Primal... The best none dialog, prehistoric animated adventure that ticks all the right boxes!

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"Primal" is a new short animated series from Genndy Tartakovsky (also known for Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab and Hotel Transylvania). The series is a fantasy adventure set in a fictional prehistoric world where dinosaur and cavemen exist at the same time (so this is not for those who want a historically accurate depiction in the animation format) currently there are five 22 minute episodes released, with another five due out in 2020.

I'm focusing one the first episode "Spear and Fang" and looking at the camera work and use of lighting, as well as the main feature that caught my attention, no dialog!

Despite the story not having dialog, the most part of the story is told through body language, emotions and sound, artistic liberties are taken with the creatures, for example Fang the Tyrannosaurid, have anthropomorphic personality feeling more like kids in the playground reenacting a dinosaur fight more than a wildlife documentary.



Spear the caveman however, being a human is easier for the viewer to connect with, since we already have an understanding of an expression or emotion.



The camera work in this episode is extremely well done, using lots of wide shots, panning, extreme closeups on eyes and faces and not being afraid to bring the camera tight on the action so the viewer can't see the whole shot.



The lighting really enhances the environment and the time of day, as well as the strength of the emotion in a situation during a action scene.



One thing I also highly enjoyed about this episode was the score and sound design, using sounds that really connect with the retro dinosaur works of previous decades, and the score really enhances the emotions and situations moods.

How this relates to my work is that each of these episodes could be seen as a stand alone short film, but mostly that its a great reference to storytelling in a "slice of life" style.

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