Dinosaur
Who would have thought that the same guys that brought you "Wallace and Gromit" would settle for another hackneyed story about a Chicken Stalag and a lot of cheap "Poultry in Motion" jokes?
Excuse me, there's someone at the door.
I've just been informed that I've not yet actually seen "Chicken Run", although the total number of screen minutes that I've been exposed to the trailers has now exceeded the moovie's length. It used to be that you could go to the moovies, wade through a couple of previews, and then watch your moovie and go home. Now, however, you start getting teasers for moovie releases six to twelve years in advance of their appearance in theaters. By the time you actually belly up to the ticket window and plunk down your hard-earned wampum to buy tickets for the long awaited blockbuster, you would grinningly swear an oath on a stack of Soupy Sales' pie plates that you've already seen this damn thing, and what are you doing here, anyway? This also explains the chorus line of suburban husbands at the video store calling home to ask "Honey, have we seen 'The Water Boy?' "
So after two hundred minutes of accumulated trailer exposure, I saw "Dinosaur", with the voices of D.B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Joan Plowright, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Alfre Woodard, Samuel E. Wright, Peter Siragusa and Della Reese. Directed by Eric Leighton. MPAA rating PG, run time 88 minutes.
I would like to thank the fine folks at Walt Disney Pictures for producing "Dinosaur", and in doing so, allowing me to publicly flex my schizophrenia.
Part of me, the little kid that thinks it's pretty cool that they can do moovies like this now, really likes "Dinosaur". Remember I grew up thinking that dinosaurs were actually chameleons that ate 1955 Ford station wagons. That a computer graphics team can make anything that even remotely resembles a walking talking sauropod is nothing short of a modern miracle.
Part of me, however, the mostly-grown-up and totally skeptical guy you've grown to know and worry about, can't understand why Disney thought it was so important to make these dinosaurs (a) talk, and (b) cavort around with species with which they shared no part of the planet. At least they didn't sing.
The animation in "Dinosaur" is top notch, and blended with live action plates, is a wonderful way to pull of the story of an orphaned talking maiasaur (?) that is raised by a troupe of talking lemurs. (NOTE: I'm not sure if the lead character really was a maiasaur - if you want definitive answers on dinosaurs, you'll have to go ask a six-year-old kid. That part of my brain got taken over by the need to balance checkbooks and monitor my "bad" cholesterol.) Anyway the orphaned lizard, Aladar, becomes a member of the lemur family, and just as he's reached the conclusion that he really doesn't look much like his dad, a huge chunk of outer space falls - ever so slowly and dramatically - into the sea as they all watch, mesmerized. The resulting Cold War surplus mushroom cloud sends a supersonic shock wave toward the unsuspecting simians and their oversize progeny. By the time it gets to them, however, it doesn't make the the little primates into lemur tartar, but instead allows them the time to climb aboard the big lizard's back and they make a last-second Butch and Sundance jump for safety to the water some thirty or forty miles below.
Look, if you can deal with talking dinosaurs being bottle fed by lemurs that hadn't been invented yet, everything else is just a plot device.
The plot rolls on as the happy lemur family, step-dino in tow, wanders through the scorched wilderness and finally happens upon a ragtag group of refugee dinosaurs searching for the promised land. At the helm is alpha male Bruton and his dino-thugs. A power struggle ensues. When it all comes down, the growling brute and the entire herd of fossils-in-waiting owe their lives to the clever and courageous Aladar. They reach the lush valleys of Never Never Land and eventually evolve into Gina Gershon. I may have left out a few steps.
The beauty of "Dinosaur" is visual. The story line is pure Disney, with few surprises, but then again, we know how the late Cretaceous turns out, anyway, don't we? There is, however, much to see in "Dinosaur", and the blending of animation with live action is well done, and after a while disappears altogether. My only gripe with the animation is the tendency of characters to mug for their closeups, exposing the slightly too smooth nature of their textures. Magic is best at a distance, I think - especially Siegfried and Roy. This isn't "Jurassic Park" computer work - it's more cartoony - but the total effect is outstanding, somewhere between reality and animation.
Judging by the reaction of my next seat over neighbor Nathan, 6, the action in "Dinosaur" was enough to keep the attention of even the younger kids in the audience, and Nathan was fidgeting and looking just a little jumpy as the big, mean carnivores stalked the peaceful and delicious herbivores.
Take it for what it is, "Dinosaur" is a great moovie for the kids, and you probably won't be dozing off before it's over, either. Let your kids' high school biology teachers undo the damage later on - it's just a moovie. Grab the kids, go see it, and have fun.
