“Dinosaur Train” produced and syndicated by PBS Kids is one of the most educational shows to come out in the last couple of years. The Wiki write-up is down below. We have found “Dinosaur Train” to be very popular with the pre-school set, and indeed our 2 year old is a very vocal fan of “Dono-tron.” Personally, I’m in favour of any show that will teach a 5 year old and a 37 year old how to properly pronounce Pachycephalosaurus. Personally, I like “Broccoli Head Dinosaur” better. Certainly easier to spell.

“Dinosaur Train” – “Dinosaurs A to Z” Preivew by The Jim Henson Company

Wiki Write-up:

Dinosaur Train is an American animated series created by Craig Bartlett. The series features a curious young Tyrannosaurus Rex named Buddy who, together with his adopted Pteranodon family, takes the Dinosaur Train to explore his time period, and have adventures with all kinds of dinosaurs. It is produced by The Jim Henson Company in association with Media Development Authority, Sparky Animation, FableVision, and Snee-Oosh, Inc.

It is the second show by The Jim Henson Company to use CGI animation (the first of which was Sid the Science Kid).

The show is set in a whimsical prehistoric world of jungles, swamps, active volcanoes and oceans, all teeming with dinosaur and other animal life, and connected by a train line known as the Dinosaur Train. This steam-engine train can be customized for dinosaurs of all kinds: windows accommodate the long-necked sauropods, there’s plenty of headroom in the Observation Car for the larger theropods, and the Aquacar is an aquarium for sea-going passengers. The train itself is run by Troodons, as the smartest dinosaurs in this fictional universe. The Dinosaur Train circles the whole world—it even crosses the oceans and inland seas, with stops to visit undersea prehistoric animals. It can travel through the entire Mesozoic Era, the “Age of Dinosaurs,” passing through magical Time Tunnels to the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous time periods.

The world of Dinosaur Train is seen through the eyes of Buddy the Tyrannosaurus. In the show’s main title song, we learn that Buddy was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Pteranodon. He hatched at the same time as his pteranodon siblings Tiny, Shiny, and Don. By traveling in the Dinosaur Train around the Mesozoic, supplied with all dinosaur facts by the train’s Troodon Conductor, Buddy learns that he is a Tyrannosaurus. As an adopted kid in a mixed-species family, Buddy is curious about the differences between species and vows to learn about all the dinosaurs he can by riding the Dinosaur Train. The dinosaurs featured in the show are actual dinosaurs discovered by paleontologists.

Dinosaur Train is co-produced and animated by Sparky Animation Studios in Singapore, with casting by Vidaspark and voice-overs recorded at Kozmic Sound in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It premiered on Labor Day 2009 and airs daily on PBS Kids, and in various countries around the world. 40 half-hour episodes have been ordered by PBS Kids so far. Each episode is followed by a live-action segment featuring Dinosaur Train educational consultant and world-renowned paleontologist Dr. Scott D. Sampson, who appears onscreen to explain the show’s dinosaur curriculum in greater detail.