Dinosaur

Rating:
Summary: Impressive animation, weak story
Review: I thought a lot about this review.

I'm an animation buff, so I can well say that this film received the maximum rank on animation - the amount of details and thought that was put into every movement and shot is admirable, and the result shows. It is certain that the animators did an excellent job - even went down to details such as having the muscles of the dinosaurs vibrate when the foot hits the floor. Sometimes I actually forgot that this was an animation movie, and mistook it for a National Geographic feature.

The story, on the other hand, is rather disappointing. It seems like the development process stopped after the story became reasonable. The characters are only skin-deep, and it is frustrating for someone who had already seen a couple of movies before that this one brings nothing new to the screen. It's sad to notice so many 'deja vu's while watching, seeing so many thing that you have already seen before, especially that the main character - Aladar - is an orphan dinosaur raised by monkeys, carries a close resemblance to Disney's previous feature, Tarzan.

Two thumbs up for the music - it really hits the spot. The composer captured every moment so naturally that it fits like a glove. Nothing I say can convey the impression, so you might as well see it for yourself.

All in all, an amazing animation feature with a weak plot. This film - in itself - receives 4 stars from me, although if I had calculated my impression on the Collector's edition, I would have definitely lowered it to 3. It simply wasn't worth the extra money I added. The second DVD contains very little material, and I really expected more from a highly documented production such as this one to include more material. People purchase this item to get more information about the animation process, and I really feel like I wanted more. I really think that I should have bought the regular edition and saved some cash.

Rating:
Summary: Disney's Dinosaur....Very Cool.
Review: Compared to most of today's movies, Walt Disney's Dinosaur takes us on a trip back in time to experience life through the eyes of a dinosaur. I was really impressed with this computer-animated masterpiece. It is visually stunning, and the time and work that went into this by the cast and crew was extraordinary.

Let's start with computer-animation and video. It really speaks for itself. This movie used both real-life backgrounds and computer-generated design to incorporate such a perfect blend of color and detail. The two meshed seamlessly. Five locations from all over the globe are featured in Dinosaur's opening sequence alone (Florida, Venezuela, Australia, Hawaii, and California). Not only did they film in different locations, they also combined multiple backgrounds into a single scene. Creating the background starts off with the director's vision, and through the story sketches, he let everyone know what he wanted. Then, he would turn it over to the location scout, who would go all over the world to find the ideal spots to film the movie.

The characters are all beautifully animated and designed. The textures of their skin, the amazing expressions on their face, and the soulful look in their eyes make this "experience" seem like it's really happening. The clan of monkeys, called lemurs, was quite a piece of work. Even the very hair on them blew in the wind.

There are many stages involved in bringing the character to the screen. You start with a drawing of the dinosaur to get an idea of his look and personality. A clay model is created, and from that it is sculpted on the computer. Then rough animation begins. It doesn't start out the way it looks on screen; it starts out as a rough illustration of what is supposed to be there. It looks kind of like moving Tootsie Rolls. They then created a program that allowed them to relatively easily create delicate facial expressions (like nose, mouth, and eye movements). The muscle and skin system allowed them to add believable wrinkles, muscle, and skin fat to the characters. The flex and jiggle of their skin was simulated using the same engine. There are also the painters painting all of this beautifully detailed color and texture onto the dinosaurs. That really gives the dinosaur the 'fleshy' aspects that make it look real.

The next step was to create sounds to go along with the characters. They were trying to get the sounds of animals to create the sounds of the dinosaurs and lemurs. The carnotaur (or T-Rex) was quite a vicious creature, so they recorded the snarls and growls of large cats (leopards & lions) to supply the sound effects for him. For the lemurs, they recorded from several types of monkeys and penguins. And here's the weird one. Someone's pet Chihuahua did the sounds for the raptors, believe it or not. It was attacking some bed sheets.

The music score of the movie was very fitting and cool. The music itself does a good job at triggering your emotions. I don't think that they could ask for better. It hit the spot.

The Foley artists created a lot of the sound effects for the movement of the dinosaurs and such. They would splash water, bang rocks together, and even squeeze vegetables to make unique sounds, such as using celery for the sound of vines, or squishing cantaloupe halves for a slurpy sound. For the sound of the dinosaurs moving around, they used boots in the dirt for back feet and baseball gloves for the front feet. It's really amazing how they even do this, much less make it sound so real (or at least what we believe to be real).

