Dinosaur

Dinosaur is essentially somewhat of an anomaly for Disney. On one hand, it follows the familiar story: a cute creature is separated from it's family and must find ways to fit in with the new society in which he/she lives. On the other hand, it's also revolutionary for Disney animation because it doesn't shy away from violence and because it features no musical numbers. It's also the most gruesome and frightening Disney animated film I've ever seen. Characters die at the hands of the more fierce dinosaurs. They get their backs bit into, and there's actually blood in this Disney film! You must understand, this is a major step forward for their company.

Dinosaur will make heaps upon heaps of money. There's little question to that. It's definitely not even close to being the finest Disney film ever. That distinction belongs to The Lion King, their treasured masterpiece. But, Dinosaur is an accomplished film by it's own right, primarily because it shows the buffoons working in Walt's offices that it is possible to actually have some thematic violence (and a PG rating!) and still be successful. 

All is not love, however. The film is way too short. It ends after a paltry 82 minutes. That's right, less than an hour and a half. More time could have been used to develop the characters. The main character, Aladar, has the only real identity, the rest are just filling up space. Crone is sufficiently developed, primarily because his actions are clear, concise, and his voice is menacing. The rest, especially Nera the love interest, are pathetically underdeveloped. I can only guess that they didn't make it longer because it would cost too much.

The film cost upwards of 140 million dollars. Add in the fact that to make this film they had to make an entire new computer animation studio to accommodate such awe-inspiring visuals, and the cost skyrockets to 190 million. With such a jaw-dropping figure, I'm guessing that the directors chose not to go too much farther over their pre-production budget of 110 million.

Visuals are placed much higher on the list of priorities than story and characters. It's a feast for the eyes, easily one of the more dazzling displays of technical virtuosity and competent imagery making I've ever seen. The first five minutes will easily rank as some of the finest minutes caught on film this entire year. At the point when the Pterodactyl glides over the canyon with the egg in hand and the music reaches its peak - I get chills every time. Also, when we see the rains of comets collide with the Earth's atmosphere, you can't help but shake in anticipation. Sure enough, that scene delivers. The impact of the giant comet is an awesome spectacle to behold and the silence that follows the initial flash are moments of sheer brilliance. The shock wave hits and all hell breaks loose.

The film, after this initial half-hour loses steam, and becomes almost boring at times. I was too caught up in the visual splendor to be annoyed, but I noticed some children in the audience losing patience with these long scenes. The story being told isn't expansive enough to be considered epic, and I wish that it would have been. Wish the care taken in building a solid visual foundation, it could have materialized into something truly spectacular.

Dinosaur should have been something more, something more courageous. I would have preferred a film that is entirely visual, one where the dinosaurs do not speak. It's impossible to estimate how much better the film would have been if the dinosaurs spoke through body language and not through lips (which didn't exist on most of the dinosaurs). The original plan for Dinosaur was for this to happen. This was at the time when Paul Verhoeven (!!) was in charge of the project. Things change, executives at Disney demand things, and the public gets an inferior product. It happens all the time. Dinosaur is a decent film - it's entertaining to watch - but it's also somewhat of a missed opportunity. We can just hope that Disney keeps learning from it's mistakes.

On a scale of 1 to 10 jurassic perks: 6