Worst Episode Ever: Extreme Dinosaurs “Holiday on Ice”

If the Golden Age of half-assed youngsters’ cartoons was the early ‘80s, then I would like to dub the latter half of the’90s to be the Silver Age. It was a time when animators would throw syndicated crap into kids’s eyes after college to see what caught, and virtually none of it did. Half of those half-assed sequence have been about anthropomorphic animals in hopes of replicating the large success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, however whilst a rip-off of their reptilian descendants, the Extreme Dinosaurs are horrible. Also, they met Santa.

I’m nicely conscious an incredible many horrible cartoons have featured visitor appearances by Santa, however often he’s simply… Santa. Extreme Dinosaurs manages to take this quite simple concept and make it unnecessarily bizarre and dumb.

First, a bit of rundown on Extreme Dinosaurs, which isn’t simply the title of the present but in addition their group title, which is frankly embarrassing. Beginning as common ol’ dinosaurs, they have been kidnapped by an alien prison who turned them into half-dino, half-man warriors. When the Extreme Dinosaurs rebelled, the alien grabbed one other group of dinosaurs known as the Raptors. I’ve completely no concept how the timeline works right here however now all of them reside on modern-day Earth and struggle one another, primarily as a result of the Raptors wish to trigger world warming. Also, the EDs reside in a dinosaur museum within the barren wastes of Arizona, which is run by a person named—and I’m not making this up—Pork.

Bad Rap, the chief of the Raptors, has his crew head to the North Pole, the place they plan to put sonic disruptors issues within the floor that can in some way soften the ice. Meanwhile, a very completely different sign has begun emitting from the North Pole, and T-Bone the T.Rex leads the Extreme Dinosaurs off to research—however not earlier than some member of Pork’s household drops off his son, Matt, whereas he works till Christmas. Matt is extraordinarily bitter he’s behind deserted at a derelict museum, I believe justifiably so, and thus has no Christmas spirit. (He can also be utterly unfazed by the sight of speaking dinosaur males.) In an act of unfathomable baby endangerment, Pork sends Matt to the North Pole with a bunch of dinosaurs as a result of “he could use a little adventure.”

The sign leads the Dinosaurs to an airplane hangar which doesn’t home an airplane however does include Klaus Nicholas, a sonar? radar? technician? researcher? who is completely Santa Claus. As you’ll learn, he makes no effort to cover his magical powers and gives completely no clarification as to what the hell he’s doing on this analysis station. But he’s apparently summoned the EDs to research some alarms which have been repeatedly going off, the reason for which seems to be the Raptors inserting their disrupters into the bottom.

Santa immediately is aware of what the Raptors are doing, and tells the Extreme Dinosaurs he can block the disrupters’ sign if he will get one of many gadgets. And when Matt tries to tag together with the EDs, Santa distracts him with a cup of scorching cider, which he is aware of is Matt’s favourite. Because he’s Santa. Communications expertise Santa.

The Dinosaurs snowboard over to the Raptors and have some gentle fisticuffs which contain Bad Rap in some way discovering his personal snowboard off-screen. Then he will get uninterested in the struggle and prompts a number of Cyber-Raptor robots, which he buried deep within the ice as a substitute of getting available, primarily so the animators didn’t have to attract them as a lot. The Raptors escape… for about 60 seconds, just for the Extreme Dinosaurs to search out them once more. Then the Raptors immediately hit them with a freeze ray, and escape once more.

Now, again in Santa’s analysis station, a number of utterly batshit issues occur. The first half-point factor is that this dialog that arises when Santa’s canine seems:

Santa: Mmm. You like canines, don’t you?

Matt: Yeah, however my dad received’t let me have one.

Santa: Well, pets are quite a lot of work.

Matt: That’s what he says. And being a second father or mother and all.

Santa: That is quite a lot of work. Your father most likely has his palms full simply attempting to lift you.

I guarantee you, the opposite half-point is coming. The second full level is Santa’s recommendation when Matt sees the Extreme Dinosaurs freezing to dying in an arctic storm:

Matt: They’re going to freeze on the market. It’s too chilly for them!

Santa: Your buddies are very resourceful. Have religion in them. I do.

