Dinosaur (film)


Dinosaur is a 2000 American computer-animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and The Secret Lab. The 39th Disney animated feature film, it follows a heroic young Iguanodon who was adopted and raised by a family of lemurs on a tropical island. After surviving a devastating meteor shower, the family move out for their new home and befriend a herd of dinosaurs along the way while on a journey to the "Nesting Grounds". Unfortunately, they are being hunted down by predators such as Carnotaurus.
The initial idea was conceived in 1986 by Phil Tippett and Paul Verhoeven where it was conceived as a darker, naturalistic film about dinosaurs. The project underwent numerous iterations with multiple directors attached. In 1994, Walt Disney Feature Animation began development on the project and spent several years developing the software to create the dinosaurs. While the characters in Dinosaur are computer-generated, most of the backgrounds are live-action and were filmed on location. A number of backgrounds were found in various continents such as the Americas and Asia; various tepuis and Angel Falls also appear in the film. With a budget of $127.5 million, Dinosaur was reportedly the most expensive computer-animated film at the time.
Dinosaur was released on May 19, 2000. Critics praised the animation, but criticized the story for a lack of originality. The film grossed $137.7 million in the US and $350 million worldwide, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2000. It was the fourth best-selling home video release of 2001, selling 10.6 million copies and garnering $198 million in sales.

Plot

A Carnotaurus attacks a herd of dinosaurs, forcing an Iguanodon mother to abandon her nest. One surviving egg journeys through several terrains before landing on a faraway tropical island populated by prehistoric lemurs. Plio; the daughter of their patriarch Yar, names the hatched baby Aladar and raises him, despite Yar's initial objections. Several years later, a fully grown Aladar and the lemurs take part in a mating ritual, where Plio's brother Zini is unsuccessful. Moments after the ritual ends, they are interrupted by a meteor shower crashing into the Earth, creating an explosive shockwave which destroys the island. Aladar and the lemurs flee and jump across the sea to the mainland. Being the only survivors, they mourn for the losses of their loved ones before moving on.
While crossing deserted wastelands, they are attacked by a pack of Velociraptors. After escaping from them, the family encounters a massive herd of dinosaurs led by an Iguanodon named Kron who are on a journey to the Nesting Grounds, a sanctuary left untouched by the devastation of the meteorite. Aladar and the lemurs befriend Baylene, an elderly Brachiosaurus; her friend Eema, a Styracosaurus; and Url, Eema's dog-like pet Ankylosaurus along the way. Together, the herd migrate to a lake only to find it seemingly dried up. Kron orders the herd to move on until Aladar and his friends discover water lying under the surface, thereby saving the herd from dehydration. Kron's sister Neera, impressed by Aladar's compassion, begins to grow closer to him.
Meanwhile, two Carnotaurus are following the herd's tracks for days to hunt them for food. Kron's lieutenant, Bruton, and an Iguanodon scout search for water, but encounter The Carnotaurs. The scout is devoured, while Bruton escapes wounded and warns Kron of their approach. Kron picks up the pace and evacuates the herd, leaving Aladar, the lemurs, the elderly dinosaurs, and Bruton behind. During a rainstorm, the group takes shelter in a cave but are soon discovered and attacked by the pursuing Carnotaurus. Bruton sacrifices himself by causing a cave-in which kills one of them, forcing the other to resume its search for the herd.
The group ventures deeper into the cave, but they reach a dead end. Though Aladar briefly loses hope, the group rallies together to smash through the dead end and arrive at the Nesting Grounds on the other side. Eema notices that a landslide has blocked off the usual entrance to the valley. Aladar rushes off alone to warn the herd, eventually attracting the Carnotaurus's attention. Kron tries to lead the herd across the rocks unaware of the sheer drop on the other side. He refuses to listen to Aladar's safer way and attacks him, until Neera, fed up with Kron's illogical beliefs, intervenes. Realizing Kron's selfishness, the herd also decides to abandon him and picks Aladar as their new leader.
The herd is suddenly cornered by the enraged Carnotaurus, but Aladar rallies everyone to stand together to drive the predator back. The Carnotaurus sensing easier prey goes after Kron instead, attempting to climb the cliff himself. Aladar and Neera come to his aid, and in the ensuing fight with the Carnotaurus, Kron is mortally wounded. Aladar forces the predator onto a cliff edge that collapses, sending it plummeting to its death. Kron dies from his injuries, with Aladar and Neera mourning for his demise. Aladar then leads the herd back to the Nesting Grounds. Sometime later, a new generation of dinosaurs hatches, among them are Aladar and Neera's children and the lemurs find more of their kind.

