Dinosaur (2000)

Directed by Eric Leighton & Ralph Zondag. Starring (voices) D. B Sweeney, Samuel E. Wright, Ossie Davis, Julianna Margulies, Alfre Woodard, Joan Plowright, Della Reese, Peter Siragusa, Max Casella, Hayden Panettiere. [PG]

Bad idea alert: a feature-length computer-animated film when that high-tech animation technique was still working out its kinks, populated by talking, slightly-anthropomorphized creatures that have been extinct for 65 million years. The cardboard dinos here are stuck in the awkward space between vivid, hand-drawn artistry and the mostly seamless CGI creatures from the Industrial Light & Magic team for Jurassic Park—they lack textured detail, are unconvincing even if you squint, and are unattractive as designed. A good story would have made it possible to overlook the deeply flawed aesthetics; alas, the one found here is trope-heavy and predictable, showing how a “last-of-their-tribe” family of lemurs (and their adopted Iguanodon son) join a migrating herd of dinosaurs crossing a hostile wasteland, led by a Darwinist tyrant called Kron, threatened not just by the elements and hunger/thirst, but also by a pair of Canotaurus trying to pick off the slow and weak members of the herd. Takes itself seriously (just as well, since the flashes of comic relief are dead on arrival), but other than the ambitious yet faulty animation, it’s an utterly routine, kid-friendly journey. To be fair, the visuals earned a fair share of praise upon release, so maybe it’s just a case of misguided hindsight on my part (like looking back at the graphics in games for the N64 or original Playstation); no matter the era, however, the rehashed plot is nothing to write home about, let alone cross a desert for. The movie’s initial concept dates all the way back to the 1980s, conceived by Phil Tippett and Paul Verhoeven as a stop-motion feature.

48/100