My son is learning about Dinosaurs at school, so when I was asked to review the new animated series on Nick Jr called Dinosaur Train, I jumped at the chance.
Dinosaur Train appealed to me straight away as it is animated by the Jim Henson Company, whom I fondly remember from my childhood. It is set in a whimsically prehistoric world of jungles, swamps, active volcanoes and oceans.
The main star of Dinosaur Train is Buddy, who is a curious T-Rex adopted by a family of Pteranodons. In the first episode we discover that his “Mum” adopted him as an egg and hatched him along with her eggs. His siblings are Don, Tiny and Shiny
Each adventure starts with Buddy asking questions and with the help of his Mum and the Conductor on the train, he goes on adventures to get the answers.
The first episode we were introduced to a family of Stygimolochs, which if I am honest caused a great deal of stifled giggles from the older children in the family (pronounced Stigey Mollocks). The episode was fun, informative and colourful. The show uses real life dinosaur names and gives good explanations of each dinosaur, why they look like they do and how they live.
Dinosaur Train has really brought the world of dinosaurs to life in a friendly way for young children. Isaac cannot wait to go to school and tell his friends about what he has learn’t. The website is fabulous too with a field guide, games, videos and pictures to print and colour in.
I was concerned that it may be too old for Isaac at almost 4, but he loves it. We just need to work on the pronunciation of some of the dinosaur names now!
Dinosaur Train starts on Nick Jr on Monday 12th March at 4pm – don’t miss it!!