Episode 122: Boonie Bears: Blast into the Past (2019)

Today we’re exploring the world of the Boonie Bears, China’s biggest animation brand. In the sixth feature film, the bears Blast into the Past—30 thousand years, to be exact, to a time when dinosaur skeletons dotted the landscape and humans were at war with wolves... and giants pandas took their name literally, and rainbow terror birds defied the physics of flight, and cavemen punched lava bombs out of the air with their bare hands! Get in touch with us! Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com Email: [email protected] ArchPodNet: APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet Merch Store: https://archpodnet.com/shop In this episode: Watch Boonie Bears: Blast into the Past on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vwcaf6aj90 Eucladoceros (the bush-antlered deer): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucladoceros Homotherium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homotherium Megacerops... or Brontops, or Brontotherium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megacerops Phorusracids (terror birds): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorusrhacidae Kumar et al. (2017) The evolutionary history of bears is characterized by gene flow across species: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep46487 Wu et al. (2022) High-precision U-series dating of the late Pleistocene – early Holocene rock paintings at Tiger Leaping Gorge, Jinsha River valley, southwestern China: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105535 Fu et al. (2025) Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the >146,000-year-old Harbin cranium: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.040 Callaway (2021) Oldest DNA from a Homo sapiens reveals surprisingly recent Neanderthal ancestry: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00916-0