ShareThisPBS bets that its youngest viewers will love them together in "Dinosaur Train," a new computer-animated series from Jim Henson Productions that premieres Monday with a two-hour marathon of episodes (8-10 a.m. EDT).
Last fall, PBS rolled out Henson's "Sid the Science Kid," a well-received series, but "Dinosaur Train" seems poised for even greater success thanks to the clever conceit of pairing dinosaurs and trains.
Series creator Craig Bartlett was inspired when he saw his son, now in college, playing with trains and dinosaurs together back when his son was in preschool. The show's goal: To teach ecology, biology, natural science and paleontology at a level kids can understand. "Dinosaur Train" succeeds at integrating its curriculum with entertaining stories and cute dinosaur characters.
Each "Dinosaur Train" episode begins with the show's catchy, twangy theme song that sets up the premise: Preschool-age Tyrannosaurus rex Buddy hatched from his egg in the nest of a Pteranodon family that takes him in as one of its own. The family often takes field trips on the Dinosaur Train to meet different types of dinosaurs, including a T. rex family that helps Buddy understand his own background.
"We are showing a very friendly dinosaur world," acknowledged Lisa Henson, co-CEO of The Jim Henson Company at a press conference." They do meet big carnivores, and they have to get up their nerve to talk to them, but we don't show any hunting or chasing down or killing of dinosaurs on the show because it's tonally a very friendly preschool show."
Paleontologist Scott Sampson, who appears in live-action segments after each cartoon, said the show mixes its dinosaur depictions.
"The kid dinosaurs are very kid-like," he said. "Whereas the adults we try to make as realistic as possible without showing all the blood and guts. We're trying to find a balance. Obviously dinosaurs didn't ride in trains, but that's sort of our fanciful world. The train acts as a great vehicle to take us to different places, but once we're off the train we try and create the world of dinosaurs in a whimsical, fanciful way but in a way that's still as true to the science as best as possible."
Each 30-minute "Dinosaur Train" episode comprises two 11-minute animated stories and the Sampson-fronted segments. Although producers approached the show from a science-curriculum perspective, they soon realized another aspect.
"We realized that because our characters are getting on a train with their mom and dad and they are going out and they are meeting new people, it's like modeling meeting new people for kids," Henson said. "We realized we had a social curriculum that's very relevant for preschoolers because, developmentally, they are going out and starting to meet other kids and meeting other families."
"Mister Rogers" online
Although "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" will no longer air daily on PBS stations this fall, the 26 episodes chosen to air each weekend will also be available for online streaming at PBSKIDS.org/rogers later this fall.
(Contact Rob Owen at rowen(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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