. I thought you were! That's why I had you

on this episode. I can see the audience that

the show was designed for and that it was built

for. And it works very well for that audience.

In every aspect, it works very well. You could

probably, even to this day, take a kid who was

hooked on dinosaurs and while some of the dialogue

is a little dated... You could probably sit those

kids in front of a TV and they would enjoy Denver

the Last Dinosaur. Plus, if you go to WEP's website,

they sell Denver the Last Dinosaur sunglasses

now. Which apparently are selling really well

for them, which makes me shudder. Hey, that's

awesome. I mean, it's, you know... Next thing

you know, we'll be getting a Denver the Last

Dinosaur reboot or something. Oh dear lord. Oh

hell, everything else has been rebooted. Why

not? I'm not as I'm not as negative towards it

as you I guess and I think that's because you

know I I don't know this is one of those things

that it kind of did transported me back in time

I guess and when I was watching it so I I like

it but you know I will agree it's not something

I can watch on a daily basis but you know watching

you know eight nine ten episodes in preparation

to talk about it oh sure and I I had fun you

know Know we all need to be a kid again at some

point, right? Well, I agree. Yeah. All right,

you got anything for the Thanksgiving Holiday

coming up over there at toy world order I'm gonna

eat a lot of food. I Mean, I'm not gonna film

and put it on the side. I mean it could that'd

be interesting. But no, I mean we're you know,

it's It's it's a slow time of the year for toys,

you know We still got some great reviews and

more episodes surprisingly people are very surprised

that they're still flea market finds episodes

being uh... being filmed put up as uh... i just

find crap everywhere uh... as you do but uh...

there's not a uh... i mean we don't have anything

special really other than uh... wishing everyone

a very happy holiday and uh... say thanksgiving

and uh... go out the day after and find lots

of deals that the truth make sure you go out

at like two a .m. folks because uh... you know

by four there's gonna be a line around the block

i think that if you go out and Before midnight

if you're you know, that's just forget it because

we planned out there and that's You're in line

for that so you're sorry hate to be the bearer

of bad news All right, and of course you can

go over to tourworldorder .com check out all

the stuff over there You can follow Deval on

Twitter at puppet Deval. Hey, he needs to make

a holiday Come back. That's what he needs to

do. Puppet the ball? Yeah. We'll see. Right.

We'll see what happens. We've got plans for him,

but you know... Sounds so wrong. I know. It's

scary, right? Oh god, I can imagine he probably

had a Halloween special, didn't he? Oh god. Okay,

so thank you for joining us here on Tooncast

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this episode of Tooncast Beyond. I wish you'll

join us next time when we head back to real time

to talk about the Prince of Egypt. Oh, I'm sorry.

For now, I am TF2 on Mikewith. I'm Deval. Thank

you for listening, until next time. Peace out,

home skillets. You are so not straight, dude.

I never said I was. Think of a better place to

keep Little Denver in my new rockin' dinos roadshow.

Enjoy yourselves while you can, little brats,

cause this dino will soon be mine!