Line #29 WesternAnimation/DinoSquad


1	[[quoteright:334:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dinosquad_show.jpg]]
2
3	After somehow becoming immortal and surviving the extinction of their species by hiding out in a cave for millions of years, two velociraptors emerge with the [[HumanityEnsues ability to turn into humans]]. One becomes CorruptCorporateExecutive [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Victor Veloci]] and schemes to use some kind of [[AppliedPhlebotinum mutating formula]] to "genetically reconstruct all life forms and turn them back into what they rightfully should still be: dinosaurs!”
4
5	The other raptor mentors a [[TheTeam group of five teens]] who've been given the [[{{Animorphism}} ability to change into]] other dinosaurs at will, trying to help them save the world from Veloci's plans.
6
7	The show originally aired on Creator/{{CBS}}' [[XtremeKoolLetterz [=KEWLopolis=]]] (really) block from September 2007 to September 2009, when Creator/CookieJarEntertainment (who acquired Creator/DiC a year earlier) decided to drop the show from the line-up due to the company wanting to de-emphasize the amount of Creator/DiC shows on the roster and re-naming the block Creator/CookieJarTV. However, in April 2010, the show returned to the airwaves as part of Cookie Jar's syndication packages.
8
9	----
10	!!''Dino Squad'' provides examples of:
11	* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: The {{Toyetic}} CG vehicles stand out ''a lot'' from the traditional animation of the rest of the show.
12	* AbnormalAmmo: The kids defeat mutants with a pair of guns, the blue one, the Chiller, which [[FreezeRay super-cools a monster]] and [[FridgeHorror causes the mutant DNA to squirm out of the mutant's body in search of warmth]]. That accomplished they unleash the orange gun, the Spiller, which does the exact opposite of spilling by [[WeaponsThatSuck sucking up the mutant DNA]].
13	* AesopAmnesia: Caruso's actions in his quest for frame have threaten to expose the team on at least three separate occasions.
14	* AlliterativeName: Victor Veloci.
15	* AmbiguouslyBrown: Fiona has tanned skin but her ethnicity isn't made clear. While her mother somewhat shares the skintone with her daughter, the fact that her father and sister have white skin probably isn't helping.
16	%% * AmbiguouslyGay: Caruso and Veloci.
17	* AnimalSuperheroes: Technically, they're humans with the ability to transform into archosaurs, but they still follow the mold pretty closely. Notably, this show premiered during the success of the 2003 ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 revival]].
18	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Several. For example, one episode claims that cold-blooded animals can stay warm by being active and keeping their blood pumping. In reality, that is the defining characteristic of warm-blooded animals, their ability to generate their own body heat, in contrast to cold-blooded animals, which are defined by their internal temperature and metabolism being wholly controlled by the outside environment.
19	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The episodes are usually set in actual cities and towns, probably to avoid TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse, but the travel times involved are usually awfully brief.
20	* ArtisticLicensePaleontology:
21	** For his first experiment, Victor Veloci uses his deevolution chemical, which reverts ordinary animals into dinosaurs, to "revert" a shark into a "Mutated Megalodon"—except that it's actually a mosasaur, an ocean-going lizard that sharks did not evolve from, and neither of these animals are dinosaurs anyway.
22	** The show also stated that ''Spinosaurus'''s super power was Super-Speed. Given 2014 discoveries of ''Spinosaurus'', its legs had high bone density, which was useful for buoyancy, but not much for speed.
23	** The ''Styracosaurus'' in the show is depicted as having having two brow horns that are larger and longer than the nasal horn, when in reality, it should be reversed. The official website accurately states that the brow horns should be smaller—though the site made its own mistakes, such as stating that ''Tyrannosaurus'' dragged its tail along the ground like a kangaroo (which the show itself got right).
24	** In one episode, Veloci attempts to infect the clouds with primordial ooze so it woud rain down on everything and revert them into dinosaurs—even plants, which are in a different kingdom entirely.
25	** Caruso's ''Stegosaurus'' form has five tail spikes, sharp teeth and no beak, unlike the real ''Stegosaurus'' which, of course, had a beak, flat teeth and four tail spikes.
