“Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega has made herself the talk of the town. However, not all of her quality roles are in live action.
From 2020 to 2022, in the lead-up to her household-name-making Netflix role, Ortega voiced pink-haired influencer Brooklynn on the animated “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous,” also on Netflix. The series follows six young dinosaur superfans on a camp retreat on Isla Nublar, the site of the Jurassic World theme park. This goes roughly as well as any expedition in a story with “Jurassic” in the name ever does, and the sextet is soon fighting for survival as dinosaurs (and various humans with questionable intent) threaten their lives.
The five-season show may not make any lists of the best animated series of all time, but it’s full of dinosaur-packed adventure and mayhem. And, as it happens, it’s also full of massive stars. “Camp Cretaceous” features an amazing roster of voice actors, and while Ortega is arguably the most famous name in the main cast, recurring characters are voiced by folks like Glen Powell, Jameela Jamil, Stephanie Beatriz, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Bradley Whitford — even the Science Guy himself, Bill Nye, joins the adventure.
Camp Cretaceous brings plenty of goods to the Jurassic World table
As its name suggests, “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” is a companion piece to Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World” films. The show’s cast of youngsters — Brooklynn (Jenna Ortega), Darius (Paul-Mikél Williams), Ben (Sean Giambrone), Yaz (Kausar Mohammed), Sammy (Raini Rodriguez), and Kenji (Ryan Potter) — are stranded on the island, where they explore events that unfold on the periphery of the live-action films. Its 2024 sequel series, “Jurassic World: Chaos Theory,” resumes the story during the “Jurassic World: Dominion” era, though Kiersten Kelly took over Ortega’s Brooklynn role.
This approach allows the animated series to visit some of the same subject matter as the films do, only from a different angle. Unencumbered by the challenges live-action films face with the dinos, “Camp Cretaceous” also features a particularly impressive laundry list of prehistoric beasts. The show boasts old favorites and threats, from the trained “Jurassic World” velociraptor pack to the terrifying Indominus Rex, as well as completely unique creatures, like the misshapen but deadly Scorpios Rex.
Perhaps above all, “Camp Cretaceous” benefits from the simple gift of time. As a TV show with five seasons, it has the luxury of exploring the setting and the sort of people who would be attracted to it with far more depth than any movie could. “Camp Cretaceous” makes the most of its stellar voice cast to unleash its full potential, and its ability to combine interesting storytelling with the franchise’s characteristic action has made it a critical darling and arguably the best “Jurassic Park” sequel.