Disc-Reviews

If I go back to the first viewing of The Perfect Storm at the cinema theatre, I recall a dramatic and exhilarating trailer for Dinosaur. The images shown were the very first few intro shots of the main movie. It was the best looking thing ever seen, I wasn�t interested in the Storm movie, I wanted that movie. But the inevitable day came when I bought the DVD, and couldn�t help but notice the Disney DVD logo at the top. O-oh have I just bought a child�s preferred?

OK, better not judge a movie by the cover as it were. I�d already had my monthly dose of Dino horror with the Jurassic Park III outfit. The opening shots are alighting with beautiful and origional scenarios. First thing to notice is they don�t go for the publicity stunt, that being a Tyrannosaurus Rex of the Jurassic period, rather going another way with an alternative dinosaur called Carnotaurs (meat eating bull for its double horns on the front of its� head) and in sense idiotic. Just like Jurassic Park: The Lost World there is two; momma and poppa.

The first few exciting intro scenes are possibly the best parts of the movie, what later comes is its spoiler. The fact Disney had to add voices to the characters rather than let their actions speak words means the film is deeply asking for sympathy from young children. Adults won�t want to watch this. The next spoiler to introduce this film to the Not Recommended bin is that the action the dinosaurs are given are desperately Disney. The movements are in no way natural, bouncing young bred dinos are not what we imagine for the Cretaceous or present day periods. The head movement is totally unreal, the actions could speak the words with ease, and that added to the most poor chirps or roars I�ve ever heard make it as feeble as ever. Such other films like The Lion King, a very popular cartoon was indeed a great film, with betrayal, envy and even shock. Dinosaur simply lacks in each area.

Even the best action scenes are deeply unmoving, or shocking to set senses alit. For example a Carnotaurs wouldn�t roar as he�s running for his meal, would he? The victims simply see the danger up ahead and run. The first intro sequences also include the most dulled down attack � which is ironically the best � on a small herbivore from the carnivore. This specific scene is where the �Taurus pounces onto the insignificant plant eater while in a chase, and presses the dead thing down in a mist of dust. No blood or roars for help or anything to make you weep.

The following occurrences are where a lone egg is taken by numerous routes to a far away island including a large family and generation of lemurs who home the egg which hatches the instant it lands from the claws of a flying lizard, a Pteranodon. The instant the egg hatches it�s open to dispute but they simply home the unfamiliar creature. OK, now it�s getting terribly childish. And why oh, why is it a PG movie? Quite simply the whole film reeks of camouflaged natural occurrences. We all see the naturalist channels with the Lions eating defenceless animals of all sorts, so we should expect worse from the dinosaur evolution. In that sense this film is big in scale, the opening shots with sweeping cameras and over a 1000 individual dinosaurs is quite impressive. There are over thirty different dinosaurs in this movie. However the more exquisite are either rare or old.

Aladar is that egg, an Iguanodon and is the only one on this separate island. With his only friends as his parents and their children, or, Aladar�s brothers and sisters. The next incident is as trivial as a meteor comet hitting near the homeland and leads to a large evacuation. The whole family, which consists of a girl and boy lenur, Aladar�s mother and father, the rest being swamped by the fire and dust debris. This lemur family is transported on Aladar�s back and they soon run into three slow-coaches of a large herd of various herbivores. They become tangled first and meet up with three dinosaurs at the back that help Aladar in what they�re doing. And Aladar and hitchhikers tag along, or, they�d face the following Raptors and �Taurus.

If the first intro sequence doesn�t remind, this will: the whole script, plot and story is terribly reminiscent of a cartoon series (going up to 7 or 8 in video tapes) called The Land Before Time. This specific story was the idea that two child dinosaurs were split from there parents and had to make it to a far away distant paradise free from predators and full of plant life and large lakes. The whole Dinosaur script will take you on a similar journey. Of the two children, a Triceratops and Brachiosaur there were numerous other children who added themselves to the children�s crowd along the way. One difference is there is no singing from Dinosaur, thank god.

Many of the characters do remind me of The Land Before Time�s; such as one called Spike who is similar to Url in Dinosaur, Sarah the Triceratops is similar to styrachosaur Eema, and Little Foot�s brachiosaur grand mother and father is similar to Baylene, the old wildering brachiosaur. And Aladar is Little Foot; the courageous and intelligent young Iguanodon.

The most perplexing fact this movie has, is it takes itself so seriously but contradicts itself immensely. It could be the way they use speech to show the dinosaur�s feelings or thoughts, the way this is truly illogical, e.g. why English speech? There are many more to tell of. Such as the way they totally minimize the whole predator vs. prey issues, how they don�t come up with real plots or why they whole character list is blissfully happy or desperately selfish and mean.

It�s quite complex in characters; there are many character issues to speak of, such as the prospering idea of two Iguanodon�s getting it on (they do in the end). Or how the brother and sister bonds are broken because of the former.

There are other downfalls to speak of; such as the way the dinosaurs sound. True we have no idea what they may sound like, but why is Aladar a big bass trumpet? And when do Lemurs cry in a sympathy duet, one thing we can be sure, is false.

I know this is a kiddie�s story, but for the kids of today it might be a bit soft and a bad teaching tool. For kids seeing animals talk it might inspire some form of sympathy for dead things & pets, or communication to them. Whatever it does, it doesn�t really inspire. You need a unique heart to catch the emotion, which may or may not exist in this pretty basic film.

All the factors in this film reach to a dismal demise. It starts of terrifically promising, but when you realise the predators have no vocal cords, you�ll ask why does Aladar?
It all reaches and inevitable end, and conclusion. You have two choices:

1. It could use far more realism to its proceeding. Add in some more shock deaths from such characters as Url or Eema and you could have a shockingly sympathetic and impressive story. Take away the acting voices and some of the fake happy actions of the creatures and you could have a superb film for adults too. Add in a hopeless story and you could have a sequel at a later date, add some more blood and it could be stomach churning. If you added all the above you would have a PG film but would appeal to all, and Disney would be famous for all age groups.

2. And what Disney sees as a prosperous film is where the enemies lie in the pack, the ferocious Kron and Bruton, which could have been promising, if it weren�t so blunted down. Friendships and relationships to inspire viewers, and the loyalty of trust and help from character to character. Add to an obvious successive conclusion at the end of it, little decay of close friends and family and it lies to result in a deeply impure and dry film, which has lots of potential but no start hill. Most of the actions could be described as pathetic and a bit OTT.

Disney have done an excellent job of showing what the Cretasious period may look like, but include none of the sense of realism.

If I had a choice, I�d choose the first additions and subtraction above any day.