26	* BespectacledCutie: Terri wears glasses and is a smart, cute pre-teen girl.
27	* BadassInANiceSuit: Victor Veloci, though he more often fails than succeeds at his attempts to be badass.
28	* BigBad: Victor Veloci, a ''Velociraptor'' that somehow managed to survive the Cretaceous extinction and wants to revert Earth back into it look like during the Mesozoic period.
29	* ByThePowerOfGrayskull: "GO DINO!"
30	* ClippedWingAngel: Veloci's actually a lot more dangerous in human form because that's how he has an army of heavily-armed minions and fleet of tricked-out vehicles. When he changes into a raptor he's far less powerful than pretty much every other inhuman creature in the show, least of all the Dino Squad themselves.
31	* CurbStompBattle: This is the usual result when Veloci changes to his raptor form to fight, since he's dwarfed in power by just about every other creature in the show. Examples include him being vaulted off the ''T. rex'''s nose, and being blown away when a giant gorilla roars at him.
32	* ADayInTheLimelight: "Scents and Scents-Ability" is Caruso-focused, and his talents with yoga and hand-crafted lotions end up saving the rest of the team.
33	* DumbDinos: Played with. While the main characters are humans who can change into dinosaurs (and one pterosaur) at will, and both their mentor and archenemy are hyperintelligent Velociraptors (who inexplicably gained the ability to change into people), the animals exposed to the villain's chemicals and "reverted" usually become extremely aggressive and mindlessly violent — regardless of the animal's previous disposition. However, only the main characters (in their transformed states) and the Velociraptors are considered "perfect dinosaurs".
34	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?: In one episode, Fiona comes out to her family as a spinosaurus, who accept her, after everything, Ms. Moynihan comments on how Fiona is so lucky to have such an accepting family. Complete with a, "Mom, Dad, I'm-"
35	* EdutainmentShow: It qualifies as this thanks to the social, moral, and [[GreenAesop environmental]] Aesops that are included in every episode.
36	* EmbarrassingFirstName: Caruso prefers not to go by "Irwin".
37	* ExpositoryThemeTune: The theme song basically describes what happened to the team as they earned their transformations.
38	* EyeRecall: The team’s transformations manifest these.
39	* {{Evilutionary Biologist}}: Victor Veloci wants to turn regular animals into prehistoric creatures and return Earth to the rule of the dinosaurs.
40	* FacelessGoons: The Raptor Dyne troopers all wear identical face-concealing helmets with red visors.
41	* FriendToAllLivingThings: Buzz is huge animal lover, and especially shows affection for small animals traditionally considered "gross", such as rats, snakes, cockroaches, and spiders.
42	* {{GIRL}}: Veloci pretends to be a teenage girl while gaming online, as seen in "The Lost World Wide Web."
43	* GreenAesop: Lots, but mixed in with all the regular ones.
44	* HalloweenEpisode: "Never Judge a Dinosaur by its Cover" takes place during Halloween, where Fiona and Terri deal with their neighbor.
45	* HiddenDepths: Few episodes show that Fiona's is quite a excellent swimmer. This probably [[FurryReminder relates to her dinosaur form]].
46	* HollywoodAutism: Max's classmate, Liam, in the season 2 opener. He'd frequently dispense tons of facts and was able to give the squad information on stopping mutant bees. He speaks with a [[MachineMonotone robotic monotone]] when talking, doesn’t make eye contact, and has unusual physical mannerisms. Liam also told Max that he has Asperger’s syndrome when Max asked about his aforementioned mannerisms.
47	* HollywoodHacking: The squad does this to get the upper hand in every 2 out of 3 episodes, from hacking his communications to simply making his blimp tilt slightly.
48	%% * HumongousMecha: One appears in "Wannabe."
49	* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Terri feels this way in the episode "Wannabe".
50	* InfiniteSupplies: Despite the good raptor telling the kids that as a school teacher she can't afford the same kind of equipment the villains have, she ''can'' afford the fancy guns the kids use to turns monsters back to normal, toyetic motorcycles and a hydrofoil built to look like dinosaur faces, a radar system that can detect anything with prehistoric DNA as well as a force field around the lighthouse where she lives to keep anything with prehistoric DNA from being detected, computers that can effortlessly override those of the villains, supplies to seed clouds, to take the kids on a field trip to Hawaii when there's monsters out there...
