Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal follows the adventures of a caveman named Spear (Aaron LaPlante) and a dinosaur named Fang, who form an unlikely friendship after a shared tragedy. As the two journey across the primordial land, it is a massive struggle just to survive, with new, deadly dangers waiting around every corner. Despite having no dialogue, the series does an excellent job of making this world come to life, giving these characters fully-formed personalities and emotions, and saying so much without even speaking. The viewer is taken along this journey, feeling the sadness, joy, excitement and humor along with these characters, and gets truly invested in their fate and experiences. The series is action-packed, raw, and gory, and crosses many genres over the course of the season. It starts off as bit of a tragedy/revenge story, then moves into some humor, action/adventure, fantasy, horror and drama.

A rundown of the ten first season episodes is as follows:

• “Spear and Fang” – While hunting for fish, caveman Spear hears his family being attacked by dinosaurs, but doesn’t get back to the cave in time. He ponders ending his own life, but ultimately decides to get his revenge, hunting down the dinosaurs who took his family. However, when he sees another dinosaur in a similar tragic situation, he forms an unlikely ally.
• “River of Snakes” – Spear struggles to coexist with his new dino friend Fang, who keeps taking all of the food he is trying to hunt and gather.
• “A Cold Death” – The cold has set in, and the snow has made it difficult to see and move. For food and warmth, Spear and Fang attack a sickly wooly mammoth who has fallen behind the rest of its herd, however, when the rest of the herd discover the carcass, they want revenge.
• “Terror Under the Blood Moon” – The rising of a blood red moon brings out some new scary creatures, and Spear and Fang find themselves on the run from giant bats and spiders.
• “Rage of the Ape-Men” – Spear and Fang end up at an oasis paradise and enjoy a much needed rest, but soon find themselves captives of a primitive race of apelike men who stage fights to the death for entertainment.
• “Scent of Prey” – Spear tries to patch up Fang and get her to safety to heal, but vultures, hyenas and other creatures begin to descend on the carnage from the battle the night before, eagerly awaiting their chance to feast.
• “Plague of Madness” – A deadly illness starts to spread through some otherwise peaceful herbivore dinosaurs, turning them into rabid zombie-like monsters, and posing a dangerous new threat for Spear and Fang.
• “Coven of the Damned” – Spear and Fang investigate a strange green glow in the trees, where they witness some a dark magic ritual. However they are discovered, and a witch tries to put Fang under her spell and make Spear her next victim.
• “The Night Feeder” – A mysterious predator is massacring creatures under the cover of night. As Spear and Fang nervously continue their journey, they are startled by every unusual sound, and struggle to stay awake, wondering when it will come for them.
• “Slave of the Scorpion” – As Spear and Fang are fishing, a mysterious more-advanced woman with chains on her wrists and a yoke around her neck runs ashore, and joins them on their journey.

This series is a visual and aural feast. The animation style looks all hand-drawn, rather than the more realistic 3D computer-animated style of most modern animated feature films. However, it still has a very beautiful and cinematic look to it, particularly in scenes like Spear chasing down a wild boar in the second episode, or when a a pack of dinosaurs is in pursuit of Fang and Spear in the opening of episode 4, or episode 9, which feels like an all-out horror movie. Over the course of the season, there is lots of amazing action sequences, and many gory scenes with creatures being torn apart. The animators sometimes make use of slow motion and/or blurring/pulling focus in order to enhance the action and make it feel more cinematic. The Blu-ray presentation is solid, with rich colors and detail that looks excellent both in bright sunny scenes as well as darker nighttime sequences. There are a few moments during high action sequences that I initially thought had some aliasing issues, however, upon pausing and looking at a still frame, this effect was actually due to the way some of the frames are drawn—using squiggly and/or rough lines instead of the solid, straight lines used elswhere—and so this blurring effect seems to be intentional. I found it a little distracting, but fortunately, it only occurs a small number of times, primarily in the first few episodes.

To set the tone and mood, the series features an emotional, tense and primitive-sounding score, which really fills the room and builds the excitement. The audio track also provides a fully-immersive soundscape, bringing the sounds of nature and the jungle to life. Whether it’s the chittering of bugs and birds, the roaring of mysterious creatures, the buzzing of flies, a torrential downpour, blowing winds, or a snow squall, the viewer is transported right there in the middle of it all. The disc offers English subtitles, but since the series has no dialogue, this SDH track just further explains all of these wonderful sounds for those who may not be able to fully experience it.

All 10 episodes reside on a single Blu-ray disc, which is packed in a standard HD keepcase, placed inside a cardboard slipcase. Inside is a sheet with the digital copy redemption instructions as well as an episode guide insert.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (3:40:57)

Blu-ray:
• All 10 episodes of the first season:
  “Spear and Fang”, “River of Snakes”, “A Cold Death”, “Terror Under the Blood Moon”, “Rage of the Ape-Men”, “Scent of Prey”, “Plague of Madness”, “Coven of the Damned”, “The Night Feeder”, “Slave of the Scorpion”
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, French*, Netherlands* (*Only available for Behind The Scenes.) ​

Digital: (Redemption deadline 6/30/2022)

• Digital HD copy of the episodes redeemable via Vudu.
  The digital copy redeems for a bundle including both halves of the season, all ten episodes.

Extras:

• Behind the Scenes: Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal (10:18)
  The filmmakers discuss the premise of the series, the decision to go with no dialogue, the visual style, pace and tone of the series, the sound design and score, the animation process, and more. Includes behind-the-scenes footage of the sound team, Aaron LaPlante in the recording booth, and the animators at work, plus interviews with creator/director Genndy Tartakovsky, art director Scott Wills, and executive producer Julien Chheng & layout artist Camille De Knÿff (both from Studio La Cachette, and both speaking in French with English subtitles).

Final Thoughts:

I had never seen Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal before checking it out on this Blu-ray release, and I was pleasantly surprised. Even without any dialogue, the series takes the viewer on an exciting and tense journey, across a range of emotions. After binging the season, I was thoroughly satisfied, and certainly look forward to seeing what happens in the second season. The Blu-ray presentation is excellent, with solid video and an immersive soundtrack. The disc contains just one short 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, but the release also includes a digital copy of the episodes.