Dinotrux
Hybrid creatures build and cooperate in a prehistoric world.
Dinotrux is an American animated television series based on Chris Gall's books, set in a fictional prehistoric world where hybrid animal-machine characters live. Originally intended as a film by DreamWorks Animation, it was instead developed as a series, later renamed Dinotrux Supercharged from season six onward. The show won two Daytime Emmy Awards and was noted for its pun-laden dialogue and realistic mechanics.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Action-adventure
- Comedy
- Science fiction
- Based on
- Dinotrux, Chris Gall
- Runtime
- 23 minutes
- Showrunner
- David Kidd; Ron Burch
- Theme music
- Robert Persaud; Mireilla Kut
- Composer
- Jake Monaco
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
Facts from the source article.
Premise
In the world of Dinotrux, creatures usually stay in herds by species or alone, and do not build structures. The Dinotrux—machine hybrids modeled after dinosaurs—Ty-Rux, Dozer, Skya, and Ton-Ton work with reptools, reptiles modeled after tools, such as Revvit, Click-Clack, Waldo, and Ace, to encourage cooperation and construction. They travel to different fictional locations to gather materials, meeting friendly or hostile trux. The main antagonist D-Structs tries to destroy their cooperation and buildings, though he later reluctantly works with other trux.
Characters
The Dinotrux are led by Ty-Rux, a red Tyrannosaurus Trux that combines a Tyrannosaurus with an excavator, voiced by Andrew Francis. His closest companion is Revvit, a yellow and green Rotilian Reptool that is half-lizard, resembling a chameleon, and half-rotary drill, voiced by Richard Ian Cox. Dozer, voiced by Brian Drummond, is a yellow Dozeratops, a mix of Triceratops and bulldozer, who is a cranky hothead but a loyal friend with a big heart. Ton-Ton, voiced by Matt Hill, is a blue Ankylodump, half-Ankylosaurus and half-dump truck, known as a daredevil who loves non-stop action. Skya, voiced by Ashleigh Ball, is an orange Craneosaur, half-Brachiosaurus and half-construction crane. Garby, voiced by Trevor Devall, is a green Stegarbasaurus, half-Stegosaurus and half-garbage truck, who enjoys eating rocks. Click-Clack, voiced by Fred Ewanuick, is an orange Rotilian Reptool. The main antagonist is D-Structs, a white and black Tyrannosaurus Trux, voiced by Paul Dobson.
Production and release
DreamWorks Animation optioned rights to Dinotrux in March 2009 for about half a million dollars, a month before the first book was published, intending a computer-animated film. Dinotrux: Supercharged left Netflix on August 3, 2024, and Dinotrux: Happy Birthday To You! left on October 26, 2024. The removals were speculated to be due to expiring Netflix exclusive rights. Dinotrux: Supercharged no longer has official viewing options, though some removed shows were added to Peacock. The Arabic-language DreamWorks Channel aired Dinotrux.
Reception, themes and analysis
Keith Uhlich of The Hollywood Reporter compared Dinotrux to Dinosaucers, noting similar concepts and characters, and called the moral 'friends come in all shapes and sizes' treacly, with initial episodes focusing on smashing. He described the dialogue as pun-laden and thought it worked as a toy advertisement. Authors of Writing for Animation noted the mechanics are realistic despite the fantastical setting, with no extreme sound effects or comical visual jokes. A Johns Hopkins University Press paper observed the show adapts the post-war sentient machines trope, but without humanoid operators.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Dinotrux are there?
Dinotrux has 78 episodes across 8 seasons.
When did Dinotrux first air?
Dinotrux first aired on 14 August 2015.
When did Dinotrux end?
Dinotrux last aired on 3 August 2018.
More in Television Series by DreamWorks Animation
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