Voices of D. B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Joan Plowright, Della Reese, Julianna Margulies, Samuel L. Wright. After an attack on a dinosaur herd, a dinosaur egg is stolen, fumbled, dropped in the river, and then snatched by a flying dino until it lands in a treetop on a lush tropical island. A family of lemurs led my mom Plio (Woodard) and dad Yar (Davis) adopts baby dinosaur Aladar (Sweeney), who grows up into a playful, thoughtful, albeit big member of their family. One day, as the lemurs and Aladar watch a beautiful meteor shower in the gorgeous red sky, a huge, firey meteor plunges into the water in front of them creating a tidal wave of fire, which envelopes the island, and a large part of the mainland. Aladar races with his lemur family, diving into the cold ocean with them on his back, and swimming to the mainland shore, the only survivors from their former paradise. They walk inland until they meet a caravan of dinosaurs making the long trek over the desert to get to the breeding grounds, a lush, green land to the south where there is food and water aplenty. The convey is led by the mean and dictatorial Kron (Wright), who firmly believes in the law of the jungle, that only the fittest survive. His sister Neha (Margulies) takes a shine to Aladar. The herd marches on their road trip, encountering drought, big and angry T-Rex's and other obstacles along the way. Disney Studios reportedly considered the idea of combining live backgrounds with computer generated creatures as early as 1988, but shelved it due to the technology at the time being inadequate. Costing in the neighbourhood of $200 million, and taking four years to complete a new digital studio to make this movie, Disney has created a visually spectacular event that significantly surpasses the effects of the Jurassic Park films. The movements of the beasts are quite life-like, and the very nicely blend in with the beautiful background footage. The film begins with probably it's best sequence, a T-Rex chasing and attacking a herd of dinosaurs, leaving Aladar's egg to be taken first by a bunch of dinosaurs for food, then snatched by a soaring bird-like creature to fly through canyons, lush forest, raging waters and eventually onto an island paradise. The story is aimed directly at children, but pretty much avoids anything overly sentimental so most adults can enjoy it as well. This is partly achieved by using an orchestral score instead of going with Disney's recent trend towards using sticky sweet, over-produced pop songs. The film is essentially a road movie, where our hero helps his friends and comrades overcome numerous obstacles to get to the promised land. Along the way, there's a lot of adventure, a bit of romance, and a little comic relief. Very little. Dinosaur emphasizes two themes. First, stick together and don't leave the weaker ones behind - more can be accomplished together than as individuals. Second, don't give up - no one knows what the future will bring, or what is just around the corner. Although, I did wonder how the meteor shower decimated certain islands and food sources, but left a sunny, lush paradise intact only a few hundred miles away. I also wondered whether young children might be frightened at the occasional death and destruction but the 5 year old (or so) behind me seemed to take it in stride, simply informing his dad when another dinosaur had died. Dinosaur is a beautifully filmed and executed movie with a decent story that should satisfy most of the family. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page