Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs: Up Up and Away

Have you ever met a bungee-jumping dinosaur pirate with an accordion phobia? Author Giles Andreae struck treasure when he mashed up two of kids' favourite things in his 2006 book Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs. The animated series, which began in 2015 and ran for 52 episodes, was based on his story and Russell Ayto’s illustrations.  

In the 2017 episode Up Up and Away, the dinos’ ship gets carried skywards by an excess of birthday balloons. Once aloft, they start thieving via bungee rope. The flying ship owes an obvious debt to James and the Giant Peach and the Pixar movie Up, but the animators’ attention to detail – the dino captain’s skull-and-crossbone cuffs, the king’s purple Y-fronts, a ‘neon’ sign for an island souvenir hawker – gives Pirate Dinosaurs its own charm. 

When the dinos accidentally swipe a crate of the hated ‘squeezeboxes’, they find that crime doesn’t always pay.