Warning: SPOILERS for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 5 Finale – “The Nublar Six”
Steven Spielberg’s most famous Velociraptor scene in Jurassic Park got one last tribute in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous‘ season 5 finale. In Camp Cretaceous season 5, the teenage heroes dubbed “The Nublar Six” fight to save the dinosaurs of Mantah Corp Island from the insidious plans of Daniel Kon (Andrew Kushino), Mantah Corp’s President and the father of Kenji (Ryan Potter). Mr. Kon sold his company’s technology to remotely control dinosaurs to BioSyn’s CEO, Dr. Lewis Dodgson (voiced by Andrew Harrington). Kon also used his mind-controlled dinosaurs, including the Carnotaurus, the Spinosaurus, and the Velociraptors to try to kill Kenji’s friends.
The Velociraptors were the uber villains of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Although the T-Rex was also a powerful and fearsome menace to Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and the others who were trapped in Jurassic Park when the dinosaurs got loose, the Velociraptors were even more dangerous. Roughly human-sized and extremely intelligent, coordinated pack hunters, the raptors could enter spaces a super predator like the T-Rex could not. Velociraptors were also problem-solvers and could open doors. Jurassic Park‘s ‘Raptors in the Kitchen’ scene is one of the best moments in the film; in the pulse-poundingly tense sequence, raptors stalked Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex Murphy (Ariana Richards) throughout the Jurassic Park Visitor’s Center kitchen. Along with the T-Rex’s initial attack, ‘Raptors in the Kitchen’ is one of the most beloved and influential scenes in Jurassic Park.
Camp Cretaceous season 5 couldn’t end Netflix’s animated series without one last tribute to Steven Spielberg and the season 5 finale, “The Nublar Six,” contains its own version of ‘Raptors in the Kitchen.’ After the Nublar Six destroy Mr. Kon’s controllers to free the dinos from his mind control, the kids split up and agree to meet at the boat to escape Mantah Corp Island. Yasmina, Sammy, and Ben flee into a warehouse and are followed by Velociraptors as well as Kon’s mercenaries. In a sequence that seamlessly echoes ‘Raptors in the Kitchen,’ the Campers manage to evade the Velociraptors in the warehouse and get away. So much of Camp Cretaceous‘ action, suspense, and characters contain the classic Spielberg touches, and the finale’s ‘Raptors in the Warehouse’ was a perfect last homage.
Camp Cretaceous Fixed Jurassic World’s Hero Velociraptor Failure
After Jurassic Park, the Velociraptors were deemphasized in The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III. In Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow tried a different tactic and turned the Velociraptors into heroic characters. Trained by Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), the Velociraptors named Blue, Echo, Delta, and Charlie remained deadly but still worked alongside Owen. In Jurassic World Dominion, Blue was set up as a sympathetic character whose daughter, Beta, had to be rescued from BioSyn by Owen. Yet Jurassic World‘s attempt to make Blue heroic never quite worked since, in the end, Blue is a Velociraptor and the Jurassic franchise has firmly established since the beginning that raptors are the most dangerous killer dinosaurs of all.
Camp Cretaceous wisely didn’t make Velociraptors, not even Blue, sympathetic. Instead, the raptors remained the most dangerous of the carnivorous dinosaurs and the Campers avoided them as much as possible. Ben’s relationship with Bumpy the ankylosaurus was more logical than Owen’s bizarre connection with Blue. Otherwise, when the Nublar Six ran across Velociraptors, they properly feared and escaped being killed by them. The Velociraptors in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous behaved more like how Steven Spielberg intended in Jurassic Park, which is one of many reasons Camp Cretaceous is such a satisfying Jurassic story.
All episodes of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous are available to stream on Netflix.