Line #20 WesternAnimation/DinkTheLittleDinosaur


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8	One of the [[TheEighties 1980s]] [[AnimatedSeries cartoon series]] that no one seems to remember, ''Dink the Little Dinosaur'' is the story of a young ''Apatosaurus'' named Dink and his friends Amber (a ''Corythosaurus''), Scat (a ''Compsognathus''... [[CartoonCreature maybe]]), Shyler (an ''Edaphosaurus''), and Flapper (a ''Pteranodon''), who live in the peaceful Mesozoic paradise of Green Meadow and learn important life lessons from an old turtle -- [[NonMammalianHair with hair]] -- named Crusty. The series depicts the characters' childhood shenanigans and their scuffles with the [[PredatorsAreMean evil carnivore]] Tyrannor. The show ran from September 1989 to November 1990.
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10	[[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime Hey, wait a minute...!]]
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12	!!This series contains examples of:
13
14	* AndroclesLion:
15	** In "Dry River", Dink and his friends pull a thorn out of the foot of an Earthshaker (Supersaurus) in return he helps them clear rocks that are blocking the river that are so big only a creature of his size could move them.
16	** This gets subverted with Tyrannor (and lampshaded by Dink at the end of the episode) in “Land of No Return”, Dink and his friends save Tyrannor from drowning in a swamp, however Tyrannor would still pursue them in later episodes, either not knowing or [[UngratefulBastard caring]] that they saved his life.
17	* AdultsAreUseless: Considering that the show doesn’t say that Dink and friends are [[{{WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime}} separated from their families]] and are under near constant attack from predators, ''where exactly'' are their parents?
18	* AquaticSauropods: Mostly averted with the sauropods throughout the show, which are correctly depicted as land-based animals. However, "The Last of their Kind" features brachiosaurs referred to as "Sea Dragons", with the female of the last known breeding pair in existence first shown up to her neck in water.
19	* ArtisticLicensePaleontology:
20	** Shyler is an ''Edaphosaurus'', [[AnachronismStew a synapsid from the Permian]], who hangs out with Mesozoic dinosaurs.
21	** Flapper, a ''Pteranodon'', has batlike wings, lives in a decidedly birdlike nest, is bipedal, has grasping talons and even folds his wings like a bird when he walks (something that would be impossible for a real life pterosaur of any species). At least he's toothless ([[ToothyBird aside from a few moments]]) and has a short tail.
22	** Scat is supposed to be a small theropod, probably a ''Compsognathus'', but looks more like a miniature bipedal crocodile and has an appetite for fruit.
23	** The ''Stegosaurus'' in this show have three tail spikes rather than four.
24	* AscendedToCarnivorism: "Raiders of the Lost Nest" featured a trio of "egg-hunters" which are portrayed as resembling ''Acanthopholis'', a ''herbivorous'' dinosaur, or ''Desmatosuchus'', a relative of crocodiles that was also herbivorous.
25	* BigEater: Scat, despite his size, is near-constantly hungry and is always either eating or looking for food.
26	* BloodlessCarnage: Shockingly ''averted'' in the fourth episode of the series, entitled ''White Beauty''. A dinosaur that has been [[FantasticRacism outcast from society]] gets into a fight with Tyrannor, and Amber runs off to get help. When the gang comes back to the scene of the battle, there's a ''trail of blood'' that they follow to where the dinosaur is hiding out.
27	* ClearMyName: "Mystery of the Broken Claw" had Amber being accused of ruining Green Meadow's only watering hole with a rockslide, which was actually caused by a pack of ''Spinosaurus'' trying to lure the other dinosaurs into an ambush.
28	* ColdBloodedWhatever: One episode features a "watertooth", a metriorhynchid crocodile with a fish-like sail on its back and equally piscine tailfin, resembling Cretaceous from ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown''.
29	* CoolOldGuy:
30	** Crusty is ''very'' old, yet is more than happy to impart knowledge and share his life stories with the children.
31	** A pair of elderly ''Diplodocus'' named Tubble & Hubble, although they are a bit clumsy and forgetful they are still capable of fending off a Watertooth (''Nothosaurus'').
32	%%* CoolUncle: Flapper's Uncle Longbeak.
33	* DumbDinos: Averted, or at least zigzagged. All of the herbivores are portrayed as sapient, but with the carnivores, it varies; whilst Tyrannor is portrayed as a feral brute, the egg-hunters in "Raiders of the Lost Nest" are fully sapient and converse with the kids on several points -- one of them even tricks Shyler into leading him to the nest by assuring him that he's given up on eating eggs. [[spoiler:Until it turns out that the kids were luring the "egg-hunters" to a fake nest.]] In “The Gentle Hunter” it appears as though the hunters are capable of limited speech but mostly choose not to.
34	* EvilEggEater: "Raiders of the Lost Nest" involves the kids trying to help protect an expectant mother sauropod whose nest is being stalked by a pack of egg-eaters (which resemble ankylosaurs or aetosaurs for some reason).
35	* FantasticRacism: According to Crusty, the dinosaurs have mocked and laughed at the appearance of the Landfish (Diplocaulus) for many years.
