Dinosaur, a visually stunning and beautiful film contains all the necessary pieces of a children's classic. The epic tale of survival, good vs. bad, and loveable characters who would make great happy meal toys. However, beneath the facade the marketing wizards have put up, Dinosaur is a great tale of the survival of the dinosaur species and standing up against authority (certaily something Disney doesn't want all kids to do - unless they want them to take them to Disneyland). I'll try not to let my review be biased by the format in which I saw this movie. Being my first ever digital movie experience on the big screen, I can't help but be amazed and the clarity and sharpness of the movie itself. While Dinosaur was a film that I did like immensely, the sole fact that I was able to see it on a digital projector (more on DLPCinemas here), has basically skewed my view on all previous films and boosted Dinosaur to a next level. That being said, I'll try and be objective in my review...

Set about 65 million years in the past, Dinosaur takes a look at the pre-apocalyptic lives of these creatures and puts an interesting twist on them. First off, the dinosaurs can talk - well most of them can. While many of the dinosaurs and lemurs and such talk, many of them also rely on roars and grunts to communicate. This was confusing to me because they decided to mix the two without distinguishing a smarter class - whereas humans can talk and animals can't, it seemed that some dinosaurs could and some couldn't for unexplicable reasons. Once we get past the whole talking thing, we realize that this isn't a typical Disney movie. This was Disney's first foray into digital movies (other than it's subsidiary Pixar's movies) and they did a spectacular job. Most of the backgrounds were painstakingly shot using standard techniques with the dinosaurs being superimposed over. Also devoid from this Disney movie were the songs. While it did have plenty of background music (a soundtrack I plan on buying), there were none of the standard Disney Phill Collinsish songs (and for that I thank Disney). By just sticking to plot and plot development and keeping away from singing gorillas, Disney has a much better movie on their hands than their previous quasi-musicals.

However, even though Disney did stay away from the singing gorillas, it seems as if their focus was lost on the special effects. There's no doubt that the special effects are the best I've seen. The mix of live-action backdrops with CGI dinosaurs is simply amazing (enhanced I'm sure by the digital projector). But...and this is a big but...the plot fails in the long-run. We've all seen the tale before and Disney doesn't do much to change it. It's the classic story of a journey through a harsh setting to a "promised-land," in this case the breeding grounds. Led by a strong leader with faltering ethics, one of the smaller must stand up and take charge, eventually culminating in a stand-off between the two. Throw in the usual star-crossed romance where the two were meant to be together, but couldn't because of their family structures (a la Romeo & Juliet), and Dinosaur really doesn't present us with any new material. Spectacular and breathtaking as the movie may be, the plot fails in several key points and can't recover from the amazing opening. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the movie, and at a scant 82 minutes, the plot really doesn't annoy as would a boring 2 hour movie. Plot or not, you need to see this movie for graphics alone. The plot merely takes back seat to the sheer beauty of the film, for which full price admission is truly worthwhile.

Genres: Family, Animated
Rated: PG
Runtime: 82 minutes
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