Dinosaur Train
An animated series exploring the Mesozoic via a time-traveling train.
Dinosaur Train is an animated children's television series created by Craig Bartlett, the same person behind Nickelodeon's *Hey Arnold!*. The show follows Buddy, a young orange Tyrannosaurus rex with human-like traits, who lives with a Pteranodon family and travels across the Mesozoic Era aboard the Dinosaur Train, meeting various dinosaurs along the way. The series first aired on Labor Day in 2009 and was broadcast daily on PBS Kids, as well as in many other countries.
- Creator
- Craig Bartlett
- Premiere
- Labor Day 2009
- Network
- PBS Kids
- Production Companies
- The Jim Henson Company, Infocomm Media Development Authority, Sparky Animation, FableVision, Snee-Oosh, Inc., Tail Waggin' Productions in association with Reel FX and Sea to Sky Entertainment
- Total Episodes
- 100 (as of September 2018)
- Film
- Dinosaur Train: Adventure Island (premiered April 12, 2021)
Lore & Background
The show is set in a whimsical prehistoric world of jungles, swamps, active volcanoes, and oceans, all filled with dinosaur and other prehistoric animal life, connected by a railroad served by the eponymous Dinosaur Train. The train is run by Troodons, considered one of the smartest dinosaurs in this fictional universe, and can travel through the entire Mesozoic Era via magical Time Tunnels to the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. The world is seen through the eyes of Buddy the Tyrannosaurus rex, who was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Pteranodon and hatched at the same time as his Pteranodon siblings Tiny, Shiny, and Don. By traveling on the Dinosaur Train and learning dinosaur facts from the Troodon Conductor, Buddy learns that he is a Tyrannosaurus rex and explores differences between species.
Reader's Guide
Dinosaur Train is significant as an educational children's series that combines entertainment with paleontological facts, featuring actual dinosaur species discovered by paleontologists. Each episode is followed by a live-action segment with educational consultant and paleontologist Dr. Scott D. Sampson, who explains the show's dinosaur curriculum in greater detail. The series was produced and animated by Sparky Animation in Singapore, with voice-overs recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia. It originally had 40 half-hour episodes ordered for the first season, with 49 additional episodes made later, and as of September 2018, PBS Kids had ordered 11 more episodes, bringing the total to 100. A revival is currently in the works at the Jim Henson Company, alongside Sid the Science Kid. The series also spawned a film for Universal Pictures and Universal 1440 Entertainment titled Dinosaur Train: Adventure Island, which premiered on April 12, 2021.
Did You Know?
- The series was created by Craig Bartlett, who also created Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!.
- The Dinosaur Train can travel through the entire Mesozoic Era via magical Time Tunnels.
- Each episode is followed by a live-action segment featuring paleontologist Dr. Scott D. Sampson.
- A revival is currently in the works at the Jim Henson Company, alongside Sid the Science Kid.
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