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Jurassic World 2 Celebrates National Dinosaur Day With New Featurette
A new video released in honor of National Dinosaur Day profiles some of the new dinosaurs who will be making an appearance in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. This includes both real-world dinosaurs and the original hybrid dinosaurs created by the geneticists employed by the titular theme park.
Set several years after the original Jurassic World, the sequel will see raptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) once again teaming with former park operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) as part of a team sent to rescue as many dinosaurs as possible from the abandoned remains of the Jurassic World theme park. Ostensibly this is because a dormant volcano on Isla Nublar - the island on which Jurassic World was built - has become active once again and an imminent eruption threatens all life on the island. Our heroes quickly discover, however, that their new employers are less interested in wildlife preservation and more concerned with how much money can be made selling dinosaurs as the ultimate status symbol pet to the idle rich.
The new video from Universal Studios, which can be viewed above, also features several members of the cast and crew talking enthusiastically about all the different dinosaurs that will appear in the movie as well as the technical processes used to bring them to life. The video also promises that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will contain more dinosaurs than all of the previous Jurassic Park films put together.
"There were scenes where we had so many dinosaurs in the same frame," exclaims director J.A. Boyona, "that we had to make the frame bigger!"
The star of the new film is the Indoraptor - a genetically altered dinosaur similar to the Indominus Rex, who was the chief antagonist of Jurassic World. The Indoraptor is much smaller than the Indominus Rex, but has been shown to be far faster and to have greater mobility. Worst of all, it has no trouble fitting into a human size dwelling and can be seen menacing a girl in her bedroom in the video and in earlier trailers.
Beyond naming off the different dinosaurs the film will feature, the featurette also showcases the special effects work used to bring the creatures to life. While advanced motion capture technology has been utilized to a greater extent than in previous Jurassic films (there's a humorous bit with one actor walking and roaring like a dinosaur), the series still depends largely upon animatronics for those scenes that are filmed in close quarters, such as when Owen attempts to comfort a bound and sedated raptor.
"I think what the fans of the movie like is that we still have those 'real' dinosaurs for the actors to interact with," speculates producer Frank Marshall. Creature Effects Supervisor Neal Scanlan agrees, saying modern audiences "still hanker for practical effects in movies."
Whether dinosaur fans prefer their dinos to be digitally created or practically made, one thing is certain. This featurette will prove a welcome National Dinosaur Day gift for fans of the Jurassic Park franchise and a welcome sneak peak at the next movie, as the wait for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom continues.