51	* InformedSpecies:
52	** Rodger's dinosaur form is supposed to be a ''Styracosaurus''. While he has the distinctive long spikes protruding from his frill, he also has long brow horns and a shorter one on his nose like a ''Triceratops''.
53	** Buzz's ''Pteranodon'' form barely looks like the real animal; he has a slightly longer tail, dog-like hindlimbs, two small wing-claws instead of three (though he sometimes has three claws in some scenes), a notch in the underside of the crest, and a saw-edged bill that's hooked at the tip.
54	** And let's not get started with the ''Velociraptors'' Victor Veloci and Ms. Moynihan, whose designs are basically copied off from ''Franchise/JurassicPark''.
55	** The first episode had a shark mutating into what was identified as a megalodon, but it looked nothing like a giant shark and was more like a mosasaur instead.
56	** One episode had a primate which is identified as a baby gorilla, which gets mutated into a "gorilla-saurus". Said baby gorilla is drawn with a tail, making it look like a monkey instead.
57	** Another episode had hedgehogs which looked more like yellow echidnas. [[MisplacedWildlife Living in Maine]], for that matter.
58	* InvoluntaryShapeshifting: When they first get their powers, the squad gets uncontrollable {{Partial Transformation}}s at inconvenient times. This problem goes away when Ms. Moynihan teaches them to shapeshift properly.
59	* {{Fantastic Racism}}: Victor Veloci, a velociraptor who somehow gained human form, hates humans with a passion, believing them inferior to dinosaurs. His reason? Because dinosaurs have been around for millions of years, and humans for only a few thousand.
60	* {{Fiery Redhead}}: Fiona has orange hair and is [[ThrillSeeker thrill-seeking]] {{tomboy}}.
61	** [[DownplayedTrope To lesser extent]] her younger sister Terri also qualifies, due to being DeadpanSnarker.
62	* KidAppealCharacter: Buzz is the youngest team member, likes things like bugs and video games, has a dinosaur form that flies instead of having SuperStrength, and is the dispenser of "it's okay to be different" Aesops.
63	* KillerRabbit: In the final episode, Veloci attacks the Dino Squad with mutated puppies, which succeed in taking them down temporarily.
64	** A literal example appears in episode ''Pet Peeve'' where Veloci's men disguised as sanitary workers spray bunch of pets with primordial ooze. One of these pets is Fiona's pet rabbit, who [[HairRaisingHare turns into reptilian looking kangaroo-like creature]].
65	* TheLoad: Caruso's vain, fame-obsessed personality makes him an easy target for Veloci's machinations a lot of the time.
66	* LovecraftCountry: It takes place in Maine, and has ancient creatures that rise to attack.
67	* MasterRace: Veloci is obsessed with the idea that dinosaurs are superior to humans.
68	* MisplacedWildlife: "Wannabe" had the Squad dealing with mutated wild hedgehogs in North America.
69	* MonsterOfTheWeek: Although done differently from most such shows in that the villain simply creates the monsters to gather scientific data in order to complete his main plan to create a dinosaur-populated planet. He doesn't actually control them and usually doesn't specifically use them as part of some kind of evil plan. This leads to some episodes where the Dino Squad defeats the monster halfway through and then has to contend with Veloci, who's showed up to collect his specimen, in the final act.
70	* MorphicResonance: The colors of the dino-forms are the same color as the clothes worn by those who came into contact with the primordial ooze. For example: Fiona wears yellow pants, brown leather jacket with brown bare-knuckle gloves and has orange hair. Her spinosaurus form has yellow scales, brown sail and orange crest.
71	* {{Mutagenic Goo}}: The primordial ooze. It turns regular animals into prehistoric mutants and when the titular group of kids are exposed, they gain power to turn into dinosaurs.
72	* NetworkRedHeadedStepchild: Was this when it aired on CBS' [=KEWLopolis=] block, being a male-targeted show on a block predominantly aimed at girls.