36	* FearlessFool: Flapper very rarely shows any fear. This usually leads to him getting very badly injured.
37	* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Normally played straight, but there are some surprising aversions, like the titular villain from "The Honeyfruit Monster", who is a gluttonous ''Iguanodon'' that acts like a mindless, hyper-aggressive beast who can only roar and growl, much like how the predators are normally portrayed. Another episode features a TerribleTrio of ankylosaurs who act as [[EvilEggEater Evil Egg Eaters]].
38	* HulkSpeak: Scat has the most "simplistic" speech-manner of all the cast, although he tends to avoid the ThirdPersonPerson aspect of it.
39	* {{Imprinting}}:
40	** "Crusty's Baby" had a baby ''Stegosaurus'' which imprinted on Crusty.
41	** In a case of ''reverse'' imprinting, "Tricera-Scat" had a mother ''Triceratops'' which thought Scat was her son when he took a nap underneath an egg shell in her nest.
42	* InformedSpecies: Scat is apparently a ''Compsognathus'', but looks more like a lizard or really tiny crocodile. Maybe he is a ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrisuchus Terrestrisuchus]]''?
43	* InterspeciesFriendship: All the main character are different species, it also counts between the dinosaurs, Dink (Apatosaurus), Amber (Corythosaurus) and Scat (Compsognathus) and the non-dinosaurs, Flapper (Pteranodon), Crusty (Tortoise) and Shyler (Edaphosaurus).
44	* InterspeciesRomance: Implied between Dink (an Apatosaurus) and Amber (a Corythosaurus), from time to time.
45	* MinorLivingAlone: With the exception of visiting Flapper's uncle Longbeak in one episode none of the main characters are shown to have any family or herds (although they are friends with some of the adult dinosaurs in Green Meadow) and seem to be surprisingly independent and mature for their age and appear to have formed their own FamilyOfChoice, with Crusty being a parental figure who provides advise, knowledge and guidance that would otherwise come from their parents.
46	* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: In "Surprise", Dink gets chased by a ''Deinosuchus'' only to be rescued by a pair of [[HeroicDolphin dolphin]]-like ''Ichthyosaurus''.
47	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In the episode "Tar Troubles", despite Crusty's warning to leave it alone, Dink insists on trying to stop a tar flow in the valley. He and his friends inadvertently wind up setting half the valley on fire.
48	* PunnyName: The often annoying ''Compsognathus'' is named "Scat" [[note]]"feces" for anyone who somehow doesn't know[[/note]]. It's not like this is an obscure term for that either. Mind you, "Scat" is also a [[HaveAGayOldTime now-outdated]] slang term meaning "go away".
49	* RampageFromANail: Dink and his friends once helped a really huge dinosaur with that problem.
50	* RaptorAttack: ''Deinonychus'' ("Claw Foots") and ''Velociraptor'' appear sporadically in the series and both are featherless, as was believed at the time to be fair. The latter also walks in an outdated "kangaroo" stance like the large theropods in the show, although the former has the accurate horizontal stance. Brownie points however for being a case of pre-''Film/JurassicPark'' dromaeosaurids.
51	* SavageSpinosaurs: A pack of ''Spinosaurus'' are the main antagonists of "Mystery of the Broken Claw". The show aired in the 80s, so they are still depicted with allosaur-like heads instead of crocodile-like ones the real animals had. Another episode features a ''Baryonyx'', who is depicted as quadrupedal (a common depiction of the animal at the time), who is depicted as a specialized turtle hunter who tries to eat Crusty.
52	* SaveTheVillain: The kids push down a tree to save a drowning Tyrannor, after having lured him into a swamp to escape him in the first place -- and book it the second he's safe.
53	* ScavengersAreScum: A weird example -- among the enemies the group faced was a generic, predatory type of pterosaur referred to in-universe as "Scavengers". However, they're never shown scavenging, instead actively hunting the protagonists, sometimes [[SuperPersistentPredator persistently]].
54	%%* ShrinkingViolet: Shyler.
55	%%* SnakesAreSinister: The main threat of "Day of the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Snake]]".
56	* StockSoundEffects: All the carnivores use the same stock tiger growls/roar sound effects.
57	* TerrorDactyl:
58	** The series often features predatory, villainous pterosaurs referred to simply as "Scavengers" ([[InformedAttribute despite the fact that they're always seen hunting the protagonists rather than actually scavenging]]) that look vaguely like ''Cearadactylus'' with stumpy crests like a female ''Pteranodon''.
59	** "The Secret" features "Big Wings", which are 80s-styled ''Quetzalcoatlus'' that hunt like eagles.
60	* ThirdPersonPerson: Scat speaks this way all the time.
61	* ToothyBird: Averted with Flapper, his Uncle Longbeak, and the "Big Wings".
62	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Honey fruit for Scat.
63	* WiseOldTurtle: The wizened old turtle Crusty serves as a mentor to Dink and his friends. A grandfatherly figure, he even has [[NonMammalianHair white sideburns]] that emphasize his years of experience.

Context WesternAnimation / DinkTheLittleDinosaur