Review of Dinosaur (2000) by Angel P — 25 Sep 2008

My initial impression of this modestly marketed Disney toon was - wow!, best animation EVER, fairly dull story. I figured - at the start- that by creating the most photo-realistic CGI dinos outside of JP, the producers were limiting the visual facial humour (and exaggerated physicality) so prevalent in most anthromophised toon creations, and thus going for a kiddie, hypothesised doco version of "Walking with Dinosaurs".

This put me off a little, mainly because it conflicted with the obvious contrived addition of wise-cracking monkeys and a herd conveniently made up of the standard herbivore dino toy set. But once the basic narrative- the quest for food and water across the barren landscape - gathered pace, I got sucked in.

I loved the herd dynamics, the socialist theme of working together instead of standing alone, and of course the fish-(dino)-outta-water-outsider stuff. And its really beautiful to look at too.