**1/2 out of ****
Year: 2000. Starring the voices of D.B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Joan Plowright, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Alfre Woodard, Samuel E. Wright, Peter Siragusa, Della Reese. Story by Thom Enriquez, John Harrison, Robert Nelson Jacobs, Ralph Zondag. Screenplay by Walon Green (original), John Harrison, and Robert Nelson Jacobs. Directed by Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag. Rated PG.
"Dinosaur" is a great technical accomplishment. It's one of the best-looking movies I've ever seen. Every prehistoric creature is rendered in astonishingly convincing fashion, the backgrounds are lush and detailed (sometimes real-life locations into which the animated characters are placed), and the whole thing filled with crisp, colorful visuals. The first 15 minutes feature a breathtaking sequence in which a mother Iguanadon nests her eggs, only to lose them when a giant predator attacks. The egg is picked up by a Pterodactyl and deposited on a nearby island. All of "Dinosaur's" brilliance as a sensory experience is on display during this opening sequence. Then all potential for an original, innovative work gets tossed out the window when a little lemur-like creature opens its mouth and starts talking, in English, to its little lemur children, who also speak in English. Oh well.
It would be more honest, however, to say that the primary failure of "Dinosaur" is not, as some critics have suggested, that the dinosaurs talk. Nor is it that the film's plot is formulaic, though such an observation would certainly be true: The plot deals with an orphaned dinosaur named Aladar (voice of D.B. Sweeney), who is raised in the care of small mammals on a solitary island. A firestorm destroys Aladar's home, and after he and his adoptive lemur family narrowly escape the ordeal, they are forced to hook up with a group of migrating dinosaurs searching for the fabled "mating grounds," presumably an oasis in the hostile terrain. The dinosaurs are lead by Kron (Samuel E. Wright), a gruff Darwinist bent on following the "survival of the fittest" mantra to the death: He leaves all old or injured animals to fare for themselves, pushing only the able-bodied ones endlessly onward. Aladar, already having rubbed Kron the wrong way by sticking up for some older dinosaurs, runs afoul of the troop's gruff leader even more by taking a liking to his younger sister Neera (Julianna Margulies).
Sounds like many a Disney plot, doesn't it? In fact, the setup of the outcast looking for acceptance from his peers sounds alarmingly similar to that of "Tarzan," Disney's last animated feature. But previous Disney films have been enjoyable despite their predictability, so complaints about a formulaic plot seem somewhat wrong-headed. Likewise complaints about talking animals don't really get to the heart of "Dinosaur's" problem. The enjoyability of a Disney film stems not from its daring, ground-breaking originality, but from the "little things." You enjoy them because they tell a recognizable story in pleasing fashion, with amusing elements to spice up the proceedings. They have catchy songs ("Beauty and the Beast", "The Little Mermaid"), exuberant voice work (Robin Williams in "Aladdin", James Woods in "Hercules"), or breathtaking action sequences ("The Lion King", "Tarzan"). "Dinosaur," unfortunately, is severely lacking in the little things. There are no catchy songs (not necessarily a bad thing, as the quality of songwriting had gradually declined as the years passed -- the songs in "Mulan" weren't memorable at all). None of the celebrity voices provide much distinction: You don't say, "Omigod! Julianna Margulies did such wonderful voice work!" You say, "Oh! That was Julianna Margulies?" The characters just come off as old Disney archetypes thrown into reptilian forms, and none of the humor is fresh or witty, unless one finds the term "jerkasaurus" absolutely hilarious. Some of the action sequences are exciting: A battle sequence between Aladar and some Carnataurs (a species invented for the film for reasons I've yet to discover) in a cave provides some excitement, and the aforementioned opening egg journey is quite breathtaking. But none of the scenes come as a natural continuation of what's occurred before them, and as a result, the story simply doesn't flow.
And that's the other big problem with "Dinosaur": It's okay in bits, but it doesn't cohere, doesn't involve the viewer. Most discoveries come out of nowhere. There is no catharsis when Aladar inevitably takes his place at the head of the herd, or when the nesting grounds are found. There is no urgency to the story. The herd marches towards something that they want to find tomorrow, but it doesn't make much difference if they don't find it until next week. Character arc is zero: The principle characters -- Aladar, Neera, Kron, and the lemurs -- don't much change at all from beginning to end. But the film's worst sin, again, is its complete and utter lack of flow. "Dinosaur's" structure is a strict cut-and-paste job, with pieces borrowed from earlier Disney films that worked their formulas to more pleasing effect.
So the story has no punch, the characters are bland, and the film contains almost no lively musical numbers, witty comic relief, or standout vocal characterization. What then can the audience enjoy but the visuals? And, to be fair, "Dinosaur" almost gets by solely on those merits. It's easy to conceive someone liking the film as nothing more than a sheer sensory experience (as I almost did). As a technical achievement, "Dinosaur" is stunning. As a movie, it's dull. For all its impressive wizardry, Disney's latest effort mostly comes off as a visually spectacular lesson in how not to tell a story.
-reviewed by Shay Casey
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