Western Animation / Gigantosaurus

"Far, far away, in a great dino land
Four little friends make adventurous plans...
Rocky is daring, while Bill plays it safe
Tiny is silly, Mazu's got the brains
Is there something else among them?
Do you know its name?"

— Expository Theme Tune

Gigantosaurus is a French computer-animated Preschool Show based on the book of the same name by Johhny Duddle, produced by Cyber Group Studios and Kaibou (with animation done in Canada by Blue Spirit Studio). It premiered on Disney Junior in the US on January 18, 2019 (with that also being the channel it airs across much of the world), but airs in its native country on France 5, part of the the French national public television broadcaster France Télévisions.

Much like the book it's based on, the show follows a group of young dinosaurs living in the prehistoric land of Cretacia - the spunky Parasaurolophus Rocky, the timid Brachiosaurus Bill, the playful Triceratops Tiny, and the inquisitive Ankylosaurus Mazu. Together, these four little dinos explore their Mesozoic world, having adventures, making discoveries, and learning lessons.

But the biggest object of curiosity for these baby dinosaurs is the eponymous Gigantosaurus, a massive Giganotosaurus famed across Cretacia as the most fearsome of all dinosaurs. While Giganto seems perfectly content to do his own thing and ignore the other dinosaurs in his territory, he often finds himself crossing paths with the four young dinosaurs in their adventures. Although Giganto's vicious reputation is known even to them, our four little protagonists often find he can be an unexpected source of aid. And even if Giganto's ways are a mystery even to the main four, his involvement in their adventures and the lessons they learn can always be counted on to add a little extra thrill to their exploration of Cretacia.

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This show provides examples of:

