The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Arts => Silver Screen => Topic started by: Daddytops2009 on January 12, 2010, 05:30:45 AM
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10 years has passed with Disney's Dinosaur.
Was the movie a flop or what?
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I thought it was a pretty cool movie. I'm actually amazed at how beautiful-looking it was for a CGI film made in the 90's. :p
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Personally I found it nice entertainment but it had too many flaws for me to be overenthusiastic about it. The plot was very predictable and seriously didn't have many original ideas.
The animation was for the most part very good and sometimes spectacular and I am also quite fond of the music. But all this cannot really make up for the lack of an original plot and interesting characters. Judging from the bonus materials on the DvDs there must have been quite a few alternative plot-lines (one involving a brother of Aladar, another his grandparents, and some a kind of mythological creature). It would be interesting to know what the alternative plotlines were. Maybe the move suffered from the fact that until very late they didn't know what the movie was to become and therefore didn't flesh out characters and plot sufficiently.
I found the movie nice and entertaining, but far from being a truly great movie.
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It was alright, but as Malte pointed out, it was very predictable and had few original ideas. In fact, it seemed to copy so many ideas (especially scenario ideas) from LBT that I sometimes wonder how they never got slapped with copyright infringement <_<.
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The problem with making a visually stunning film is forgetting there is a story to tell. When I saw those first trailers, Dinosaur was on my "must see" list. While I still love the movie for its animation and gorgeous visual impact, the story was too predictable. Did I come away entertained? Yes, and I even managed to squeeze out some Dinosaur inspired fan fiction, mostly featuring the grande dames Eema and Baylene. The casting of Joan Plowright made me go, "What?" while I was just too thrilled to hear Ossie Davis (RIP) and Della Reese exchange barbs. Their scenes alone should've been longer. :)
I don't think it was an absolute flop, but then again Disney does seem to sweep aside what they deem as "disappointing" movies. meaning that it didn't appeal to the pre-school set.
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Dinosaur was actually a pretty good film,although it is kind of a rip off of LBT but(like me) could also call it a spirital sequel to LBT, I have all the parts to WD's Dinosaur on realplayer under the name "The Land Before Time:1,000 Cold Times", giving the impression that the film takes place 1,000 or so years after LBT but SS or not Dinosaur is and will be a great film...and great LBT rip off :p
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I liked this film. I remember when I saw it in the theatres for the first time my eyes were glued to the screen! xD I liked the story, characters and music. And I simply thought it was a good movie.
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Honestly, I enjoyed this movie. It wasn't the greatest Disney film ever, but it really wasn't THAT bad.
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Not "that bad". I did not mean to make the movie sound worse than I perceive it. To this day I don't regret a cent of the euros I paid for the DvDs... actually make that Pfennige of the D-Mark. The euro was not around at the time.
The music is quite beautiful and so was the animation. With regard to characters and story though I think that a lot more could and should have been done. I'm afraid to some degree the movie is a product of the time when we were so awed at what computer animation could do that the makers of the movie put too much stress on the great animation neglecting the importance of characters and stories over it.
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Not "that bad". I did not mean to make the movie sound worse than I perceive it.
Sorry, I was referring to the original post. My feelings towards the film are pretty much aligned with yours, Malte. I wish they'd taken a bit more time on characters as well, particularly Neera and even Aladar, which makes no sense since he was the main character. If anyone had the film's focus, it should've been him
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I think they did have some interesting concepts among the deleted scenes on the DvD and in fact I think that somehow fear of getting closer to the land before time may have kept them from using those concepts.
For example there was a scene in which two grandparents of Aladar (who at that time was called Noah) more or less sacrificed themselves (not putting up much of a fight but allowing themselves to be eaten) so the herd would not be attacked. In the movie death is dealt with on a rather superficial level. There are many dying characters (many members of the herd dying and all of the lemur's except for the four of a larger role), but the only dying characters we know by name are Kron and Bruton and neither of them was particularly suited to make a scene as emotionally intense as for example the death of Littlefoot's mother.
And as for all the dying lemurs, we get a little tear, a few moments of sadness and in the very next scene nobody seems to care anymore. It reminds me a bit of the Nostalgia critics comment on the movie Bambi in his list of the top 11 saddest moments (http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/1600-nostalgia-critic-top-11-saddest-moments) :p
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It is incredibly odd that the actual asteroid impact wasn't all that focused on in the aftermath. It didn't seem to truely affect the main characters in any way shape or form. I suppose that's just another Disney oversight, eh?
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Either that or it was a simple plot device and they didn't really think over how an asteroid impact would effect things.
Overall I did enjoy the movie and am surprised Disney has not made a sequel to it since they seem to make sequels to many of their movies.