DINOSAUR (Walt Disney) Voices: D. B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Samuel E. Wright, Della Reese, Joan Plowright, Max Casella. Screenplay: Producer: Pam Marsden. Directors: Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag. MPAA Rating: PG (violence, adult themes) Running Time: 82 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
For approximately five minutes, the computer-animated DINOSAUR is undeniably spectacular. The story creeps up without dialogue, following the fate of one little dinosaur egg from its trampled, abandoned nest across an astonishing primeval landscape. Creatures of the water nudge the leathery ovum along in lakes teeming with life; creatures of the air carry it over plateaus and through verdant valleys. Seven years removed from the revolutionary screen creations of JURASSIC PARK, I didn't think it would be possible for the mere sight of digital dinosaurs to seize the imagination, but it happens in DINOSAUR nonetheless. With its entirely visual storytelling, DINOSAUR's prologue offers a giddiness-inducing prospect: an introduction to a lost world as quietly, primally engrossing as Kubrick's "dawn of man" prologue to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
And then a cute little simian opens its stupid mouth.
I knew going into DINOSAUR that it was a Disney film aimed at kids, so I can't say I was expecting anything more profound than the story it ultimately provided. That didn't make its presence any less disappointing. That story follows an Iguanodon named Aladar (voiced by D. B. Sweeney), orphaned in true Disney protagonist fashion after hatching from the aforementioned egg to a family of primitive Lemurs. He lives happily with his adopted mother Plio (Alfre Woodard), grandfather Yar (Ossie Davis) and brother Zini (Max Casella) until a meteor shower wreaks havoc on the lemur's habitat. Aladar and his family find themselves back in the realm of the dinosaurs, joined with a herd migrating across a decimated landscape in hopes of finding their nesting ground spared from the meteors' destruction.
Along the way, of course, conflicts develop. The Aladar clan befriends and helps a pair of geriatric dinos -- Brachiosaur Baylene (Joan Plowright) and Styrachosaur Eema (Della Reese) -- much to the consternation of the herd's proto-Darwinian Iguanodon leader Kron (Samuel E. Wright, erstwhile Sebastian from THE LITTLE MERMAID). Aladar, previously isolated from any others of his kind, swoons over Kron's sweet-natured sister Neera (Julianna Margulies), further provoking Kron's wrath. There are confrontations with a pack of hungry Velociraptors and with a pair of equally hungry Carnotaurs (think T. rex, only with even worse dispositions and devilish horns). There are close calls, narrow escapes and grand battles.
Yaaaaaaawwn. Disney's animated features have generally been pretty formulaic, so it's no shock to discover that DINOSAUR features a by-the-numbers script. This variation, however, is so relentlessly somber and dreary that there's nothing left but formula. The personalities of the principal characters are so bland and the vocal performances so uninspired that the characters threaten to disappear into the backgrounds -- no small feat considering the overwhelming brown-ness of the desolate post-apocalyptic scenery. Even the minor characters like Zini and Eema -- those theoretically present to provide a little comic relief -- can't inject any life into the film. In recent Disney films, the musical numbers have come off as purely obligatory, but I found myself pleading for a snappy tune to breathe some life into the film. It's hard to imagine what young viewers would find to embrace in this grim production, and even harder to imagine what would keep an adult awake.
There's no denying that the technology involved in the creation of DINOSAUR is extraordinary, mixing the computerized cast with some real-world settings so seamlessly that it's virtually impossible to tell where reality and hard drive overlap. Apparently, however, co-director Ralph Zondag has become no more adept at dinosaur-driven storytelling than he was for the limp 1993 animated feature WE'RE BACK! That film seemed rushed into theaters to capitalize on that summer's Jurassic juggernaut. This one misses its opportunity to step out of the Spielbergian shadow, gradually devolving into a series of all-too-familiar set pieces. That's a sad end to a film that begins with so much promise. Of course no one would risk millions on DINOSAUR without anthropomorphized animals. Better to recycle Disney's orphan fetish without a whiff of personality or humor, its early grandeur slowly but steadily fading into extinction.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 'saur losers: 5.
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