Dinosaur

DINOSAUR

Rating: B+
Through a twisted chain of events, a dinosaur egg becomes separated from its mother and falls into the paws of a group of white-furred monkeys, whom the end credits identify as lemurs. I'll take their word for it. When the egg hatches, out pops baby iguanodon Aladar, who is quickly adopted into the lemur family. Flash forward some years (how long does it take an iguanodon to reach puberty?), and we find the earth being bombarded by meteorites on a scale not equalled again until 1998. The resulting climatic and geologic changes force a herd of the surviving herbivores on a tortuous migration to the "nesting grounds," a virtual oasis in the midst of the barren, dried-out earth.

On its most basic level, Dinosaur tells the familiar tale of a youngster coming of age and stepping out of the shadow of his father (or in this case, his father-figure). Combine this with the perpetual search for the promised land (the dinosaur migration is even accompanied by "Exodus" style music), and you've got a pretty good summary of the movie's plot. The movie's biggest weakness is the clumsy way it realizes these plot elements. There is not enough of a relationship between Aladar and the leader of the herd to make the father/son conflict work effectively. In fact, what is needed throughout all of the characters is more depth and detail. Young viewers would pick up on as much as they chose to, and adults would find the story more engrossing. Likewise, there isn't enough to the dinosaurs' migration to make reaching the nesting grounds seem as much of a triumph as it should. I think the plot could have been more eventful and thrilling without boring the children in the audience.

Much publicity was given to the "technological breakthrough" which allowed the animators to combine the animated dinosaurs with real-world backgrounds. Although such treatment may be new for a Disney film, weren't the animated beasts of Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Godzilla, and Dragonheart played against live-action backgrounds? And those films had humans interacting with the computer-generated creatures to boot. If I didn't know better, I'd think the Disney PR machine was pulling our leg. But in spite of the excess hype, I will say the digital animation in Dinosaur is superb, although the scenes are occasionally a bit jumpy. One effect which is achieved particularly well is the conveyance of the absolute size of these behemoths as they chase each other around onscreen. Also, the animators succeed in giving each character a unique and identifiable personality, even if these personalities are one-dimensional.

Excluding the credits, this movie was only about 75 minutes long. Because it has a simple plot, and is aimed at children, the short length is not really objectionable. By the time the end credits begin to roll, adults will probably have had their fill, too. It could have been better, but what's there won't disappoint you.