- Dinosaurs and humans evolve and live together through History. However, the annoying and invasive behaviour of humans starts to bother Rex, a peaceful dinosaur.
Mésozoïque Alternatif (full title: Mésozoïque Alternatif: an alternate history of dinosaurs and humanity is a computer-animated thesis short film created by Swann Boby, Lucie Laudrin, Marion Métivier, Léna Miguet, Sixtine Sanrame, and Marie Schaeffer for the École Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques (ESMA) class of 2021.
Viewable here
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This short contains examples of the following:
- Alternate-History Dinosaur Survival: The dinosaurs in this short survive all the way up to the present day, and even After the End.
- Apocalypse How: Planetary level, Species Extinction severity. When a second meteor shower threatens humanity towards the end, Rex simply decides to let nature take its course. Considering that the humans were utter jerks to him and the other dinos despite their help across history, can you blame him?
- Bait-and-Switch: The short begins with Rex looming over a Triceratops and taking a deep breath as though about to roar. Instead he simply says "Hey", and the other dinosaurs likewise greet him back.
- Black Comedy: Many humans and two aliens in the end die throughout the short, be it by having a spear impale them by accident, getting flattened by meteors, being burnt to a pile of ashes, getting sent into space by Rex's Tail Slap, or in the aliens' case, getting stomped underfoot by an angry Rex who wants nothing more to do with anything civilized. In all cases, it's Played for Laughs.
- Brick Joke: In the Egypt segment, an angry Rex tail-whips one of the humans hard enough to send him into the stratosphere. In the planetary view of the modern day Earth, the Egyptian's skeleton can be seen floating in orbit.
- Cluster F-Bomb: The movie director in the modern day scene lets out something akin to this when Rex flubs his acting performance, ending it with a loud "OUT!" It's the last straw that causes Rex to finally lose his cool.
- Dance Party Ending: The end credits has animations of each of the dinosaurs dancing to the music.
- Death Glare: Rex gives one to the knights after lashing out at them for disturbing his sleep in the medieval segment, which is enough to send them packing.
- Dinosaurs Are Dragons: In the medieval segment, Rex is seen sleeping on a pile of treasure, and is not happy when several knights show up to disturb his sleep while stealing it.
- Dumb Dinos: Inverted; the dinosaurs are intelligent, while the humans are stupid.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When the movie director tears up Rex's acting contract in the modern day segment, pausing it at the right time shows that Rex actually signed said contract. The text on the contract also shows that Rex was playing the role of the Tyrannosaurus rex for the movie Mesozoic Park.
- Goofy Feathered Dinosaur: Downplayed. The dromaeosaur is depicted with some feathers, but is not particularly menacing. Though it is not nearly as goofy as the humans.
- Hollywood Prehistory: The first scene of the short has dinosaurs and cave-people living together, with the humans using the dinosaurs as protection from a meteor shower.
- Humans Are Bastards: The humans mistreated the dinosaurs ever since prehistoric times and continue to do so even after the latter save them from being obliterated by a meteor shower. It doesn't earn them any sympathy when they are wiped out by a second meteor shower.
- Identical Grandson: The dinosaurs throughout history look exactly as their ancestors do, assuming the originals didn't live for millions of years themselves.
- Living Dinosaurs: The point of the short is to show off what would happen if dinosaurs lived to the present with humans constantly annoying them or clinging to them for help. The answer: the dinosaurs eventually get fed up and abandon the humans when an apocalypse occurs.
- No-Sell: No matter what is thrown at Rex, be it caveman spears, a knight's sword, or incoming meteors, he doesn't even suffer so much as a scratch.
- Rage Breaking Point:
- Rex reaches this in the middle-age scene after the knights' thoughtless raiding his treasure chamber becomes too much for him.
- After the movie director fires Rex in the modern-day segment, the tyrannosaur starts throwing a tantrum, roaring and smashing things on the set (while the director films enthusiastically). Then the meteors arrive again, and Rex decides to do nothing about them this time...
- Raptor Attack: The dromaeosaur seen in this short is the traditional speedy, scaly fare, but it has feathers on the back of the neck and the tip of the tail.
- Reduced to Dust: After Rex roars at the knights in the medieval segment for disrupting his bedtime, the trumpet-carrying herald waves a torch at him to try and scare him off. Undeterred, Rex simply blows the flame back at him, reducing him to a pile of ash which flees shortly after the other knights do so.
- Shout-Out: The modern day segment features Rex in the role of an actor for a knock-off of Jurassic Park, complete with dismantling an outhouse and confronting a human actor sitting on a toilet. For bonus points, an Expy of Steven Spielberg also makes an appearance here.
- Tail Slap: In the ancient Egypt segment, two humans squabbling over a hammer cause it to sail straight into a pyramid the dinosaurs were building, resulting in its collapse. A less-than-amused Rex responds by using his tail to slam the guy who threw the hammer with enough force to send him into space.
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Subverted with Rex, who just wants to live out his days in peace, only turning vicious when the humans and the aliens in the end push his buttons too much. The opening makes him look fierce, but it's a setup for a Bait-and-Switch for how he gets along just fine with the other dinosaurs.
- This Is Gonna Suck: In the medieval scene, when the trumpet-carrying knight is about to start playing after his party shows up in Rex's treasure room (read: bedroom), the other dinosaurs have expressions that practically scream this. Sure enough, the knights' brazen activities (namely stealing treasure, playing the trumpet loudly, and hitting Rex's back with a sword) lead to him losing his temper and chasing them away.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: The Stegosaurus in the short doesn't even flinch when the meteors fall onto it. In fact, they get stuck onto its plates.
- Ungrateful Bastard: A species-wide example. Rex and company protect the prehistoric humans from a meteor shower at the start of the short. Come the historical and modern eras, however, the humans continue to treat the dinosaurs terribly. It's no wonder Rex decides to let a second meteor shower wipe the humans out towards the end.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: In the ending, a pair of noisy aliens land on the planet, interrupting the dinosaurs' relaxation. Rex, not having any of it, simply stomps them flat, and the short ends there.