The Extreme Dinosaurs are actually unconscious and buried below ice at this level. Luckily, at this level, the storm stops and the solar comes out, reviving them. Now, did Santa magically have an effect on the climate? Very probably, however whether or not by luck or semi-divine intervention, the Extreme Dinosaurs didn’t escape below their very own energy, and thus Santa’s religion in them was solely misplaced. In truth, as soon as freed, the Dinosaurs heat up by consuming salsa, which isn’t how something works.

The EDs discover the Raptors by the hanger, simply as they’ve positioned their final sonic disrupter and are about to hit the detonator. But when Bullzeye the Pteradon manages to grab the detonator, Bad Rap grabs Matt from the analysis station as a hostage, a crafty transfer made extra spectacular that Bad Rap didn’t and couldn’t know Matt was there. He shouldn’t have even recognized Matt existed.

Bad Rap gives to commerce Matt for the detonator, so T-Bone tosses it over, dooming billions of individuals to a moist dying. Intriguingly, Bad Rap merely doesn’t give Matt again, and nobody feedback on this—not even Santa, who has used his tech expertise to in some way block the detonator’s sign. The annoyed Bad Rap then kidnaps Matt, escaping on a snowmobile that has by no means as soon as been proven earlier than, and when the Extreme Dinosaurs begin to give chase, insane Santa second quantity three happens: Santa stops them from making an attempt to rescue the kid.

Here’s what Santa says: “He’ll be okay now that he’s learned to believe in people.” Then: “The boy will be back in an hour. He’s thinking positive! I suggest you do the same.” Ignoring the truth that this Santa can see the goddamned future, that is totally horrible recommendation for a kidnap sufferer or their family members. Also, please take a second to pity the poor kids of the ‘90s, who suddenly discovered themselves watching a cartoon where the main heroes were sitting around doing nothing.

Santa is correct, of course. The Raptor named Haxx returns Matt right on time to give Santa a letter—his Christmas wishlist, of course, perhaps having been convinced by Matt that anthropomorphic dinosaurs who do good deeds shortly after trying to murder the vast majority of homo sapiens get presents. The wild thing is that Haxx does. Santa ends up giving the dino-terrorist exactly what he wanted, which was a baby tarantula. Also, please note Matt’s perception in individuals didn’t free him; it was a bribe.

But that’s merely wild. It’s not insane. The remaining half a degree of madness arrives Christmas morning when Matt will get his personal current from Santa: a canine.

Yes, regardless of the desires of Matt’s dad, and even after recognizing the difficulties and workload that include being a single father or mother, this motherfucker offers Matt a canine anyway.

To the animators’ credit score, Matt’s dad appears as betrayed as one would possibly anticipate, though he tries to placed on a cheerful face as Matt guarantees to care for his new pet, a vow he’ll doubtless break in months if not weeks, forcing deal or dad to scoop the poop of the creature he by no means wished in his life within the first place. Ho ho ho, everyone! Merry Christmas!

So, in line with Extreme Dinosaurs, your vacation classes are as follows:

• A optimistic perspective will help you escape kidnappers.
• One small, good deed utterly negates tried genocide.
• Making life more durable for single mother and father is its personal reward.

I’d inform you all to provide your self the current of by no means watching an episode of Extreme Dinosaurs, however I desire to not give items individuals have already got.

Assorted Musings:

• Bullzeye asks Santa if he can pull his sleigh on Christmas Eve, to which the proper jolly outdated sonar technician agrees. But as you’ll be able to see above, the TV information discovers Santa’s sleigh on radar, on which Santa is clearly lacking. Did he fall out or voluntarily leap? Please talk about.
• When arriving on the hangar, Matt approaches a pc, sits, and exclaims, “Cool game!” As Santa instantly factors out, this isn’t a recreation however a set of reside safety feeds. Matt is an fool and this episode was written by half-drunk 40-year-old males who didn’t perceive what video video games are.
• The voice actor for Spittor the Raptor performs him with a Peter Lorre accent, and I hate it.
• When the Extreme Dinosaurs categorical disappointment that they have to wait one other yr for Christmas, Bullzeye yells “Kwanzaa starts tomorrow!”, throws pink, inexperienced, and black confetti within the air, and begins laughing hysterically. As God is my witness, I’ve completely no concept find out how to really feel about this.

Want extra io9 information? Check out when to anticipate the most recent Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every little thing it’s worthwhile to find out about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.