Voice cast

Development

The initial idea for the film originated in 1986 during the filming of Robocop in which Phil Tippett recommended to director Paul Verhoeven that they should produce a "dinosaur picture". Verhoeven responded positively to the idea and suggested an approach inspired by Shane in which "you follow a lead character through a number of situations and moving from a devastated landscape into a promised land." Veteran screenwriter Walon Green was then brought in to write the script. Verhoeven then drew two storyboards and calculated the project's preliminary budget to be $45 million. When the idea was pitched to then-Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, he suggested that the project should be budgeted at $25 million.
In 1988, the project began development in Disney's live-action division in which Verhoeven and Tippett had originally planned to use stop motion animation techniques such as puppets, scale models, and miniatures. The film's original main protagonist was a Styracosaurus named Woot and the main antagonist was originally a Tyrannosaurus rex named Grozni, with a small mammal named Suri as a supporting character. The film was originally going to be much darker and violent in tone, in a style akin to a nature documentary. After Woot defeats Grozni in a final fight, the film would end with the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which would ultimately result in the deaths of the main dinosaur characters. In 1990, producer/director Thomas G. Smith became involved in the film and briefly became the director following Verhoeven's and Tippett's departure. Reflecting on his tenure, Smith said that "Jeanne Rosenberg was still writing the script, but it was in trouble. Disney wanted a cute story of dinosaurs talking, and I didn't like the idea. I thought it should be more like Jean Annaud's The Bear. I wanted to have actual lemurs in it. They actually existed at the time of dinosaurs...We actually located a guy who trains them." However, Katzenberg called Smith to help on Honey, I Blew Up the Kid in which he was replaced by David W. Allen who had just finished directing Puppet Master II.
After multiple months on auditioning lemurs to portray Suri and creating visual development, Allen's version also fell into development hell. Smith stated, "The thing that ultimately killed it is that Disney knew that Jurassic Park was coming along pretty well, and they knew it was being done digitally. They figured, 'Well, maybe, we should wait until we can do it digitally.'" In late 1994, Walt Disney Feature Animation began development on the project and they began shooting various tests, placing computer-generated characters in miniature model backdrops. The idea to use computer-generated backgrounds was considered, but rejected with the earliest proof-of-concept animation test being completed in March 1996. Ultimately, the filmmakers decided to take the unprecedented route of combining live-action scenery with computer-generated character animation. The filmmakers then approached then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner about not knowing how much the project would cost or how long it would take to finish, but that they could fully complete it. Trusting the filmmakers, Eisner decided to green-light the project. However, at his insistence, it was decided early on that the dinosaurs would talk during the film. To accommodate this change, Aladar would be given lips in contrast to actual Iguanodons who were duck-billed.
George Scribner was selected as the director, and he was later teamed with Ralph Zondag as co-director. Storyboard artist Floyd Norman stated that Scribner envisioned the film "to be more than just a struggle for survival. He wanted this dinosaur movie to have elements of fun and humor...Our director wanted to explore the fun elements of dinosaurs, such as their size, shape, and texture. George also knew that since dinosaurs come in all sizes—what wacky relationships might I come up with? What funny situations might plague a critter of such massive size?" Scribner left the project to work at Walt Disney Imagineering, and Eric Leighton was brought in as co-director. The new script had an Iguanodon named Noah as the protagonist wandering with his grandparents and a lemur companion named Adam, and a group of Carnotaurus as well as a rival Iguanodon named Cain playing the antagonists. The story dealt with Noah, who had the ability to see visions of the future, foreseeing the coming of an asteroid and struggling to guide a herd of other dinosaurs to safety. Further into production, Noah, Cain and Adam were renamed Aladar, Kron and Zini, and certain aspects of the story were altered further into what was later seen in the final product.

