Here’s How the Velociraptors Have Changed Through Each ‘Jurassic Park’ Film

One of the key dynamics of every film in the Jurassic Park franchise is the raptors. One thing that’s notable, however, is how their appearance has evolved over the course of the series.

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Through all four current films, the velociraptors have provided crucial elements of tension and suspense in the every expanding story of dinosaurs returned from extinction.

Maybe one of the most, if not the most, memorable moments the raptors have given us is when they chased Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Alex (Ariana Richards) through the industrial kitchen of the visitor’s center in Jurassic Park.

That first film had several great moments with the cunningly vicious creatures, but that one showed them for how truly brilliant and majestic dangerous they were.

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Fast forward to Jurassic World from a couple of years ago, and the Velociraptors are shown to have retained their clever viciousness, but now the humans have found a way to harness it to their advantage.

Below, you’ll find comparisons of the way the raptors are visually depicted through each film, as first shared by JurassicWorld2Movie.com.

Scroll Down to See How the Velociraptors Have Changed Through Each ‘Jurassic Park’ Film

Jurassic Park – Isla Nublar Raptors

The Nublar Raptors are the “classic” raptors that fans are most used to. They originated from Isla Nublar, Site A, and are distinguishable by their brownish-yellow skin tone, and featuring large eyes and a lean build.

Their skulls had a comparatively flat surface and they donned 3-fingered razor sharp claws, not to mention their famous toe claw on each individual foot.

One of the most impressive elements about the raptors in Jurassic Park was that the CGI that was used to help bring them to “life” was almost identical to their puppeteer counterparts. Taking into consideration the era of CGI this was developed in, that is a great accomplishment.

However, Jurassic Park used as little raptor CGI as possible, opting for the to use of animatronics whenever possible. These raptors jumped out of the screen at you (metaphorically speaking) due to their incredibly “real” quality.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park – Isla Sorna Raptors

The Sorna Raptors from The Lost World: Jurassic Park, who originated from Site B, Isla Sorna, seemed to basically maintain the same molds and CGI renderings as the Raptors from Jurassic Park.

The only noticeable difference to them was that their skin color has more of an orange base, and they had black stripes.

Additionally, the Sorna Raptors also sported bright yellow eyes, while their Nublar counterparts had more of green color to their eyes.

Another similarity the Sorna Raptors has was that they also featured the same claws and distinguishable roars that the Jurassic Park Raptors had. They also have a similar body type and eye shape.

Truthfully, other than color, there isn’t a whole lot of difference between these raptors and the ones on Isla Nublar in Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park 3 – JP3 Sorna Raptors 2.0

Jurassic Park 3 was the pinpoint moment when the raptors went through the biggest changes.

Like in The Lost World, these Velociraptors were also found on Isla Sorna, and in addition to physical differences from the raptors of the first two films, these Raptors also displayed differences between male and female.

The female Raptors were depicted as being white with black markings all over their bodies.

On the other hand, the males raptors were far more colorful. They were depicted as mostly blue with black & white stripes across the sides of their bodies.

Additionally, the males featured feather-like crests on top of their heads that seemed to shift positions based on the raptor’s mood.

Ultimately, it’s not really known why the JP3 Raptors are so different from the previously seen Sorna ones.

Jurassic World – Jurassic World Raptors / Raptor Squad

The story in Jurassic World takes place on Isla Nubar. According to the information, we can assume that this is where they originated from, or at least where they were captured.

It is interesting, though, because these raptors are drastically different than any we’ve seen in the previous Jurassic Park films.

They appear bulkier than the previous versions of the raptors. It seems like they wouldn’t be quite as agile,

It’s very noticeable in their heads, which seems incredibly bulky, but that could also just be a result of CGI, but overall they seem less streamlined.

It’s clear they’ve retained traits from the previous raptors, however, as we can see their eyes have gone back to the cat-like pupils with an orange-ish iris.

Ultimately, while there are big differences, the Jurassic World raptors are just as intimidating and clever as the ones from the previous films. While we have little information on how they’ll be depicted in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, we’re sure to see an exciting new incarnation of the iconic creatures.