Lego and Jurassic Park have a long and robust relationship, one that covers all manner of actual Lego sets as well as animated TV. But never has the original Jurassic Park movie been reimagined in Lego, until now, and the results are perfectly enjoyable.
Jurassic Park: The Unofficial Retelling is a Peacock exclusive special that just recently was added to the service. It tells the story of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in flashback from the narration of Ian Malcolm, but with Lego-based animation and in 22 minutes.
Calling it “unofficial” is clearly a joke though because not only does the special make full use of John Williams’ legendary score, and have every official, authentic piece of iconography in it, all of the film’s most memorable moments are jammed in there too. It makes for a very brisk, nostalgic watch, one that does a slight disservice to the overall story, but nevertheless works because of its attention to those unforgettable beats with humor at every turn.
Some of the humor is in the form of typical, family-friendly jokes. Some of it is in the form of deeper-cut Easter eggs and even a few cameos. But the biggest laughs, and best moments unique to this special, are whenever something terrible or gross happens in the movie. Like when Denis Nedry gets killed by the Dilophosaurus, Muldoon gets eaten by a Velociraptor, or Ellie Sattler digs through a big pile of dino crap. Whenever a moment like this happens, the show quickly cuts away to the Lego Ian, who makes some funny, G-rated excuse of why they aren’t showing it. It’s very clever.
Fans of the original movie will be a tad frustrated with some of the bigger changes that have to be made to get the story into its tight, 22-minute run time, and there’s even a maddening plot hole involving Samuel L. Jackson’s character (who seems to survive this version of the story only to disappear magically without mention). Plus, the special really focuses mostly on the story itself with only occasional use of its Lego-ness, leaving a lot of what makes this retelling unique seem superfluous (the rare moments it does go full Lego are another highlight). However, those are all minor and very forgivable gripes for a project that was clearly made with a single purpose: to bring some of the wonder of Jurassic Park to a much younger audience. In that aim, the show succeeds.
Jurassic Park: The Unofficial Retelling is now on Peacock. Watch it here.
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