Animation

On April 17, 1996, the Walt Disney Company announced they had acquired the visual effects studio, Dream Quest Images. The studio was merged with the Feature Animation department's Computer Graphics Unit in order to form The Secret Lab. Vision Crew Unlimited provided the live-action visual effects. At the time, the Secret Lab's initial studio was reconstructed from a former Lockheed building in Burbank, California. Most of the computers were used from Silicon Graphics and additional machines were installed to create a render farm in order to provide workstations for artists, software engineers, and technical directors. The production team eventually re-located to the Feature Animation's Northside building in January 1997, and animation officially began eight months later, although some preliminary work had already begun.
To ensure realistic CG animation, 3D workbooks were created using Softimage 3D software. 48 animators worked on the film, using 300 computer processors to animate the film. Having aspired to be a paleontologist, David Krentz supervised the character design and visual development teams. He had an orthographic view of the dinosaurs, and his character designs were drawn on paper and scanned into the PowerAnimator software for the modelers to rig in the computers. In the character animation department, the dinosaur characters were first visualized in the computer in skeletal form. The rough character animations were then transferred into three software programs to strengthen the visuals of the characters. The programs were "Fur Tool," which was used for the lemurs and to create feathers and grass; "Body Builder," which was used to create skin and muscles for the dinosaurs; and "Mug Shot," a shape blender that works within Alias Maya for facial animation and lip-synching.
Headed by David Womersley, live-action photography units shot on actual jungle, beach, and desert locations including California, Florida, Hawaii, Australia, Jordan, Venezuela, and Samoa. In total, two live-action film crews shot more than 800,000 feet of film, although one scene, which takes place inside a cave, utilized a computer-generated background. In order to approximate a dinosaur's perspective, visual effects supervisor Neil Krepela invented the "Dino-cam", in which a camera was rigged on a cable suspended between two 72-foot-tall towers. The computer-controlled camera allowed for panning and tilting on 360 degrees and moved at up to 30 miles per hour across a span of 1,000 feet. With the live-action elements shot and the character animation reaching completion, the footage was moved into the Scene Finaling department. Under Jim Hillin, the effects-compositing team blended 80–90 percent of the live action plates against the computer-animated characters. The lighting department then adjusted the final lighting of the shots by changing the lighting conditions and replacing the skies.

Music

The film's score was composed by James Newton Howard with vocals by Lebo M, who did vocals for The Lion King. In September 1999, it was reported that pop singer/songwriter Kate Bush had written and recorded a song for the film to be used in the scene in which Aladar and his family mourn the destruction of their island. Reportedly, preview audiences did not respond well to the song. The producers recommended that Bush rewrite it, but she refused. Ultimately, due to complications, the track was not included on the soundtrack.
In Asia, pop singer Jacky Cheung's song "Something Only Love Can Do", with versions sung in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, was adopted as the theme song for the film.
The soundtrack album was released on May 5, 2000, by Walt Disney Records. Newton Howard would later compose the scores for the Disney animated features and Treasure Planet. One track, "The Egg Travels", was heard in many trailers following the release of Dinosaur including Lilo and Stitch, Around the World in 80 Days, and The Wild Thornberrys Movie.

Release

In conjunction during its theatrical release, the film was accompanied by an exclusive interactive dinosaur exhibit center adjacent to the El Capitan Theatre titled The Dinosaur Experience.

