Discovery Channel and Pixar Team Up For New Dino Show

When it comes to animated films, Pixar is the best of the best, and now it appears that the famous movie studio is teaming up with the Discovery Channel to bring viewers a new dinosaur series. When the Discovery Channel announced their 2010-2011 schedule last week they included a few tidbits about the forthcoming program Reign of the Dinosaurs:

Avatar meets Jurassic Park as the latest paleontological research meets Hollywood story telling. Discovery Channel teams with the top creative talent from Disney and Pixar to create an unparalleled television event. New creatures abound in a wondrous new world – giant dinos with Freddy Krueger style clawed hands, pygmy T-rex, frogs so big they can eat dinosaurs. Learn the latest in understanding of dinosaur behaviors with exotic mating dances, the inner workings of the T-rex’s nuclear family, dinosaurs drunk on fermenting fruit, dinosaurs in apocalyptic events, the underwater birthing of mosasaurs, and prehistory’s angriest mammals. A daring and provocative new chapter in television, REIGN OF THE DINOSAURS is bound to be the benchmark for all future dinosaur natural history programming.

Given problems with some of the recent dinosaur-themed programming on the Discovery Channel, I am a little wary of their future paleo-programming, but the involvement of Pixar is a good sign. The series will no doubt use some speculation to flesh out the science, but in the process of creating their big-budget films (such as Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and UP) Pixar has shown its penchant for detailed background research.

What do you think?

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications.