Fans awaiting the next installment in the Jurassic World franchise with T. Rex-sized anticipation can happily devour Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Netflix's eight-episode animated series that follows campers on the north side of Isla Nublar during the events of Jurassic World. Full of action, thrills, and fun, it combines all of the best elements of the franchise and makes it accessible to both kids and longtime fans.
The series does its best to tie Camp Cretaceous into the larger framework of the films, and it provides enough Easter eggs and nostalgia to appease fans. But while there are a number of references to the franchise that works to increase its worldbuilding, there are just as many plot points and character decisions that will leave fans scratching their heads.
Updated on June 6th, 2022 by Kayleena Pierce-Bohen: A lot has happened to the campers since 2021 when Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous season 3 and season 4 were released less than a year apart. They may have successfully escaped the island, but they've since fallen into an entirely new world of danger by discovering Mantah Corp biomes filled with killer robots! As though the sudden appearance of these mysterious environments hasn't spawned enough questions of their own, fans are left wondering if all the newest plotholes will be resolved in season 5, due July 21st, 2022.
Installing A Single Zip Line
As if seeing real dinosaurs up close couldn't be any more amazing, Darius and the other children get a chance to see them in the most exhilarating way possible — via zip line! Once carefully strapped in, they careen over herds of migrating dinosaurs heading to their evening enclosures, taking incredible pictures and reveling in the adrenaline rush.
It's difficult to fathom why the park would condone a single zip line given it's so dangerous. A park known for horrible disasters should have a double zip line for added safety against sudden breaks or disconnections, considering children could ostensibly slip out, and get very close to the dinosaurs at one point.
Putting Children's Sleeping Quarters Near The Raptor Paddock
In the second episode, when Darius and Kenji sneak out to explore what they think is the Compy holding pen, they actually end up entering the Velociraptor paddock. These are some of the most powerful dinosaurs in Jurassic Park when they're in a pack, and there are signs explaining the danger they pose all around the campers, but they miss them entirely.
Leaving aside the children's curiosity blinding them to the risk, why would the raptor paddock be placed just a short distance from the children's sleeping quarters?
Kenji Climbing Into The Raptor Paddock
When Brooklynn drops her phone into what she thinks is the Compy pen, Kenji volunteers to go and retrieve it. Both Brooklynn and Darius yell at him to stop, but he ignores them and climbs down to the bottom.
Even if it were only the Compy pen, has Kenji not heard of what Compies are capable of in all the reports that were issued around the events of The Lost World: Jurassic Park? One Compy might not be a problem, but a pack certainly would be. He's been to the park "a bajillion times" but doesn't seem to know anything about its previous death tolls.
Darius Thinking There Would Be A Resonating Chamber In The Raptor Paddock
Using a raptor resonating chamber is the way Darius beat the Jurassic World video game, calling upon the raptors to fight the T. Rex and secure him a ticket to Camp Cretaceous. When he climbs down into the raptor paddock to help save Kenji in the first episode, he remembers what helped him in the game and yells for Kenji to "find a raptor skull."
Darius should know not only the difference between what works in a video game and real-life but that as a dinosaur-obsessed kid, there wouldn't be any raptor skulls in the raptor paddock unless there was a coup against Blue from her pack. Even then, either a raptor would kill her, or she'd kill them, and the carcass would have had to be left there to decay and leave a skull.
Dr. Wu Allowing Children To Touch Dinosaurs Unattended
In his debut (and biggest) appearance in Jurassic Park, Dr. Wu walked Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, and Dr. Malcolm through Dino 101, explaining to them the process of genetic modification done by InGen not to only cultivate accelerated growth in the dinosaurs, but to ensure they all remain female. John Hammond himself even helps facilitate a raptor hatching and does so wearing gloves.
In Camp Cretaceous, Dr. Wu, now an even more militant geneticist than he was before, allows potentially germ-spreading children to handle newborns without any gloves while completely unattended. He's the person who knows all about the science of Jurassic Park and yet he lets a dino fall and roll onto the floor.
The Campers Always Being In Precarious Situations
Throughout the series, the campers find themselves face-to-snout with a variety of dangerous dinosaurs because the plot forces them to. The children should know better than to wander into a raptor paddock, but they do, making them either the bravest kids since the Jurassic Park films or the most naive. Then the following day, two of them go into a Carnotaurus enclosure on purpose and almost get eaten.
Later, during the Gyrosphere excursion, the campers get lost and also nearly cause a stampede. Then, the only two adults responsible for them "have to leave" and go to the opposite end of the park, ensuring that the children will get into yet more trouble.
Available Adults Abandoning The Campers
In an inexplicably amateur move, chief camp counselor Roxie decides that she needs to go find Claire Dearing on the south side of the park, the complete opposite area from where her campers are. She also declares that fellow staffer Dave must go with her, rather than making sure one adult stays to mind the campers.
This all but ensures that the campers do something imbecilic, such as scale an observation tower and get in the direct line of attack of the Indominus Rex. Roxie and Dave later have no way of communicating with the campers and only find them thanks to a tracking device that still doesn't help them get to the evacuation ferries in time.
The Indominus Rex Destroying The Campers' Sleeping Quarters
Not only does the Indominus Rex decide to attack the observational tower the campers are clustered in — despite the fact that it wouldn't be able to reach them unless it tore through solid steel beams — it also decides to attack their sleeping quarters.
The sleeping quarters resemble the Ewok Village from the Star Wars planet Endor and are purposefully high in the trees so that no carnivorous dinosaurs can reach them. The I. Rex would either have had to climb the trees, or the sleeping quarters were placed low enough for dangerous predators to take a bite out of the kids.
Dinosaurs Getting To Different Sides Of The Park Instantly
Dinosaurs seem to appear, disappear, and reappear at moments convenient for the plot but not necessarily for the continuity of the films. The second half of the series deals with the Indominus Rex outbreak that occurred in Jurassic World, and the semantics of tying it into Camp Cretaceous get muddled.
In Jurassic World, the I. Rex is drawn from the old Visitor's Center by Mr. Masrani's helicopter, yet Camp Cretaceous has her stalking frightened kids in a maze of shipping containers after munching on party hats.
The Campers Survive Jumping From The Monorail
The last two episodes of the series are emotionally charged, with the most gut-wrenching moment occurring when Ben puts himself in harm's way on the roof of the monorail system so the rest of the crew can survive. He ends up being torn from the train by a Pteranodon and plummeting to the ground below.
The campers assure each other their friend is dead, as no one could have survived that fall, only to purposefully jump from the train themselves a few minutes later when it's clear the track is headed back to the chaos. They miraculously survive the fall (a good sixty feet), and so does Ben.
The Mantah Corp Island Somehow Remaining Off The Grid
After the campers leave Isla Nublar behind them in season 3, and by season 4 arrive at an entirely new island. It's not Isla Sorna, but in fact, an island controlled by a villain that's loomed large over the series from the start; Mantah Corp.
It becomes clear that the series wanted to expand its lore and give Mantah Corp a fun way to enter the plot in a meaningful way, but how did it remain off the grid all this time, unnoticed, while generating enough power to operate all the different biomes and killer robots?
The Mantah Corp Island's Vastly Different Biomes Near One Another
All the genetically altered giant creatures in Jurassic World already stretch credulity, but suspending disbelief is part of the fun of the franchise. It becomes harder to do when more elements of the plot make less sense, like the biomes on the Mantah Corp island.
Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna were comprised of grasslands, mountains, forests, and caverns, but this island has biomes that stretch from arctic to desert, with no explanation of how these environments can possibly be sustained.
Yasmina's Never A Leader
Despite being the second oldest camper of the six survivors to the Mantah Corp island, Yasmina is never given a leadership opportunity. What makes Kenji's advice more appropriate to take than hers, especially given how often he puts the rest of the campers in danger?
Hopefully, season 5 will be Yaz's time to shine, presenting her with an opportunity not just to provide support to other campers' plans, but come up with some of her own and direct the narrative. Her athleticism isn't the only thing that makes her great; her level-headedness and resourcefulness are just as valuable.
What Happened To The Distress Beacon From Season 2
Season 2 introduced an entire storyline about the distress beacon, but as the series approaches season 5, there's still no word about it. All fans know is that the signal was indeed received, but they just don't know by whom.
Was the Mantah Corp drone destroyed by the Scorpius Rex actually sent by someone like Kenji's dad, looking for human survivors and not the Scorpius? If so, why did it take months for it to reach the island between season 2 and season 3? Kenji had a good knowledge of the theme park and he had no idea it existed, but that doesn't rule out that someone from Jurassic World didn't receive the signal.
The Cave Beyond The Waterfall
The campers meet new allies in season 4, including Dr. Turner, a Mantah Corp scientist studying dinosaur behavior through their brainwaves. When she discovers that Mantah Corp is intentionally injecting the dinosaur's food with a substance that makes them more aggressive, she vows to help the campers in any way that she can.
At one point, Dr. Turner warns the campers about a cave behind a waterfall, indicating great danger if they become too curious. This plot point is overlooked because of an attack by some BRADs, leaving season 5 to reveal whether or not this is a plot hole or not.