The meteor shower seems to be nothing at first, but then the huge meteor comes blazing down into the water, destroying everything in its fiery path. The great cloud of flames that erupts from the site of impact marks the hardest to do visual effect in the movie. They combined live-action explosives and computer-generated images. They used smoke from explosives to create this "monster cloud." The shot was flipped upside down, scanned into the computers, and colored by the digital lighting and compositing team to give it its fiery glow. Miniatures of the island were made to show the effect of the cloud's massive destruction.

The cameras were shooting nothing but scenery for the whole movie (except for the meteor scene). They had to film it like there was actually something there. That can be tough. They even created a "dino cam" that they used to simulate the point of view of a 50-foot dinosaur.

There's not much to do with costumes or stunts in the film, other than that done by the crew. Instead of regular acting, these actors did voice acting, which in my opinion can be harder sometimes. You have to show expression and feeling without actually acting it out with someone.

It is a very detailed film that many people worked very hard on. All of the people whose work really went into this had their name stuck at the bottom of a six and a half minute list of credits. It takes everybody working together to pull off something like this. This film is a landmark that is one of a kind.

Rating:
Summary: The Land Before Trash Like This
Review: What a joke. Before I trash this movie let me just say the only thinkg keeping this from 1 star is the interesting idea to use real backrounds with the CGI characters. I can't tell if it was an act of genious or lazyness. But either way it came out pretty good.

Now for the reason it got 2 stars. Disney has sunk to an all time low. Not only have they made a silly attempt to copy the success of Pixar films, but they went so far as to shamelessly rip off The Land Before Time. I mean, they didn't even try to make the story original. The opening scene copies the opening scene in the TLBT almost directly. What's worse is that I went into the theatre expecting this to be the best movie ever. I came out wanting to throw up from digust of this trash. I thought the whole movie was going to be like the promo trailer and nobody would talk. It would just be a visual art piece. But then I heard them talk and I was appalled. Another thing that drove me crazy was the fact that a lot of the characters just weren't lovable. I'm going to spoil something right now. 80% OF THAT MONKEY FAMILY DIES AND THE REMAINING DON'T CARE AT ALL!! Sure they cry for one second then they just go back to being comic relief. It's just not a good movie and I can't recomend it.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!,AND ENJOY THE MOVIE.
Review: All man,when I saw Dinosuar at a theater,I was totally amaze with the special effects of the Dinosaur.The dinosaur look so real!"I mean wow!" I like when they use a real background of the jungle and a desert with a digitally dino,that really work great together.

You know I don't care about the story,I know the story is weak but I don't care about it and people don't like the Dinosaur that start talking,so what!,look at other disney cartoon movie like The Lion King and Tarzan,they talk too.Watch BBC walking with Dinosaur instead they don't talk on the movie. I like this movie and is good and I enjoy it,my younger brother enjoy it too.

I bought the Dinosaur 2 disc special edition,I've play both of the disc on my old 16 month Panasonic A120 DVD player and it play fine.There no freeze on some part of the scenes I watch and I watch the supplemental material,no problem there too.I've watch Dinosaur fifth time already and the disc work good on my dvd player,strange hey that Dinosaur dvd can't play on those other people dvd player,that not good for people who not get to listen a dts surround sound on Dinosaur,but for me,I've heard it and it's awesome! :-)

Rating:
Summary: Dinosaur
Review: Dinosaur is just like Land Before Time, but the difference is that Dinosaur is fully CGI animated.
The music and the animation is great, and there are many memorable scenes and characters.
There is a lot of extras to explore on the 2 Disc edition, and it includes behind the scenes, deleted scenes, and the early versions of Dinosaurs.
I think that extras like commentary tracks are missing, and that the movie could had been a little longer.

Rating:
Summary: Not Worth Your Time or Money
Review: My son and I saw the preview of DINOSAUR in the theatre when we went to see TOY STORY 2. DINOSAUR'S preview soared--the blending of natural landscapes and CGI creatures looked seamless and enthralling . . . until the rubber-faced simian peaked at the egg. When, months later, my son and I saw the film in the theatre, I felt that the majority of the creativity and ingenuity went towards the opening sequence featured so prominently in the preview. DINOSAUR's story, as other reviewers have noted, is so derivative that only a small child would be diverted by it; the more traditionally animated creatures in the LAND BEFORE TIME series have more charm, even if they are too sweet for the older kids. Unfortunately, this film has elements that many parents may deem inappropriate for small children; explosions and other violence will lead to wakeful nights.

