The Adventures of Jurassic Pet: Return to the Wild
Directed by Ryan Bellgardt and Chris Hoyt
Written by Chris Hoyt, Jerome Reygner-Kalfon and Sebastien Semon
Starring Ava Torres, Kyle Rangel and Marila Lombrozo
Rated PG
Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes
Available on VOD November 19

by Stacey Osbeck, Staff Writer

Oh, to be a lonely kid in a new town who discovers the portal to a dinosaur realm. Ryan Bellgardt’s and Chris Hoyt’s film The Adventures of Jurassic Pet: Return to the Wild, the third installment in the Jurassic Pet series, explores the question of what if a quiet all-American community and the world of dinosaurs collided.

Madison (Ava Torres) and Ethan (Kyle Rangel) arrive new in the area during summer break. At her brother’s coaxing, Madison agrees to be in his social media feed as they head into town. There they witness a car accident. An old man, struck down onto the pavement, thrusts a knapsack into Nathan’s hands. Later at their treehouse, the two discover a huge egg inside cracking apart to reveal a T. rex. They name him Spike, and after some getting-to-know-you fun, he takes off into the woods. Teaming up with a local teen barista, they reconnect with the mysterious old man and learn the forest contains a portal to a dinosaur dimension. Spike, although they would love to keep him, is a wild animal and should be able to run free. They hatch a plan to find the baby T. rex and get him back home before he’s exploited for profit or fame in our world.

This movie does a good job of addressing the many considerations of social media without belaboring the point. Ethan thinks posting his sister’s singing voice will get him insta-famous. He pressures her to belt out a song until his mother gives him a talking to about not using people for show against their will. Later, when Spike emerges, again Ethan’s ready with the camera, but Madison warns him not to post until they’re clear what’s going on—some things can’t be undone. This decision plays out especially important later when the team agrees to keep the land of the dinosaurs secret to protect them. The topic of consent and exploitation bubbles up again when the evil documentary film crew captures Spike to put him on display. The movie is family friendly, so they’re not so much evil as much as maybe they need to revisit some life choices.

With the picture shot in Oklahoma, the movie also had a fun crossover into social media as they got a local comedian I recognize from Instagram, Nadienne Chitwood, for a cameo. She’s known for her favorite game of ‘Who’s Going to Hell’ where she wanders around town judging people from afar in her neck brace and multicolored track suit.

People keep putting their hands out to Spike the way one would to a skittery dog to let them know they’re safe. The one thing I wished was for Spike to reach back out and let someone hold his little T. rex hand. The title is Return to the Wild so it probably wouldn’t fit to domesticate the dinosaur, but I still hoped. A paradigm shift seems to have happened with this species over the years. This apex predator’s powerful jaws used to be its most distinguishing feature. Now we’re more enamored by their puny little arms.

This movie delivers kid-friendly fun from being to end. There were times when people could have easily been killjoys like when Mom found out the dinosaurs in town were real. You’d think she’d throw her kids in the car and flee or at least get them inside. Instead, she telIs them they can go play just be safe. Moments later they enter the dinosaur portal which I’m sure was not what she had in mind, but again at least she wasn’t a wet blanket. I appreciate that with a run time of 82 minutes the filmmakers didn’t whip up extra subplots to fill the time. They focused on the entertaining parts involving teamwork, adventure and unexpected friends.