Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal:
The Complete Third Season
review by Bobby Blakey
Genndy Tartakovsky has delivered some of my favorite animated series including Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and the original Clone Wars micro-series as well as directed the three Hotel Transylvania films. In 2019 he unleashed the all-new series Primal that kicked all kinds of ass for 2 seasons, but seemed to be done with the way season 2 ended, but clearly that was not the case. Now you can bring the prehistoric chaos home with Primal: The Complete Third Season.
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Primal follows the tale of a caveman at the dawn of evolution as he forms an unlikely friendship with an almost extinct dinosaur. With suspense, heartbreak, excitement, love, and fear all without a single word of dialogue, the series is a painting come to life, relying solely on music and graphic imagery to tell the story of two unlikely allies as they navigate through a treacherous world. In Season Three, a shocking twist that resurrects Spear in a new form—stripped of memory and humanity—and forces him to roam a brutal, untamed world as a shadow of his former self. As Spear battles savage landscapes and deadly foes, faint echoes of his past begin to stir, leading him toward an emotional and explosive reunion that will test the limits of survival.
This is easily still one of the most effective and brilliant animated projects in some time. The entire series features very little dialogue but still so much emotion from both the caveman and the dinosaur. You completely understand and feel everything they are both going through whether it be emotional or just action packed. It still has no business working as well as it does, but the attention to detail to bring these action-packed tales to life works to perfection.
At the end of the previous season, they had killed off the caveman and had
announced that the plans were to move forward with a possible variety of new tales of primal rage. Clearly, they changed course with the resurrection of the caveman into a full-on zombie which added a dark new twist to the already excellent series. This approach gave it a sense of new life; pun intended and allowed it to go in new directions while keeping things familiar. It might seem farfetched, but since they had already introduced some supernatural elements to the series it worked to perfection.
An important addition to the journey is not only his mindless wandering through this world, but after every battle he is left more battered and dismembered. This look gets more and more gruesome-esque with each episode and looks great. They even came up with the perfect final act to start bringing things back around somewhat in way that gets the series back on track for the perfect finale or set up for another season should it decide too.
Being a fan of pretty much everything Tartakovsky has done I knew I would love it but honestly was never sure it could last more than one season. I am so glad I was wrong as each season was better than the next.
In addition to all 10 episodes of the season, this release also features bonus content including a storyboard walkthrough and featurette taking a deeper look behind the latest season. Grab your copy of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal: The Complete Third Season when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on June 30th from Warner Bros Home Entertainment.