I find it distressing that a company that can innovate so well, giving us the "Deep Canvas" of TARZAN and the wonderful alliance with Pixar studios, could not develop a better showcase for its technical innovations than this forgettable film. If you want CGI dinosaurs, treat yourself to the BBC production of WALKING WITH DINOSAURS (and watch it with your kids, too). If you just have to have dinosaurs in a cute "friendship triumphs over all" story, go with a LAND BEFORE TIME tape. But if you want to see something more than cleverly rendered, photorealistic dinosaurs, you'll have to look somewhere else.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!,AND ENJOY THE MOVIE.
Review: All man,when I saw Dinosuar at a theater,I was totally amaze with the special effects of the Dinosaur.The dinosaur look so real!"I mean wow!" I like when they use a real background of the jungle and a desert with a digitally dino,that really work great together.

You know I don't care about the story,I know the story is weak but I don't care about it and people don't like the Dinosaur that start talking,so what!,look at other disney cartoon movie like The Lion King and Tarzan,they talk too.Watch BBC walking with Dinosaur instead they don't talk on the movie. I like this movie and is good and I enjoy it,my younger brother enjoy it too.

I bought the Dinosaur 2 disc special edition,I've play both of the disc on my old 16 month Panasonic A120 DVD player and it play fine.There no freeze on some part of the scenes I watch and I watch the supplemental material,no problem there too.I've watch Dinosaur fifth time already and the disc work good on my dvd player,strange hey that Dinosaur dvd can't play on those other people dvd player,that not good for people who not get to listen a dts surround sound on Dinosaur,but for me,I've heard it and it's awesome! :-)

Rating:
Summary: Stunning animation, silly plot.
Review: Dinosaur (Eric Lighton and Ralph Zondag, 2000)

Why does Disney insist that every animated film have two directors? Just wondering.

In any case, when I first saw the previews for this, I had hopes it was going to be a full-length animated silent film. So I ended up initially disappointed, but at least they got some fun voices.

Newbie director Leighton and second-timer Zondag (whose earlier film was the painfully bad dinosaur flick We're Back!) have, basically, done an update of The Land Before Time with stunning animation and (to say the least) a better voice-acting cast. Where The Land Before Time used unknowns (though Helen Shaver has since gone on to relative fame), Dinosaur started with the works: D. B. Sweeney (Strange Luck), Ossie Davis (Do the Right Thing, Bubba Ho-Tep), Alfre Woodard (Holiday Heart, A Wrinkle in Time), Max Casella (Doogie Howser MD), Julianna Margulies (ER), Della Reese (Touched by an Angel)... you get the idea.

The story is your typical cutesy Disney pablum (if you're expecting Winged Migration after watching the incredible trailers for this flick, steel yourself for political correctness now) overlaid upon the Land Before Time storyline; best if we leave it at that. If you're going to rent this, rent it for the astounding animation and leave the sound off. ** ½

Rating:
Summary: A Visual Buffet of Dinosaurs
Review: "Dinosaur" is a fine film from the folks at Disney. Like "Hercules," the story isn't moving or too impressive, but the film is fun to watch and has some brilliant moments in it. Many people have bashed the film for being too violent, but the PG rating does seem fair. I agree that kids under the age of five shouldn't see this movie without some serious adult supervision, but at the same time, children do need to know about death...even if it's violent. The Carnotaur sequences involve quite a bit of violence, but these are dinosaurs! Dinosaurs ate each other in reality. Don't knock this movie for that reason. Here's a concept: Watch the movie with your kids(you won't be bored) and then explain to them that death and violence was a very real part of daily life for dinosaurs. It may take your children a little time to cope with this information, but sometimes the truth hurts. If your child is under the age of five, you may want to skip certain sequences in the movie because of the violence. My daughter watched this movie, but I always managed to skip through the violent parts for one reason: she's two years old. She loves this movie. When she gets old enough to understand that things die, I'll let her see the violent sequences in this film.

For adults, I found this movie very entertaining. As in other reviews, I agree that the visuals are stunning. The film is brilliantly animated and does use some real scenery to blend in with the CGI graphics. The differences in the two are almost seamless. The lemurs provide both comic relief and solid wisdom in this flick.

If for no other reason, buy this movie for it's artistic value, but the story is a good one and the characters are very believable. It's a good show, but I cannot help but reiterate the importance of watching this show with young kids in order to explain some of the things that occur in it.

Rating:
Summary: Jaw Dropping Visuals
Review: The visuals for this movie are truely amazing, there were moments where the land and water and trees looked real. The story is fun, which im sure you can read through all the other reviews, although it's not up to Disney's classic films, it's defitnitley one not to forget. Amazing CGI