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: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

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

Today we’re reviewing Cavegirl (1985), a movie which Wikipedia misleadingly describes as a “sex comedy”. It tells the story of a teenage nerd (i.e., incel) who is accidentally thrown back in time due to some magic crystal/military helicopter shenanigans and meets a charming manic pixie cavegirl who nonetheless fails to instill in him any growth or character development whatsoever.

Get in touch with us!

Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

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 Cavegirl (1985) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3PZdKCzFDc

Watch Cavegirl: A Second Journey Back in Time (2013): https://vimeo.com/193203934

Play Caveman Movie Bingo: https://bingobaker.com#681e1d01d32b436e

Altamira cave paintings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Altamira

Homo erectus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus

Shirley Temple – Animal Crackers in my Soup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNwFXLcrsbc

What is a “dude ranch”? https://www.clazyu.com/blog/working-dude-ranch/what-is-a-dude-ranch-a-brief-history/

Stacy Q – Two of Hearts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBdGT4dn4E

Michelle Bauer in Dinosaur Island (1994): https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000292/mediaviewer/rm3165827072/?ref_=nm_ov_ph

Today we’re reviewing Korg: 70,000 B.C. (1974), a children’s TV series about a Neanderthal family from Hanna-Barbera, creators of The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and more. Unlike those series, however, this one is live-action! Who knew? Anyway, we talk about a lot of academic papers about Neanderthals, because nothing happens in the episode we watched.

Get in touch with us!

Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

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 Korg on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/korg-70-000-bc-s-1ep-01-the-blind-hunter-1974-low-480x-360/Korg+70%2C000+BC+-+S1ep01The+Blind+Hunter1974+%5BLow%2C+480x360%5D.mp4

Cave lions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panthera_spelaea

Caspian tigers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_tiger

Paleoloxodon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeoloxodon

Phylogenetic trees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetic_tree

California woodpeckers: https://avibirds.com/woodpeckers-of-california/

UK woodpeckers: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife/how-identify/identify-uk-woodpeckers

Shanidar 1: https://www.sci.news/othersciences/anthropology/paleoanthropology/shanidar-1-neanderthal-05355.html

Trinkaus et al. (2019) External auditory exostoses among western Eurasian late Middle and Late Pleistocene humans: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220464

Buzi et al. (2025) The first preserved nasal cavity in the human fossil record: The Neanderthal from Altamura: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2426309122

Márquez (2008) The paranasal sinuses: The last frontier in craniofacial biology: https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.20791

The Invention of Prehistory (2024) by Stefanos Geroulanos: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324091455