Review of We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) by Jon T — 17 Sep 2009
Four dinosaurs are taken aboard a time traveller's spaceship and fed some magical cereal that makes them "intelligent" (make that talking creatures). Then they are sent to modern-day New York City to find the Museum of Natural History.
Along the way they get mixed up with two runaway kids and eventually end up at an evil scientist's freak show. Naturally, it all turns out happily, but not before a first half of silly slapstick comedy and a surprisingly sinister, dark second half.
That pretty much sums up WE'RE BACK! A DINOSAUR'S STORY, which is truly one bizarre animated feature. Based on a children's book by Hudson Talbott, this film was executive produced by Steven Spielberg and released around the same time as his more better-known dinosaur picture, JURASSIC PARK.
How he got involved with this oddity is beyond me; the concept of intelligent dinosaurs visiting modern times would have been more interesting if more thought was put into the story. The animation is a bit of a mixed bag; some sequences look stunning, while others come across as patchy.
The characters don't showcase any real personality either; the only exceptions are a tough-talking street kid Louie (who has a very cute relationship with a girl his own age named Cecilla) and a villainous but cowardly ringmaster/scientist named ScrewEyes.
It's uneven in tone, too; while the scenes in the scary circus are the best in the film, they may be too much for small fry. Too frightening for little kids but not satisfying enough for an older audience, WE'RE BACK is really little more than just cute, passable animated fare.
The "Roll Back the Rock" song is catchy, though.
This review of We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) was written by Jon T on 17 Sep 2009.
We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story has generally received mixed reviews.
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