The Great Dinosaur Mystery and Dinosaur Rock

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
What is it with kids and dinosaurs? This fascinating fascination with all things homunculus and extinct seems as old as time itself. On The Great Dinosaur Mystery: A Musical Fossil Fantasy, a cast of characters (and dinosaurs, of course) move through a dinosaur discovery story with a collection of songs set in both the modern age and the Mesozoic era. Detective Joe Kafootsie and Dr. Vander Plaster Caster enlist the help of kids and a set of parents to find out what happened to the dinosaurs. The songs are upbeat, the styles varying from highly theatrical tangos to swing, country, and pop, and the plot is as much fun as your imagination will allow. Played like a radio drama of old, The Great Dinosaur Mystery does a wonderful job of teaching not only about dinosaurs, but also about good listening skills. Complete with lyrics and some legit facts about our lost megacreatures of long ago, Mystery answers basic questions about certain types of dinosaurs and why they became extinct. But it never even ventures a guess about why we're still so taken with their plight. Is it because, as the cast sings near the end of the record, "dinosaurs are forever?" --Martin Keller

From Parents' Choice®
Join singing paleontologist Dr. Vander PlasterCaster (Michele Valeri), Detective Joe Kafootsie (Joe Pipik), who's working the "strange phenomenon detail", and a bunch of captivating young kids as they try to solve the mystery of museum dinosaur exhibits that come to life-then disappear. Along the way, listeners are treated to some unusually creative, tongue-twisting, but still singable songs about the dinosaurs in question. The Italian-flavored "Mama Maiasaura," about how the "good mother... read more

The Great Dinosaur Mystery and Dinosaur Rock

Tracks:

The Great Dinosaur Mystery
'...Detective Joe Kafootsie!'
Dinosaurs Forever!
'Welcome To The Museum!'
Mama Maiasaura
'The Earth Is Home!'
I'm A Detective, Too
'And You're Speaking French!'
The Lizard In Me
'You Have Eyes, But You Just Can't See!'
The Bonehead Boogie
'Use Your Head!'
Big Bad Baby Rex
'Protect Earth!'
Baby Protoceratops
'The Earth Is Alive!'
Boris Ankylosaurus
'Life Is Good!'
Ptompson Pterodactyls
'All One Family!'
The Great Dinosaur Mystery
'Learn From the Past!'
Extinction Stinks
'So Don't Let It Happen To You'
Dinosaurs Forever! (Reprise)

Amazon.com

What is it with kids and dinosaurs? This fascinating fascination with all things homunculus and extinct seems as old as time itself. On The Great Dinosaur Mystery: A Musical Fossil Fantasy, a cast of characters (and dinosaurs, of course) move through a dinosaur discovery story with a collection of songs set in both the modern age and the Mesozoic era. Detective Joe Kafootsie and Dr. Vander Plaster Caster enlist the help of kids and a set of parents to find out what happened to the dinosaurs. The songs are upbeat, the styles varying from highly theatrical tangos to swing, country, and pop, and the plot is as much fun as your imagination will allow. Played like a radio drama of old, The Great Dinosaur Mystery does a wonderful job of teaching not only about dinosaurs, but also about good listening skills. Complete with lyrics and some legit facts about our lost megacreatures of long ago, Mystery answers basic questions about certain types of dinosaurs and why they became extinct. But it never even ventures a guess about why we're still so taken with their plight. Is it because, as the cast sings near the end of the record, "dinosaurs are forever?" --Martin Keller

Customer Reviews:

great music, poor acting.......2003-02-04

As other reviewers have said, these DinoRock productions are great for kids. The music quality is fantastic! Each one has several songs that I love to sing along with, and I often sing or hum the catchiest parts off and on during the day.

But -- the narration is kind of annoying. And I feel bad expressing this opinion, because I really do like these works, but I would like them so-o-o much better if they had hired professional actors to do the spoken parts. I'm sorry, the tunes are great, but the spoken lines fall flat! Very amateur sounding. I'm pretty sure that even I could do a better job reading the lines. So, if you are easily annoyed by that type of production flaw, be fore-warned. But of course, the kids don't mind, and most assuredly don't even notice.

Road trip after dark? time for the greatest mystery of all!.......2002-05-08

Still a hit at our house after 2 years.......2000-07-11

My 3 and 5 year old children are going into their second year listening to this gem. I'm glad it's a CD and not an LP because it would have been worn out long ago. The Dino Rock folks also perform live with puppets (mainly in the D.C. area) and are wonderful.

Best of its kind.......1999-10-03

Enjoyable for both adults and children, this CD combines useful information about dinosaurs with different styles of musical expression. It contains very "catchy" tunes.

excellent music, scientifically accurate.......1999-08-30

This CD is fun for adults, too. Most kids love dinosaurs, and this provides excellent music with scientifically accurate information about dinosaurs. It doesn't speak down to kids in terms of content or musical diversity; from blue-grass to zydeco and light rock, the musicianship is entertaining for all ages.

Music:

Music

Music