Cameron and his Dinosaurs Book Review
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| Ahh, childhood memories.... |
In Middle School, back in the day of the early 2010’s, there was one book in particular I loved to read at the school library. Its name? Cameron and the Dinosaurs, a 2009 graphic novel by Scott Christian Sava. It tells the story of Cameron, a young boy in a wheelchair who encounters four living, talking dinosaurs: Brachiosaurus leader Vinnie, Tyrannosaurus fighter Charlie, Pterodactyl scout Dee Dee, and Triceratops tactician Lizzy. After initially being terrified of them (as you’d expect), he befriends them. However, the evil Professor Pointdexter C. Poppycock and the organisation BURPS (Brotherhood of Universal Revolution for Political Subterfuge), who created the dinosaurs, want to recapture them to take over the world. Its up to the dinosaurs and Cameron to stop them and save the day from them and four evil robots built by Poppycock. Between the premise of dinosaurs, and its unique disabled hero, I was enamoured with it.
I had the great fortune through a friend of mind and social organisation to have the book purchased for me a few months ago as of this writing. The book was on my mind for a few months longer earlier, since when it reemerged from the depths of my memories, it inspired me to make a what if? Idea for a cartoon adaptation of it (that's private, however). Indeed, I eventually managed to convince a friend and organisation of mine to buy it. I received it a few months ago, and I have read it extensively.
So how does Cameron and the Dinosaurs hold up after all these years?
….Not very well to be honest. Lets start with the characters.
Characterisation isn’t too good here, mostly because there isn’t much of it. I honestly for the love of my life can’t name much in the way of the main dinosaurs’ personalities, aside from a few moments here and there. The dinosaurs are all samey friendly dinosaurs who are BFFs with Cameron after spending just a few minutes with him (though it is implicitly stated their bonding montage is over a few days at least). Cameron himself feels rather bland and doesn’t change much over the book’s timeframe. The villains are all card-carrying, evil for sake of evil villains who don’t have much reason for them to take over the government.
Plotwise, the book isn’t too notable. We go from Cameron meeting the dinosaurs, becoming friends with them, have a friendship montage, then there’s the big climax, not to mention a lot of the scenes early on just cut back and forth to one another. The way the story plays out doesn’t jar well with me, due to how there’s just not enough set up to give any kind of real emotional impact.
The art is a mixed bag. While the human designs are good, the dinosaurs…. aren’t too much. Maybe its how inconsistent they are. For instance, Vinnie is meant to have the stereotypical crest brachiosaurs have in pop culture, but the way its drawn makes it look more like the horselike diplodocids have only with a ridge on its back to show. The overall art for the dinosaurs feels rather sketchy and sharp, and just doesn’t click for me a lot of the time. However when it does, the stylised designs do work; this is usually when they’re in battle scenes or their introduction scene, which give off power and menace. Meanwhile a bunch of robot dinosaurs that fight with the real ones are also a bit better in my book, due to the more stylised designs fit better.
As for scientific accuracy…. Yeah this isn’t Dinosaur Revolution-level accuracy by a long shot, even with it being fiction. All of the dinosaurs are stereotypical as they come short of tail-dragging, with the pterodactyl (ugh) Dee Dee being the worst offender, with every stereotypical trait you can think of: pteranodon crest, arrowhead tail, and a weird tendency to shift from pseudoteeth to outright teeth (she’s also a plant-eater -that’s also a problem depending on what kind she is). Otherwise, there isn’t much in the way of palaeontology or anything that would truly make a paleo-nerd like me seethe.
Okay, that’s enough negativity from me. Onto the positives.
Cameron being a wheelchair-bound kid (is that the right term?) was always quite fascinating to me. Now as an able-bodied person, I can’t speak for the disabled experience, but I do think it helps this the book stand out from the rest of the ungodly amount of Boy and his X stories we’ve gotten. It also makes something he gains from the new wheelchair he receives [its spoilers otherwise] feel more natural then if he wasn’t (no way the government would let a kid just borrow something like that under any circumstances). Worth mentioning is that besides the new one, Cameron’s disability rarely plays into the plot and isn’t a central focus, for better or worse. I suppose if you are a wheelchair or you know someone who does, they might enjoy it a bit.
The artwork is decent for what it is as mention above. Its gets much better around the climax in particular, were it gets more detailed and shaded, if more cluttered.
The climax itself ain’t too bad itself and is decently entertaining, though its a bit hard to follow if you’re not paying attention (like I do honestly).
I suppose the friendship between Cameron and the dinosaurs is cute.
And now some assorted observations I have about this.
- I find an offhand mention Charlie ate some sheep hilarious because of how casual it is. Really, I appreciate how unlike other palaeo-crap I’ve seen, Charlie’s carnivory isn’t made too big of a deal or treated as a bad thing.
- Some of the panels are recycled from time to time. This isn't a knock or anything, just pointing it out.
- If you want to read this online... well you can't. Good luck buying it, let alone finding a copy, as its highly likely its out of print. I will be uploading the book online this month, however, just so I can share this to the world.
- Accuracy - 4/10
- Aging - 5/10
- Story - 5/10
- Storytelling - 5/10
- Rereadability - 5/10
That's all for now. Goodbye!
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