Dinobore (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself) - Dinosaur

39 – Dinosaur

So here we are at the first Disney movie of the 21^st century, 2000s Dinosaur. I had never actually heard of this one until I started this little project so I had no idea what to expect when I went in. The story is about an Iguanodon named Aladar who grows up with a bunch of lemurs after his egg gets separated from his family. Later on, a big asteroid crashes and destroys their island. While they wander to try to find somewhere to live, they meet a herd of dinosaurs being led by another Iguanodon named Kron. Aladar finally gets to meet dinosaurs of his own kind, including Kron's sister Neera. Kron pushes the herd too quick for some older dinosaurs to keep up so Aladar stays behind to help them. Aladar has to contend with the strict Kron and escape the deadly Carnataurus while protecting his new friends and lemur family.

The main character, Aladar, is raised by lemurs and never met one of his own kind in the beginning of the movie. He is very compassionate and kind but feels lonely because there's no one like him around. This isn't as big an issue as they make it in the movie, however, since he just meets with the herd later anyway. He really likes to stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves, like the elderly dinosaurs he decides to stay with. His greatest quality is that he never gives up, or at least that's what one of his lemur friends says. He promptly gives up right after that only for another character to remind him that he never gives up. It's all just a bit stupid. He's one of the better characters in the movie but he's a bit boring, unfortunately like many of the other characters in this movie.

His lemur family consists of Yar, Plio, Zini and Suri. Yar is an older male lemur who is very scared of dinosaurs but comes around later. He is the “grandfather” of the group and father to Plio and Zini. Plio is the female lemur that finds Aladar and decides to raise him. She is very kind and doesn't let her father convince her not to keep Aladar. She is the mother of Suri and sister of Zini. Zini is Aladar's best friend. He's a bit silly and overconfident and has a little subplot about him meeting a lemur mate. Suri is Plio's daughter and shares her compassion, but otherwise doesn't really do anything.

Aladar volunteers to take care of some weak and old dinosaurs that are falling behind the herd despite Kron's warnings. Baylene is a Brachiosaurus who is wise and old and reminds Aladar that he never gives up so she won't either. Eema is a Styracosaurus who is old and rough but represents a kind of character that drives me nuts. She is really hypocritical when a character later becomes injured by a Carnataurus and she refuses to help because he refused to help her before. She should, as a wise character, be above that. Especially because Aladar would, and does, help him. Finally, there's Url, an Ankylosaurus, who is a really stupid dog like creature who does nothing.

Kron is the leader of the herd and believes in survival of the fittest. Other than that, I really don't get this character. He clearly doesn't actually care about the herd but insists on having them stay with him and fights Aladar for them. He is the first to get water and scares others away. He just wants to have power, it seems, but I don't know why. He doesn't get a redemption in the movie, which is good because I hate him, but bad because he's Neera's brother so you want to at least feel a little bit bad about it. The big threats of the movie are two Carnataurus who stalk the group. They provide most of the action and are pretty scary but they don't have personalities so I can't consider them real villains or anything.

Bruton is Kron's second in command and the one who was attacked by a Carnataurus. He is kind of a jerk at first and believes in Kron's survival of the fittest rule. He gets left behind after he is injured and reluctantly joins Aladar. After getting a nice speech by Plio about how Aladar never gives up, he sacrifices himself to kill one of the Carnataurus. He's really just there so Plio could give that speech to someone and make Aladar look good. It would have been much more powerful for him to survive and confront Kron with Aladar. Neera is Aladar's love interest. She falls for Aladar cause he's a nice guy. She stands up to her brother at the end. Otherwise, she doesn't get a real personality.

The visuals in this movie are really great. The dinosaurs are all CGI placed on top of real footage with some practical effects. It's a really interest result though some scenes definitely look better than others. They also didn't utilize it really well since we spend more than half the movie with the dinosaurs walking through a boring desert. The music is pretty good, with no music sequences to annoy me. They definitely would not have worked here so I'm glad they resisted that urge.

This movie was kind of boring. It's real pretty to look at but it has no real substance. There aren't any great themes and the ones that are there have been done way better before. The real draw is definitely the visuals with a very thin story and even thinner characters. It also definitely would have been better if they didn't talk so much.

39 down. 14 to go.