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Disney's Dinosaur
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The Film :
It's too bad the story of this film couldn't
be worked on a bit more, especially for little kids. The plot involves the age of Dinosaurs on Earth, apparently soon before
the infamous meteor landed, that engulfed the atmosphere in clouds and
brought all dinosaurs to extinction. In a field teaming with dinosaur
nests, a lone egg is left behind, after its parents attempt to flee a
T-rex. We see this egg's journey, as it is clumsily carried away by a
birdlike lizard, then dropped into the stream, then grabbed by a pterodactyl,
and finally dropped onto an island far away. This island is inhabited by
white monkeys, who decide to keep the baby dino as a pet; even if it is a
predator. After all, when it grows up, it just might be good to have such
a large friend on their side.
Things get complicated by the time Aladar grows up (voiced by D.B.
Sweeney), when a meteor hits the Ocean, close to the shore. While this is
not the infamous meteor that made dinosaurs extinct (no chance of a happy
ending if it was, is there?), it is a meteor big enough to create a wave
that destroys the small island. Swimming to the mainland coast is only
half of their problems, because the wave also destroyed the other
dinosaurs' homes near the mainland shore. Aladar, with his monkey friends
on his back, joins the dino herd as it treks over a long desert to reach a
new nesting grounds. This will be a perilous journey, because there are
few stops for food or water along the way, and a pair of hungry T-rex are
hot on their trail!
The film's storyline is admittedly dark, and with the vivid depiction
of the T-rex predators, I'd definitely say the film is too intense for
very young children. Aladar even has to get into a rather violent, unnecessary
fight with Kron, the leader of the herd (surprisingly voiced by Samuel E.
Wright, whose more lighthearted voice brought Sebastian the Crab to life
in The Little Mermaid). True,
Aladar has a nice budding romance (of sorts) with Kron's sister (voiced by
Julianna Margulies), and the initial banter between them is quite funny
(when she first sees him do something stupid to impress her, she says,
"That, children, is a Jerkasaurus!"). However, with
thirsty animals in the desert, vicious predators, and major nature
challenges galore, there's just too little levity to keep young kids from
at least one week of nightmares. Where's the comic animal duo of Timon and
Pumbaa when you need them?
Sure, this is belittling the awesome effects of the film, which are
revolutionary in CGI techniques of mainstream cinema. Swooping camera
angles and visuals were taken of actual areas of nature --forests,
waterfalls, oceans and deserts-- with the CGI dinosaur characters added to
the scenes later. This is indeed an excellent approach to storytelling,
and yet, sadly, the story told is a bit too basic to enjoy the film as
much as you would hope. While CGI fans will love watching the film just
for the visuals, it's a shame that such visuals weren't used for a
loftier, more gripping Disney tale. The end result is a film that gets a
thumbs up regardless of its flaws, yet still could've been much better.
The DVD :
Pardon the length of this DVD section of the review; there's a lot to
cover! Much like Disney's other digital animation films lately, there are two
versions of DVD to choose from: a standard, one-DVD version, and a
two-disc version, with tons of added extras. Are the added extras worth
it? Let me review them for you... The
first disc is identical for both DVD versions. It includes the film (of
course), created directly from the digital source, for a perfect digital
picture (not transferred to film and back again, which would lead to a
less quality picture on DVD). The screen in widescreen 1.85:1, and
enhanced for 16x9 TVs. The sound is everything you'd want it to be, on one
disc: DTS 5.1 digital surround sound is offered, plus Dolby digital. In
addition, anyone studying French (or anyone from France, of course) will
like the French language option. Other
features added to disc one (again, on both sets), makes one wonder how
much they need the two-disc version. There's a lot on this one disc!
Directors and Effects supervisors provide one audio commentary, while a
second comment track is available, with anecdotes from the production
team. A third audio option offers an Isolated sound effects audio track,
as well as "TheatreVision" descriptive audio for the hearing
impaired. Another amusing addition is
the "Film fact fossil dig," which is a trivia hunt of sorts
which can be played either during the film or not. If played during the
film, a fossil icon will appear on your screen, when a fun fact related to
dinosaurs is related to that particular scene. click the enter key of your
DVD remote to see the Film fact, then return to the film when you're done.
Each of these are film clips, ranging from discussions of actual Lemurs
(as shown in the film), to a pre-concept look of the opening sequence, and
"live action shoots" that show how the real-life background
jungle scenes were filmed, before the foreground CGI dinosaurs were added.
In addition, three deleted scenes and an alternate ending are offered.
Unfortunately, the deleted scenes were abondoned very early in production,
with one only shown in storyboard sketches, and the other three shown
mostly in pre-texture (one-color) models of the characters. Still, for
computer graphics fans, it's amusing to see the step-by-step processes
behind the making of the film. Other
added materials on disc-one should appeal to the kids in particular.
"Aladar's Adventure" is a short adventure game kids can play,
using the cursor controls on their DVD remote. It allows them to feel like
they're helping Aladar through the mazes of caves to his new home. A
"Dinopedia" offers scientific information of dinosaurs shown in
the film, while a "Dinosearch" offers a sort of "Where's
Waldo" style visual hunt, where certain dinosaur images are hidden in
a big picture which you must search. Last of all, this disc is a DVD-ROM,
offering the typical web links to sites relevant to the film. Macintosh
owners, however, will appreciate these DVD-ROM features being compatible
with Macs as well as PCs. Which
brings us to disc-2, of the Collector's Edition DVD set. Most of the items
here are for the true fans of CGI, with a lot of behind the scenes
technical info. The best addition for everyone, however, would have to be
the added deleted scenes. AMong the 6 scenes offered, are scenes that were
fully animated in CGI (though often, only made to the black-and-white
stage), though were cut for time conscerns. One of the more amusing scenes
(though sadly, only offered in storyboard animation) was an initial
concept of Aladar being named "Noah" (?), and having
Grandparents with him in the traveling herd. In a suggested poignant
moment, his grandparents would sacrifice themselves to save the herd from
the attacking carnataurs. I'd say this was a wise omission, even if it is
amusing as a deleted scene. Disc 2's
best feature for behind-the-scenes buffs is a step-by-step look of the
film's production tests, from as far back as March of 1996! You get to the
the Proof of Concept Test from that date, the Live Action Backplate from
the following October, the Early Presentation Reel from that December, and
a Presentation Reel from later in production, in October of 1998. In
addition, nine screens worth of 73 thumbnailed production images (which
can be "zoomed in" at will) are offered. Elsewhere on the DVD,
you can view a step-by-step look of the creation of the animated
characters, as well as a step-by-step look at the production process
itself. The music of the film is also saluted, with video clips showing
how the music and sound effects were handled. Disc
2 is capped off with all the promotional materials ever used for the film,
including three different trailers, four different TV spots, and 14
different magazine advertisements (shown in thumbnails, that can be zoomed
into if you wish). All this makes the choice between the two Dinosaur
sets, both easy and hard at the same time. Easy, because it's really only
a matter of how much you liked the film. However, should people who liked
--not loved-- the film get the Collector's Edition 2-disc set?
Perhaps, though only if you are intrigued by behind the scenes technical
information, which is pretty much all that's offered. Otherwise, I'd say
there's more than enough on the single disc version to keep you occupied
for several added hours.
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Click this left
picture to buy the One-Disc, regular DVD version
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Click this right
Picture to buy the two-disc DVD Collector's edition!
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