Dinosaur

[A Doug's Life]

I have never seen Dinosaur and was wondering if it would be worth buying the collector's edition. I read the reviews on amazon, but they didn't sound too promising. I would love to hear some feedback from anyone who has seen it. Also, are the extra features worth the extra money?

[Maerj]

I liked it. Its not their greatest film, but it is certainly entertaining. The graphics are really good and I think that is what they were really relying on when they released this film. Unfortunately for them, audiences were already becoming jaded towards cg movies when this came out, so it got a luke-warm reception. The story is very similar to The Land Before Time.

I know this may sound negative so far, but I don't mean it that way. It is actually a fun, enjoyable film. The extras are good on the 2 disc set, and there are many making ofs, deleted scenes, etc. If you are a fan of Disney animation I think it would feel at home in your collection. It may not be a classic in the way Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast is, but it still an enjoyable film.

[Loomis]

I didn't like the film the first time I saw it. It was partly because I was expecting more, and partly because I saw it in a really dodgy cinema with a guy some might describe as a "raincoater" sitting behind us...ahem....

Having now watched it in the comfort of my own home, with the clarity of DVD, I can now appreciate it even more. It is certainly NOT the greatest film ever to come out of the House of Mouse, but by no means the worst either. If you make the inevitable comparison to the Pixar films, it will suffer by comparison. However, as a stand-alone film it is a good watch (but the sugar-coated charm was just a little too sweet this time around).
Watch it with a sense of fun and you'll enjoy it.

As for the DVD, a great set - it is a shame that more Disney DVDs don't get this treatment (LILO AND SITCH!!!!!!)

[2099net]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the original idea was not have no speech in the film at all, apart from narration done in the style of "Disney's True Life Adventures".

I can't remember this being said or written anywhere on the Collector's DVD (but it is a while since I have viewed it).

Anyhow, I feel this would have improved the movie considerably - remember how good the opening "The Egg Travels" section is (which was also used as a trailer). What do the rest of you think?

[Luke]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the original idea was not have no speech in the film at all, apart from narration done in the style of "Disney's True Life Adventures".

I don't know if that was the original idea, but from the preview trailer (which was really just the first few minutes of the movie), it seemed like the whole film might be like that. I had thought about how it could have worked, and after seeing Spirit, I have my doubts whether Dinosaur would work without the speech.

As for my thoughts on the movie, it is perhaps the most visually stunning Disney film of all-time. The combination of the computer-animated dinosaurs and live-action backdrop photography is just brilliantly fantastic. The DVD offers unparalleled video and audio quality, and the movie is truly a feast for the senses.

But the incredible beauty of the film makes the mediocre screenplay noticeably weaker, and quite the disappointment. The first thirty minutes or so are dynamite, between the stunning visuals and the awesome James Newton Howard score. After that, the film kind of dries up, not unlike the plains that the dinosaurs are travelling across. Dark, drab, dreary settings take the place of the visually-pleasing atmospheres of the beginning and the script just takes a big turn down Mediocre Lane.

It's a short movie, and it somewhat redeems itself with the fairly predictable, but pleasing end. And overall, I don't think it's a bad movie by any stretch, and don't take my comments as that. In fact, the first half-hour is excellent, which just makes the mediocrity and banality present for some of the rest of the movie all the more frustrating.

Is it worth buying? I got the Collector's Edition sight unseen and I don't regret that. Like I said, the audio and video quality are incredible and if you want to show off your system, the opening "Egg Travels" sequence is ideal. If you're a fan of animation (and posting here, with a name like A Doug's Life, I'd guess you were ), I think it's worth getting for the visual achievements alone. Just don't expect a script to match the feast for the eyes.

[A Doug's Life]

Thanks to eveyone for your replies. I definitely am a huge fan of animation, so I think I will give it a try. Since I like the other collector's editions, I think I will pick up the 2 disc set. Thanks.

[Maerj]

The idea of the movie Dinosaur started with Phil Tippet (the stop motion animation master) and director Paul Verhoeven in the late 80's while they were producing the film Robocop. They pitched the idea to Disney, and they loved it!

They did intend to produce a Dinosaur film with no dialogue that would last 84 minutes. It was gonna be a documentray type film at one point. Another idea was to have a mammal narrator. But, the budget for this project was deemed too much at the time, and they wanted to do it all in stop-motion animation. They took notice that CG was taking off, but they weren't prepared to do it in CG yet, so the project was shelved for many years.

Finally, they did go ahead with it, making it in conjunction with the Dinosaur attraction at WDW's Animal Kingdom. It was also an excuse for Walt Disney Feature Animation to dabble with the computer animation. I'd say that visually, it was a success. The ride at AK is awesome too!

[Jules]

The movie was great, especially video and audio-wise. The "Egg's Journey" scene is real eye candy.

As for the 2-disc set, it is great too. There are many Easter Eggs on the second disc.

[2099net]

It was also an excuse for Walt Disney Feature Animation to dabble with the computer animation.

And it's "failure" was also an excuse for Walt Disney to close it's Computer Animation and Effects facility (known as "The Secret Lab").

A rather short sighted decision if you ask me (Kangaroo Jack was the final work that they did, honoring previous commitments).

[bean:therio]

It was also an excuse for Walt Disney Feature Animation to dabble with the computer animation.

And it's "failure" was also an excuse for Walt Disney to close it's Computer Animation and Effects facility (known as "The Secret Lab").

A rather short sighted decision if you ask me (Kangaroo Jack was the final work that they did, honoring previous commitments).

I was thinking about Dinosaur this weekend and how this movie influenced Disney's policy toward all-CGI movies. Why did they close their own CGI-unit to, only about a year later, start moving toward an all-CGI line of animation? I don't really understand the reason behind that: if they have such high hopes of this kind of animation then they would have kept that part of their animation-division open right?

Btw: the real question I had (before I started looking through the old discussions on this forum) was which company produced Dinosaur, but from 2099net's latest posting I get that it was basically a special part of feature animation itself. If that is so then why isn't Dinosaur a part of the real animated classics?

[Athena]

Btw: the real question I had (before I started looking through the old discussions on this forum) was which company produced Dinosaur, but from 2099net's latest posting I get that it was basically a special part of feature animation itself. If that is so then why isn't Dinosaur a part of the real animated classics?

Dinosaur's an odd duck... in terms of animated movies it's closer to Jurassic Park in technology than it is to Monsters, Inc... meaning the environments that the dinosaurs are in are live-action while the dinosaurs themselves are CG.

In terms of CG it's both easier and harder to work that way...
-- easier in the sense that you don't have model and simulate 10 zillion blades of grass, trees, wind, ocean, rocks, etc.
-- harder in that you have to match lighting, colour-tones and interaction between the CG character and the live-action environment, something that's easier to do if the whole thing is CG.

Anyways, it's definitely a different way of working... more like you would for a visual FX company than if you're a straight animation studio... so I can see why they aren't really slotted in with the rest of the studio stuff.