I was watching Extra-Terror-Estrial videos a while back and read that they had "guest" voices making snarky remarks in the show, which sounds like a terrible idea. It made me really appreciate the fact that Dinosaur, despite taking along wacky-dino-guy Seeker as a narrator, keeps the jokes out of it and sticks to its serious tone until the very end. I guess you could point to the sauropod burping as jokey, but honestly until someone on here called it a burp I thought it was just a weird noise. And they took out Seeker's response to it, so it doesn't really play like a joke.
I've thought a lot about the odd horror-nested in humor-nested in horror-nested in humor thing that Dinosaur has going on. It's one of the scariest things they've made, in the back of a serious contender for silliest land they've made (and even before Chester and Hester it was still pretty silly), with a funny preshow, frightening boarding area and ride, then after it's over you watch the silly security footage of Seeker trying to find a dinosaur in the institute.
Sometimes I wonder if maybe Seeker is a left over from the calm dinosaur safari concept (which, admittedly, makes the land tie together better, with the thrill being Excavator) and that's why it's such a whiplash...but then I remember the silly robot they had introducing Alien Encounter when it first opened and I realize that at one point it was normal.
Also Dr Seeker is an icon and I love him dearly, and that load station is so beautiful and thematic and vibey, I love it so much. No-one ever talks about how richly-detailed the Time Rovers are either, they may be the most detailed and unique ride vehicle designs I've ever seen. A lot of the buttons and switches on the back off the Rovers can actually be flipped and manipulated and one time in the load station I was messing around with them for a whole minute haha. Good times. A classic ride I'm gonna sorely miss, and I think Animal Kingdom will genuinely be worse off for not having once it's gone.
The boarding area is so great; it really strikes the feeling that something bad is about to happen into you! I think it's the combo of the constant warning noises and how pretty much everything is labeled (a lot of them being labeled with MORE warning signs) so it looks unbelievably complex and very dangerous. Plus the "Dino-Institute Welcomes You" sign, which clashes super hard with the tone of the area and so come off as very foreboding.
A lot of the buttons and switches on the back off the Rovers can actually be flipped and manipulated and one time in the load station I was messing around with them for a whole minute haha.
I've never been so happy to press a non-functional button in my life!
And now for a Gone but not Forgotten piece of defunct History..
I've been wondering for years why Hester didn't have an intro spiel; that's an amazing find! I guess it must've broken? That's so weird they didn't use it for at least the last three years of the land existing.
