e219. Why We Still Love the Jurassic Park Franchise

Somehow, in 2022, there’s a Jurassic Park movie at the top of the box office. Some twenty-nine years after the first film and 32 years after the release of the first novel, this series is still going strong. There are cartoons, video games, Lego sets and other toys. Even though Jurassic World Dominion is theoretically the end of the current series, the film is already doing well enough at the box office that it’s almost assured that the franchise isn’t done. We’re going to see more of this sooner or later. That said, the ratings to this film are not… “good”. In fact, the reviews overall have been largely negative for the majority of the film series. This doesn’t seem to matter in the slightest. The franchise has banked nearly $6billion to date. This week, on Hannah’s dream episode, she, Katya and Mav are joined by returning guest Amy Hummel to talk about everything Jurassic Park. From the original novel all the way through to the current film, why does this series work so well for people? What does it have to say about science, capitalism, humanity, academia, ethics, politics, industry, and life that has people routinely coming back for more? Join us as we review the most recent film (don’t worry there are no real spoilers) and talk about the legacy of the franchise. Then let us know what you think in the comments. Citations and Links: * This episode’s Call for Comments* “Something Happened to U.S. Drug Costs in the 1990s” by Austin Frakt* “The Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has come to life” by Nitasha Tiku* “Jurassic Park’s Laura Dern Explains Why Ellie and Alan’s Age Gap Is No Longer Appropriate” by Emily Zogbi* Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton * Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme* Follow Hannah on Twitter: @hannahleerogers* Follow Mav on Twitter: @chrismaverick* Follow Katya on Instagram: @katyagorecki* Follow us on Twitter: @voxpopcast* Follow us on Instagram: @voxpopcast* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast* Subscribe to our YouTube channel* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!