Dogs and Dinos


In one of the Ice Age movies, there’s this song that starts with the line, “Everybody loves a dinosaur”. (That’s the one with the dinos in it, obviously). That line holds true for almost all of us. It’s huge, it’s ferocious, it’s scary… what’s not to love?

A while back, my 6 year old and I were watching the Jurassic World movie on TV. That’s the one where they “designed” a new dino, a genetic hybrid of all kinds of creatures. In case you were wondering why they needed to design a dino, one of the characters in the movie explains:
“You didn't ask for reality, you asked for more teeth.”
The Indominus rex (that’s the dino’s name) escapes (obviously) and things need to be brought back under control, before, as the hero of the movie says:
“She is learning where she fits on the food chain and I'm not sure you want her to figure that out.”

Now keep in mind that my daughter loves dogs and cats. Dogs more than cats. That in turn means that I never miss a chance to needle her on those animals (c’mon, one needs to get back now and then for what kids do to you, right?).

So when the hero decides to enlist the raptors (it you’re dino-ignorant, that’s a kind of dino) to help capture the Indominus rex, I couldn’t resist asking my daughter, “See, dinos can be helpful. What use would a dog be in this situation?”. Never one to back down from an argument, she promptly replied, “Dogs help police catch criminals. So there, they are helpful too”. Stalemate.

We continued to watch the movie. As you may remember, the Indominus rex was a genetic hybrid. So when the raptors came to help capture it, the Indominus rex used its (genetic) connection to the raptors to turn them to its side. Hey, it’s a movie, it needs its twists and turns…

My daughter pounced on the scene saying, “A dog would never turn like this”. Checkmate, her tone seemed to say. Your beloved dog may have won the battle, munchkin, but the dinos still won the war… they’re everywhere from the Jurassic Park/World movies to Ice Age to (new) King Kong to Chotta Bheem.

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarApril 11, 2018 at 3:27 PM

    I am not that sure about "Everybody loves a dinosaur". But the way children are, very nearly "Everybody should love children". Here, Aditi's ability to push her father to statemate or checkmate in the exchanges about 'dogs and dinosaurs' surely ensures that our admiration for her never wanes. :-)

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