73	* PowersInTheFirstEpisode: The team receives their transformations in the series premiere and go on their first mission.
74	* PreCap: Episodes start with a 10-second teaser showing what is going to happen in the episode, complete with the phrase "Today on Dino Squad" to begin such.
75	* RaptorAttack: Victor Veloci and Ms. Moynihan. Ms. Moynihan's raptor form has a purple tuft of what ''might'' be feathers on her head, but otherwise is just as scaly as Veloci.
76	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: You can understand why the villain who wants to overthrow the human race [[CutLexLuthorACheck doesn't share the miracles of science he's produced]], but one gets the feeling the kids could do more good offering their services to the government than running around zapping mutant puppies. In one episode they make a solar-powered car feasible to win a road race, and in another Rodger whips up a bunch of gadgets straight out of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', like a hat that gives you a haircut with an array of miniature lasers, for no greater purpose than pulling pranks on his teammates.
77	* SavageSpinosaurs: Averted with Fiona who turns into a ''Spinosaurus'' but is still one of the good guys.
78	* ScaledUp: The titular team get powers to transform into dinosaurs (and one pterosaur) while their teacher and enemy are [[{{Inverted\|Trope}} dinosaurs able to transform into humans]].
79	* ShipTease: Max and Fiona are paired with each other during various episodes.
80	* SixthRanger: Terri, Fiona's younger sister becomes honorary member of the squad ([[TheTeamNormal despite not having any powers of her own]]).
81	* SpinosaurusVersusTrex: Inverted - Max, who turns into a ''T. rex'', is good friends with Fiona, who turns into a ''Spinosaurus'', and they often fight together alongside the rest of the Dino Squad against other prehistoric creatures. This somewhat becomes {{ironic}} if you look at the above mentioned ShipTease that these two share with each other.
82	* SmallNameBigEgo: Caruso. He truly wishes his name was bigger than it is.
83	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Fiona is the sole female member of the squad. If we take [[SixthRanger Terri]] into consideration it becomes [[TwoGirlsToATeam two girls at the team]].
84	* StrawCharacter: Caruso gets this big time.
85	* TeamMom: Miss Moynihan. Her CB handle is even "Mothersaurus."
86	* TheTeamNormal: [[SixthRanger Terri]]. [[IJustWantToBeSpecial She however doesn't enjoy it]].
87	* {{Thememobile}}: Hero and villain alike have a dinosaur theme to every vehicle they own. Veloci seems to have a different one in every episode, even up to including dirigibles, monster trucks and submarines.
88	* TimeAbyss: Ms. Moynihan and Victor Veloci have been around since the extinction of the dinosaurs, making them around 65 million years old.
89	* TitleThemeTune: "I'm in, I'm in, I'm in, in the Dino Squad!"
90	* TomboyishPonytail: Terri wears her hair in ponytail. And while she isn't as tomboyish as her sister, she isn't GirlyGirl either.
91	* TotallyRadical: Buzz is a "Neo Punker" who speaks this way.
92	* ToughArmoredDinosaur: Caruso's dino form is ''Stegosaurus'' and with his [[SmallNameBigEgo big ego]] and status as [[TheLoad the load]], he somewhat [[InvokedTrope invokes the trope]] of stegosaurs being antisocial creatures.
93	* TransformationSequence: Often shown both into ''and'' back from super-powered form.
94	* UnstableGeneticCode: The squad can turn into dinosaurs because Veloci's experiments gave them dinosaur DNA. Their changes are involuntary at first until Ms. Moynihan teaches them to control their shapeshifting.
95	* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Victor Veloci is seen by the public as a great servant to the community. He is, in reality, an evil shapeshifting velociraptor bent on returning the world to the Mesozoic era. Seriously, who would even suspect that to be the case?
96	* {{Whateversaurus}}: The show has many examples. Most of the mutated creatures created by Victor Veloci are mutated mixes of modern day and ancient creatures. Only the Dino Squad are considered by him the ''perfect'' dinosaurs.

Context WesternAnimation / DinoSquad