• Acrophobic Bird: Played with. Archie is an Archaeopteryx who can't fly like the rest of his species. He tries to fly throughout the series, but never succeeds.
• Aerith and Bob: for one example, take the four main characters. There are Rocky, Tiny and Mazu... and then there's Bill.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • The dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures come from all different time periods.
  • There are also multiple instances of walnuts and coconuts being shown or mentioned throughout the series, despite the fact that neither of them would evolve for several million years later.
• Adaptation Expansion: Because the original book was a simple, self-contained story, the series was expanded to follow a Slice of Life format.
• Adaptation Name Change: Bill, Fin, Tiny, and Bonehead were renamed as Rocky, Tiny, Bill, and Mazu, respectively.
• Adaptation Species Change: The Diplodocus from the book is reworked as the elderly Brachiosaurus, Ayati.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the book, Gigantosaurus was your typical predatory Big Bad. Giganto in the TV series is an Anti-Hero minding his own business and even goes out of his way to help the kids.
• Adaptational Personality Change: The main four dinosaurs have been given their own distinct personalities. Bonehead has been changed to girl genius Mazu, Fin is now artistic Genki Girl Tiny, Bill is now daring Rocky, and Tiny is now timid Big Eater Bill.
• Adults Are Useless: In most episodes, the older dinosaurs are shown to be much less competent than the young main characters.
• All-CGI Cartoon: Like many recent Disney Junior shows, it's animated in CGI.
• Animal Gender-Bender: Hegan is a female Pteranodon with the size and crest of a male.
• Aquatic Hadrosaurs: Inverted with Rocky, a Parasaurolophus. His friends can swim just fine, but he's shown to be afraid of water because he can't swim (although he later learns to). Interestingly, he has a hole in his crest, even though the lack of one is one of the very reasons why the theory about his species being aquatic was disproved.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: The series is ridden with stereotypical paleontological inaccuracies (scaly raptors, three-fingered Tyrannosaurus, frilled Dilophosaurus, side-spiked Ankylosaurus, Stegosaurus with paired plates, flexible-necked plesiosaurs, etc.)
• Big Eater: Bill. He's a baby sauropod and he's still growing up, after all. Rugo has quite the appetite as well.
• Blind Without 'Em: Patchy was shown to have very poor vision, and Mazu makes him a pair of glasses. Oddly enough, he never wears them in subsequent episodes, and his vision problems are never brought up again.
• Butt-Monkey: Archie is always on the end of a joke.
• Carnivores Are Mean: Played with as many carnivores are antagonists or bullies, but Archie is a friendly neighbor to the children. Giganto is even the resident Big Good and protects the children from various threats.
• Cheer Up Episode: "A Brush with Sadness" focuses on Bill, Rocky and Mazu trying to make Tiny happy again after her favourite paint brush falls apart.
• Cool Big Bro: Trey, who is also the biological older brother to Tiny.
• Cool Old Lady: Ayati, an elderly Brachiosaurus who acts as a grandmotherly figure to the main four.
• Creepy Cave: Subverted. In "Don't Cave In", the kids are warned by Iggy to stay away from a certain cave resembling the jagged jaws of a big dino, which is supposedly the lair of the terrifying "Shriekasaurus". When Giganto showing up forces them to take shelter, the kids face their fears, and discover that the cave is actually a pretty fun place. It turn out that "Shriekasaurus" was made up by Iggy so his favorite place wouldn't get overcrowded.
• The Ditz: Totor and Marsh. To a slightly lesser extent, Bill.
• Faux Affably Evil: Termy, from time to time. To be fair, she does seem open to the concept of "Please and Thank You" when they're brought to her attention.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: To quote the theme song: "Rocky is daring (choleric), while Bill plays it safe(melancholic), Tiny is silly (sanguine), Mazu's got the brains (phlegmatic)".
• Gender Flip: Bonehead and Fin have their designs used for female characters Mazu and Tiny respectively.
• Goofy Feathered Dinosaur: Archie the Archaeopteryx is the show's resident Butt-Monkey. Meanwhile, Missy the Incisivosaurus is a goofy-looking feathered dinosaur (which is true to the real-life animal, hence its nickname "Bunnysaurus"). Interestingly, Cror and Totor would play this trope straight if they had been feathered like real dromaeosaurids.
• Harmless Freezing: In one episode, Giganto is frozen in a block of ice, but other than being immobilized and needing the four young dinos to free him, he's otherwise none the worse for wear.
• Informed Species:
  • Mazu is supposed to be an Ankylosaurus, but she looks more like a toad with a long tail and a melon-shaped club.
  • Bill doesn't look much like a Brachiosaurus at all, given his bipedal stance, short neck and flat head.
• Large and in Charge: Giganto, though he seems content to let things operate casually. Termy tries to be this on those occasions where Giganto is missing or away.
• The Load: Bill, due to his cowardice, foolishness and lack of useful skills, often contributes nothing to his team, sometimes even making things worse for them.
• Minor Living Alone: The main characters behave like pre-teens, but live entirely on their own, and their parents were never shown (though once mentioned).
• Naturally Huskless Coconuts: The coconuts in the show are drawn as seeds even while still hanging from palm trees.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: There are a few episodes where Rocky tries to help, only to end up making the situation worse. Such notable examples include the episodes "A Giganto Power", "Guardians of the Herds" and "Rockatastrophe".
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: This occurs between the main characters in "The Five Friends".
• Predators Are Mean: Played straight with Termy, Cror, Totor, T-rex and Spino. Largely averted with Gigantosaurus himself, who has no trouble using his intimidating size and strength to get things done, but always seems to be helping the four young dinosaurs in his own way. Also averted with Dilo, who is mischievous but good-hearted.
• Protection in Mouth: A completely unintentional example. In Don't Cave In, the protagonists decide to take shelter in a cave filled with sharp rocks. Come morning, surprise surprise, it turns out to have been the open mouth of local Gentle Giant Gigantosaurus. Although unintended, the 'cave' served its job giving the characters a safe place to spend the night, since nobody would dare approach the massive dinosaur anyway.
• Raptor Attack: Cror and Totor are your usual scaly, oversized Velociraptor. They are not as intelligent as most examples, however, with Totor being particularly dimwitted.
• Savage Spinosaurs: A Spinosaurus named Spino serves as the Big Bad in the Season 2 finale.
• Seeking the Intangible: In "Giganto's Roar", Rocky sets out to "capture" Giganto's roar inside a coconut so he can have it for himself after hearing a story Marsh's grandfather told him.
• Spinosaurus Versus T. rex: Or rather, Spinosaurus Versus Giganotosaurus in the case of Spino and Giganto.
  • In addition, Spino tries to attack T-Rex in the Season 3 episode "The Shadow Show" before Giganto intervenes.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In "A Tiny Favor", Tiny accidentally gets Archie to be stripped of his body feathers while using an air-filled flower to blow sticky fruit off of him. Unlike most instances of the Instantly Defeathered Bird trope, Archie starts feeling chilly without his feathery coat to keep him warm.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: In the Season 3 episode "The Council of Wise Dinos", we are introduced to a Triceratops named Tritor who is about to retire from the titular council. He doesn't even get a single line of dialogue before he disappears.
• You Can Talk?: In the episode Goodbye Giganto, when Giganto brings the gang their belongings, they tell him thank you. Cue Giganto, for the first time in the series, saying "You're Welcome" before leaving the gang in shock.
• Younger Than They Look: Marsh is younger than the main four, but is almost as big as a full-grown Stegosaurus.

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