watch the video below!

 

listen to the podcast below!

Death, Taxes and new Jurassic Park movies. 3 things that apparently are certain to continue forever. In this episode of the Dandy Fun House, I’ll be giving my thoughts after seeing the new Jurassic World Rebirth movie starring Scarlett Johansen while I simultaneously unbox, assemble and review the Jurassic World version of Hungry Hungry Hippos where the hippos are replaced with Velociraptors entitled RAVENOUS RAPTORS! That’s right! It’s all things Jurassic today! Let’s step into the Fun House!

Hello and welcome to the Dandy Fun House where we get all archeological on retro pop culture, toys and games and all the fun stuff! I’m your host Neil Dandy and today we’re doing something special: It’s a movie review intertwined with a game unboxing, assembly and review! And there will be some Dandy Fun Facts along the way… BUT FIRST!

How about we DIG on these Dandy Fun House t-shirts! Woven from 100 percent fake dinosaur hair, you’ll not only feel extra toothy but JURASSIC gonna look great! And you’ll help put my kid through community college. Want one? Just head over to dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll find the Dandy Fun Shop with tons of other absurd designs because the Dandy Fun Shop has ABSURDITY AMPLIFIED! Oh and FYI – there’s also a mini Dandy Fun Shop on our YouTube channel if that’s where you like to enjoy the show. That works too!

OK, let’s start with the new movie (at the time of producing this episode) JURASSIC WORLD – REBIRTH! Starring Scarlett Johanssen whom I must say is still in absolutely incredible shape. Not only that but she’s also a great actress which is important when your profession is acting I suppose. Unfortunately she is THE ONLY big name actor listed. I won’t give any spoilers about whether there are or are not any special cameos that one might expect but Scarlett is indeed the only A-list actor being promoted. But honestly, when you have Scarlett Johansen, do you really need anyone else? Let me know your thoughts.

I will give away the very first line of the entire movie however and this will be the only real spoiler I’ll share so cover your eyes and ears unless you’re driving. The very first line of dialogue in the entire movie is someone saying and I quote: “How many times are we going to keep doing this?” Which I thought was hilarious seeing how this is what the 5th or 6th sequel of the franchise??? It was like they uncovered the wooly mammoth in the middle of the room right off the bat and I respect them for that!

We’ll dive into the movie some more as we go along but let’s go ahead and start having a look at this game of RAVENOUS RAPTORS. I usually like to a littly blurb about whomever produces the games I review on this show but in this case, there is no toy or game company listed, just the JURASSIC WORLD branding. So I guess we’re skipping our history of the manufacturer for this one.

Looking over the box, the front has cartoon velociraptors from the movie looking sort of Saturday morning breakfast cereal looking. They’re sort of smiling which raptors never do. But whatever. Looking at the little picture of the game on the front, it’s obviously a version of the classic HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS game but honestly in the picture, the raptors look more like alligators to me. It’s like they made an alligator farm version of the game, scrapped the idea and repurposed the molds for this. It also shows the Jurassic World logo in the center of the game field which is nice touch as well as some metallic fencing reminiscent of the habitats from the movie.

On the back, there’s a picture of a couple of older kids playing it and very oddly they are both sitting on the exact same side of the table. I mean there’s not much more to say here since it’s really just a retooled version of HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS, but there is a QR code on the box that takes you to a video on how to build and play the game. I find that also very thoughtful.

Now upon clicking the QR code it takes you to a 1:08 YouTube video on the ToyMonster channel, (so now we know who makes it) which very concisely explains how to do exactly what it says. It shows you how to unpackage, prepare the pieces, how to set it all up (which appears much simpler than when I reviewed Hungry Hungry Hippos) and even the added bonus of how to properly pack the game up when you’re all through. That last one is something I NEVER see a game manufacturer pay any attention to. It’s so frustrating to set up and play a game and then you can never get it back in the box. THAT is amazingly helpful. THANK YOU TOY MONSTER!

JURASSIC FUN FACT!

in Jurassic Park, the Lost World, the Japanese tourists running from T-Rex in San Diego are saying in Japanese, “I left Japan to get away from this!” An obvious hat tip to Godzilla.

Ok, back to the movie. Product placement? Yep! Lots of it. Mainly Snickers and Altoids. In fact, a littered Snickers wrapper actually causes a person’s death!

UNBOXING RAVENOUS RAPTORS!

