Dinosaur
rated PG 82 minutes Walt Disney Pictures featuring the voices of D.B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Ossie Davis, Joan Plowright, and Della Reese written by John Harrison and Robert Nelson Jacobs directed by Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag
A Review by Frankie Paiva
Dinosaur is beyond belief in so many ways. The computer animation is astonishing, and it will blow you away. Never before has any film combined live action backgrounds with computer generated characters so seamlessly. Shots where real waterfalls with cascading water blend with images of dinosaurs of all species create a truly unique experience. It really makes a difference to how real you might think it is. The animal's characteristics may be very human-like, but they are always beautiful and interesting. There are so many little details that get closely examined. The ways a lemur's fur might ruffle, the texture of a triceratops's skin, and even more trivial animal elements get handled with the greatest of care. With so much attention to these small particulars, it's amazing one major part of the movie gets entirely overlooked. This gorgeous movie has one derivative and horrendous script.
Like the latest Aardman Animations production Chicken Run, Dinosaur borrows heavily from other animated films. Aladar is a dinosaur whose egg gets dropped off with a bunch of lemurs before he is even born. After some discussion between the heads of the lemur group, the animals decide to adopt the dinosaur and raise him as their own. As Aladar grows up, he longs for others of his species to be with. It appears as if writers John Harrison and Robert Nelson Jacobs copied and pasted the first part of this movie from the script of last year's Disney film Tarzan. A devastating meteor shower forces the lemurs and Aladar off their small island. On the mainland they meet up with a herd of dinosaurs of several species. Aladar finally realizes he's not alone. He soon falls in love with Neera, a female dinosaur whose brother Kron is the head of the group. Kron favors himself and the other stronger animals. He believes that only the strong should survive and hopes to rid himself and others of the weak animals that Aladar tries to help. This of course sounds just like the influence of Gene Hackman's General Mandible who had a similar plan in the 1998 film Antz. The group must travel under harsh conditions to reach the glorious mating grounds, a lush place for dinosaurs. The Land Before Time did the same thing. A Jurassic Park aura is also present.
The problem with Dinosaur is its level of implausibility. Not only do the dinosaurs and lemurs look spectacular, they talk too. There is a good mix of dinosaur roaring and talking in English. This is obviously there for more appeal, but I seriously doubt that before anyone on the earth was born we had lemurs using terms like, "raging epidemic." One rather humorous alternative to the dinosaurs talking and roaring would be to have them roar, and only roar. Their roars could then get translated into subtitles that would appear on the bottom of the screen. However, subtitles aren't exactly kid-friendly and stars like Alfre Woodard and Ossie Davis couldn't get listed as voices. The lack of needed humor was also rather shocking. If the dinosaurs are going to talk, at least give them some good lines. Instead, we get humor like Neera referring to Aladar as a “jerkasaurus� when they first meet. This movie got rated PG for intense images and is likely to frighten young children. There are some very scary and tense scenes (even a few that had me jumping out of my seat) that might send the little ones into crying hysteria. Not being of the tyke type, I found these sequences to be thrilling. The older viewers finally get treated to something heart-pounding that moves things along. There is a string of action moments where the animation and score really shine through.
The formulaic story does have a few bright moments, but it's mostly the standard child's movie fare. Looking back at the kid's animation genre, this formula gets used again and again, and is quite tired. Any change to the strict policy these films adhere to would be welcome. At this time we get left with Dinosaur, which is worth seeing for its visuals, but not its content.
B-
Frankie Paiva SwpStke@aol.com http://www.homestead.com/cinemaparadise/mainpage.html
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