Despite Netflix’s “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” being both animated and dealing with young characters, co-showrunner Scott Kreamer tells io9 he was under strict orders from original “Jurassic Park” director Steven Spielberg NOT to make it kiddie safe.
The story follows a group of six teenagers trapped at a new adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar when the events of “Jurassic World” unfold and dinosaurs are unleashed across the island, each kid realizes their very survival rests on the shoulders of themselves and their fellow campers.
Kreamer says: “When Steven gave the okay for the project, when he gave the final sign-off, his marching orders were, ‘Don’t do the kiddy version. It needs to feel like it’s Jurassic Park. It needs to feel like it’s Jurassic World.’ And we went for it.”
Fellow showrunner Aaron Hammersley adds: “I think that you couldn’t really do a Jurassic story without having those elements of putting people in real danger. Because otherwise, if you don’t have that, it’s not going to feel like a Jurassic Park or Jurassic World film. So to us, it was it was really just kind of keep in line with the world that they’ve already created.”
The outlet has seen the show and says while the series never displays blood or gore onscreen, it gets intense with characters eaten by dinosaurs and “it is violent”. Asked whether there’s an age range for kids to watch the show, Kreamer said it depends on the child and parents should watch a few episodes first to judge if they’re concerned. The PG-rated series launches on September 18th.