I’m gonna pop the tape on this. Doesn’t look too complicated. I will tuck the little adhesive thing. And hopefully there’s no more tape binding us. Good, good, good. And not much to see once you open the actual box. So we’ll just start pulling things out and showing stuff.

So I’m gonna go ahead and toss the box, because that’s what we do. And hopefully not have to look at any instructions. The video that explained it all looked pretty simple. Okay, so we’ve got the game field here, and it’s got the little Jurassic dinosaur logo right there, which I like a whole lot.

The Velociraptors and the ball pits, they’re all one piece, which is really super nice. They’ve made it very convenient to set up.(…) We’ve got four Velociraptors here. They’ve all got names. I don’t really care what their names are. If you wanna look them up, you can. Here’s the fences for it. And then we got the balls. I think this is gonna go fast.

VELOCIRAPTOR NAMES: Well, let’s go ahead and figure out what their names are. Okay, as long as we’re here, Delta, Charlie, Blue and Echo.

So Delta is the teal one. Well, let’s get them out of their packages and we’ll identify them from there. You do have to kind of stretch the neck out.(…) You have to kind of stretch the neck off there. There it goes.

And then you snap it in. And I think that’s all there is to it. Here we go like that. Oh, okay, okay, okay. The front of it snaps in, okay. That nice and easy. Okay, I like it. I like it. They snap very, very easily into place. I think we’re gonna be up and playing in no time at all. This isn’t gonna take millions of years or anything.

Okay, bag for the fence pieces. Okay, it’s not sealed, but it is taped, which is as good as sealed, which means I gotta bust it open. I don’t care. We’re just gonna toss it all back in the box when we’re done anyway. Four fence pieces and I think we’re ready to play. I think it’s just that easy, folks. Ravenous Raptors. And I think we’re gonna raptor this thing up pretty quickly, to be honest with you. Dump the balls in the middle and raptor away.

And it works like a Jurassic charm. And of course, there’s different ways to play.

And that’s it. That’s the whole game. I just played an entire game of Ravenous Raptors. What do you want from me?

ANOTHER JURASSIC FUN FACT?

Okay, you got it. Velociraptors, they were real, but they were smaller feathered dinosaurs, closer to the size of a turkey or a wolf. And they resembled nothing close to what’s depicted in the Jurassic movies.

Ok, back to the movie again! The visuals are amazing as they always are in these movies. The script is also very formulaic and predictable. You have your corporate sleazebag who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. And if you’re one of those people who like to predict who is going to die in a movie, I promise you’ll be 100 percent correct throughout this entire flick. Literally every single character I thought would die absolutely did. It also has a bigger, badder apex predator dinosaur which you don’t see much of until the climax.

It’s a great popcorn movie if you don’t take it too seriously. If you’ve seen one Jurassic movie, you’ve seen them all, just not with Scarlett Johanssen. Did I mention she’s fantastic!? Predictable, formulaic script. It’s really just a Summer spectacle popcorn movie and if you come at it from that angle, it delivers!

As far as the game of RAVENOUS RAPTORS goes, I’ve already review the classic Hippos game and this is just a repackaging. The classic is a classic for a reason. It’s lots of fun and if you’re a fan of the whole Jurassic movie thing, this is just icing on the cake. ToyMonster took some of those extra little steps with the QR code and the very simple video for assembly, game play and I really like the instructions on how to put it away. I’m disappointed that ToyMonster got no love at all on the packaging. They deserve it. Also the raptors look more like gators to me but I guess there’s a practicality at hand where the functionality comes into play. Mainly the fact that they have to be able to successfully grab the game balls. Overall, I think they did a wonderful job with the whole thing and for that reason, I’m giving high marks to the game as well. Both the movie and the game are worth your hard-earned money in my opinion.

SUPPORT FUTURE PRODUCTIONS OF THE DANDY FUN HOUSE!

And speaking of hard-earned money: If you feel we have earned your patronage today, please PAY a visit to our website at www.dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll indeed find our Patronage Page where you can support the production of future episodes of the Dandy Fun House because Community College ain’t entirely free! You still have to buy pens and pencils and stuff.

Supporters gain access to exclusive bonus features
and
Super Supporters get that same access PLUS I’ll mail you something from right here at the Dandy Dino Shack IF you provide your mailing address.

Podcast listeners may donate via the donation button in your listening app of choice if the app offers it

…and Five Star Reviews anywhere you can leave them always get our prehistoric appreciation.

Alright, I’m out of Dino-puns and I’m also out of here! Please come back real soon right here to the Dandy Fun House where everything is always… FUN AND DANDY!

Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed?