In the 90's, up until Fox turned over their Saturday morning block to 4Kids Entertainment, Saban was the primary packager for the network's children's shows, from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a franchise continuing to this day, to their atrocious mishandling of Marvel's Avengers and Spider-Man Unlimited.
In 2000, this next item slipped under the radar, given the network's penchant for sudden schedule shuffling without warning.
DinoZaurs was yet another import from Japan, this one a mix of traditional Japanese anime and CGI imagery. 26 episodes were produced, but it isn't clear if Fox aired them all. I know this much, though. I'm only discovering this for the first time, and thus, there won't be a rating.
As near as I can figure, this can be construed, even with the toy line that was released around the same time, as a Japanese reworking of an American series from the late 80's, Dinosaucers, which aired in syndication for one season (1987-8).
The first episode will introduce you to the concept of the series. Scope it out, and let me know if there are any comparisons to Dinosaucers.
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DinoZaurs was one of a wave of anime that were hastily imported over to the States in the wake of the success of Pokemon on Kids' WB!, see also Digimon, Monster Rancher, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cubix: Robots for Everyone (which was actually Korean) and Medabots, the latter of which also aired on Fox Kids.
The basic plot of DinoZaurs was thus: "It has been 65,000,000 years since the Dino Knights defeated the Dragozaurs. When the Dragozaurs return, a boy named Kaito reawakens the Dino Knights. The battle between the Dino Knights and the Dragozaurs begins once again as the Dino Knights prevent the Dragozaurs from stealing Earth's life force." So yeah, it was a bit like Dinosaucers in basic concept.
Fox also had Monster Rancher and Digimon, but that's neither here nor there. Still, in their quest to counter-program Pokemon, Fox did a disservice to viewers with their constant schedule shuffling between 1999-2002.
Such an underrated gem.
Underrated and under-seen.
All 26 episodes are on YouTube.
That doesn't mean we'll screen them all.
I love a good toy commercial in disguise.
I'm sure you do.
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