My three orphaned endothermic cows were raised by a family of stoats.
Excuse me, there's someone at the door.
I've just been informed that I've not yet actually seen "Chicken Run", although the total number of screen minutes that I've been exposed to the trailers has now exceeded the moovie's length. It used to be that you could go to the moovies, wade through a couple of previews, and then watch your moovie and go home. Now, however, you start getting teasers for moovie releases six to twelve years in advance of their appearance in theaters. By the time you actually belly up to the ticket window and plunk down your hard-earned wampum to buy tickets for the long awaited blockbuster, you would grinningly swear an oath on a stack of Soupy Sales' pie plates that you've already seen this damn thing, and what are you doing here, anyway? This also explains the chorus line of suburban husbands at the video store calling home to ask "Honey, have we seen 'The Water Boy?' "
So after two hundred minutes of accumulated trailer exposure, I saw "Dinosaur", with the voices of D.B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Joan Plowright, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Alfre Woodard, Samuel E. Wright, Peter Siragusa and Della Reese. Directed by Eric Leighton. MPAA rating PG, run time 88 minutes.
I would like to thank the fine folks at Walt Disney Pictures for producing "Dinosaur", and in doing so, allowing me to publicly flex my schizophrenia.
Part of me, the little kid that thinks it's pretty cool that they can do moovies like this now, really likes "Dinosaur". Remember I grew up thinking that dinosaurs were actually chameleons that ate 1955 Ford station wagons. That a computer graphics team can make anything that even remotely resembles a walking talking sauropod is nothing short of a modern miracle.
Part of me, however, the mostly-grown-up and totally skeptical guy you've grown to know and worry about, can't understand why Disney thought it was so important to make these dinosaurs (a) talk, and (b) cavort around with species with which they shared no part of the planet. At least they didn't sing.
The animation in "Dinosaur" is top notch, and blended with live action plates, is a wonderful way to pull of the story of an orphaned talking maiasaur (?) that is raised by a troupe of talking lemurs. (NOTE: I'm not sure if the lead character really was a maiasaur - if you want definitive answers on dinosaurs, you'll have to go ask a six-year-old kid. That part of my brain got taken over by the need to balance checkbooks and monitor my "bad" cholesterol.) Anyway the orphaned lizard, Aladar, becomes a member of the lemur family, and just as he's reached the conclusion that he really doesn't look much like his dad, a huge chunk of outer space falls - ever so slowly and dramatically - into the sea as they all watch, mesmerized. The resulting Cold War surplus mushroom cloud sends a supersonic shock wave toward the unsuspecting simians and their oversize progeny. By the time it gets to them, however, it doesn't make the the little primates into lemur tartar, but instead allows them the time to climb aboard the big lizard's back and they make a last-second Butch and Sundance jump for safety to the water some thirty or forty miles below.
Look, if you can deal with talking dinosaurs being bottle fed by lemurs that hadn't been invented yet, everything else is just a plot device.
The plot rolls on as the happy lemur family, step-dino in tow, wanders through the scorched wilderness and finally happens upon a ragtag group of refugee dinosaurs searching for the promised land. At the helm is alpha male Bruton and his dino-thugs. A power struggle ensues. When it all comes down, the growling brute and the entire herd of fossils-in-waiting owe their lives to the clever and courageous Aladar. They reach the lush valleys of Never Never Land and eventually evolve into Gina Gershon. I may have left out a few steps.
The beauty of "Dinosaur" is visual. The story line is pure Disney, with few surprises, but then again, we know how the late Cretaceous turns out, anyway, don't we? There is, however, much to see in "Dinosaur", and the blending of animation with live action is well done, and after a while disappears altogether. My only gripe with the animation is the tendency of characters to mug for their closeups, exposing the slightly too smooth nature of their textures. Magic is best at a distance, I think - especially Siegfried and Roy. This isn't "Jurassic Park" computer work - it's more cartoony - but the total effect is outstanding, somewhere between reality and animation.
Judging by the reaction of my next seat over neighbor Nathan, 6, the action in "Dinosaur" was enough to keep the attention of even the younger kids in the audience, and Nathan was fidgeting and looking just a little jumpy as the big, mean carnivores stalked the peaceful and delicious herbivores.
Take it for what it is, "Dinosaur" is a great moovie for the kids, and you probably won't be dozing off before it's over, either. Let your kids' high school biology teachers undo the damage later on - it's just a moovie. Grab the kids, go see it, and have fun.
My three orphaned endothermic cows were raised by a family of stoats.