Marketing

Disney began the promotional rollout by attaching a teaser trailer consisting entirely of the film's opening scene to the theatrical release of Toy Story 2. The same trailer was also included on the home video release of Tarzan. A second trailer was later released in March and attached to the theatrical release to The Road to El Dorado.
To promote the release of Dinosaur, the Animal Kingdom theme park ride "Countdown to Extinction" was renamed after the film, and its plot, which had always prominently featured a Carnotaurus and an Iguanodon, was mildly altered so that the Iguanodon is specifically meant to be Aladar, the film's protagonist, and the plot of the ride is now about the riders traveling through time to a point just before the impact of the meteor that caused the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, to bring Aladar back to the present and save his life. A "Dinosaur Jubilee" was held at the Animal Kingdom's DinoLand U.S.A. It ran from May to July 2000 and included interactive games, music, and a display of the replica of the dinosaur Sue.

Home media

Dinosaur was released on VHS and DVD on January 30, 2001. It was also released on 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD that same day. In December 2001, Variety reported it was the fourth best-selling home video release of the year selling 10.6 million copies and garnering $198 million. It was re-released on VHS in 2002. The film was released on Blu-ray for an original widescreen presentation on September 19, 2006, becoming the first animated film to be released on the format. It was re-released on Blu-ray on February 8, 2011.

Video games

On May 16, 2000, Disney Interactive released a video game based on the film on a Microsoft Windows/Mac CD-ROM as part of the Activity Center series. Additionally, Disney Interactive released a tie-in video game on Dreamcast, PlayStation, PC, and Game Boy Color.

Reception

Box office

During its opening weekend, Dinosaur grossed $38.8 million in its first weekend from 3,257 theaters, for an average of $11,929 per theater beating out Gladiator. The film grossed $137.7 million in North America and $212.1 million overseas for a worldwide total of $348.8 million.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 64% based on 123 reviews and an average score of 6.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "While Dinosaurs plot is generic and dull, its stunning computer animation and detailed backgrounds are enough to make it worth a look." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, praising the film's "amazing visuals" but criticizing the decision to make the animals talk, which he felt canceled out the effort to make the film so realistic. Ebert wrote, "An enormous effort had been spent on making these dinosaurs seem real, and then an even greater effort was spent on undermining the illusion". On the syndicated television series Roger Ebert & the Movies, the film received two thumbs up with guest host Michaela Pereira from ZDTV's Internet Tonight additionally praising the vocal performances for the characters. Todd McCarthy of Variety called it "an eye-popping visual spectacle", but later wrote, "somewhere around half-way through, you begin to get used to the film's pictorial wondrousness — to take it for granted, even — and start to realize that the characters and story are exceedingly mundane, unsurprising and pre-programmed." A.O. Scott, reviewing for The New York Times, praised the opening sequence as "a visual and sonic extravaganza that the rest of the movie never quite lives up to. Those scores of animators and technical advisers have conjured a teeming pre-human world, and the first minutes of the film present it in a swooping, eye-filling panorama." Summarizing the review, he later wrote that "he reason to see this movie is not to listen to the dinosaurs but to watch them move, to marvel at their graceful necks and clumsy limbs and notice how convincingly they emerge into sunlight or get wet."
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "astonishes and disheartens as only the most elaborate, most ambitious Hollywood products can. A technical amazement that points computer-generated animation toward the brightest of futures, it's also cartoonish in the worst way, the prisoner of pedestrian plot points and childish, too-cute dialogue." Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune wrote "The action is easy enough to follow, and the screen is never dull. But for a story that takes place some 65 million years ago, Dinosaur is awfully reliant on recent recycled parts." Desson Howe, reviewing for The Washington Post, felt the movie "was somewhat derivative and lacked a narrative arc" and claimed it was too similar to The Land Before Time.

Accolades