Sinking Ship Entertainment is gearing up to launch a feature-length film The First Dinosaur in fall 2026, and Canadian streamer Crave has already signed on to release it. 

The Canadian studio has wrapped principal photography on the hybrid live-action/CG-animated movie, which started production in July. The film expands on Sinking Ship’s popular Dino Kids franchise, bringing together characters from its series Dino Dana and Dino Dex for a new adventure. In the film, 12-year-old Dex sets out with his older sister and some dino pals to discover the origin of the first dinosaur.

Sinking Ship partner J.J. Johnson is director and co-writer on the film. He co-wrote it with frequent Sinking Ship scribes Joan Digba (Dino Dex, Jane) and Christin Simms (Dino Dana, Endlings). 

Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates and Shaw Rocket Fund provided financing for the film. Sinking Ship developed the film with Canada’s Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature. 

Sinking Ship is handling the movie’s North American distribution, and Odin’s Eye Entertainment is in charge of international sales. Odin’s Eye is looking for international partners for the film, Sinking Ship’s head of sales and distribution Kate Sanagan tells Kidscreen. 

The film is planned at 80 minutes, but that could change, Sanagan notes. 

Sinking Ship is focused on making more family-friendly features, after having built up success in the TV world with dinosaur-focused series Dino Dan, Dino Dana and Dino Dex. Those three shows have sold into 200 countries worldwide, says Sanagan. The studio’s Dino Kids YouTube channel, which Sanagan calls “one of the largest platforms for dinosaur content for kids internationally,” has more than two million subscribers and two billion views. 

The company’s first feature-length film was Dino Dana The Movie (75 minutes), which came out in 2020. The studio originally planned to have a theatrical release, but the pandemic forced a shift to a transactional VOD model. Nevertheless, the film did well, and sold into 42 countries worldwide, Sanagan says. Disney+ and Nat Geo Kids picked up the film for Latin America, and just last year, two museums in South America licensed it. 

As part of its effort to grow into the movie business, Sinking Ship is currently developing its first animated feature co-production, Monkey Base. Announced last week, the studio is developing it with SLR Productions in Australia. 

Image courtesy of Sinking Ship (Pictured left to right: Michela Luci, Ana Victoria Dinapo, J.P. Romero, Isaac Kragten).