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Dinosaur
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ralph Zondag Eric Leighton
Produced by	Pam Marsden Co-Producer Baker Bloodworth
Written by	Screenplay Walon Green John Harrison and Robert Nelson Jacob Story Thom Enriquez Ralph Zondag
Starring	D. B. Sweeney Alfre Woodard Ossie Davis Max Casella Hayden Panettiere Samuel E. Wright Julianna Margulies Peter Siragusa
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	David Hardberger S. Douglas Smith
Editing by	H. Lee Peterson, A.C.E.
Studio	Walt Disney Feature Animation's Computer Graphics Unit
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures Buena Vista Distribution
Release date(s)	May 19, 2000 (2000-05-19)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$127.5 million
Gross revenue	$349,822,765

Dinosaur is a 2000 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 39th animated feature produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.^[1] Dinosaur combines the use of live-action backgrounds with computer animation of prehistoric creatures, notably the titular dinosaurs, produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation's Computer Graphics Unit that was later merged with Dream Quest Images to create Disney's Secret Lab department.^[2] The Disney's Secret Lab department of the Disney company is now closed.

The majority scenery of the film are from Canaima (Venezuela) landscapes, various tepuis and Angel Falls appears in the film.

Plot

The film revolves around the life of an Iguanodon named Aladar who is taken from his nest as an egg and after a long and precarious flight via a Pteranodon, his egg lands on Lemur Island where he is adopted by the family of lemurs; consisting of Plio, her father Yar, and her son, Zini. Years on, Plio has had a daughter named Suri and the family takes part in mating season which Zini fails to accomplish and goes without a mate. Moments after the mating season ends, a huge meteorite destroys the island and leaves only Aladar and his closest family members alive. The family move on and come across a herd of various dinosaurs, led by igunandon Kron and his lieutenant Bruton. Other herd members include elderly Brachiosaurus Baylene, Styracosaurus Eema, dog-like Ankylosaurus Url, and Kron's younger sister Neera.

Aladar and the lemurs accompany the herd across a desert to reach a nearby breeding ground the herd has visited before. However, they are stalked by Velociraptors and later Carnotaurus, referred to as "Carnotaurs" in the film. The herd stops at a lake that appears to be dried up, but the water is revealed to be underground, by Aladar hearing it underneath because he had been trying to get Baylene and Eema across. Later that day,Aladar shows Nerra how to find water under the ground. As he and Neera push to make the water to rise up her hand touches Aladar's hand and they fall in love. Carnotaurs begin stalking the herd, sending the herd into a panicked flurry. Aladar, the lemurs, Eema, Baylene, Url and Bruton are all left behind and regroup in a series of caves. The Carnotaurs attack them, but Bruton sacrifices himself to allow the others to flee, one of the Carnotaurs killed in the process. The group flee to the back of the caverns, then smash down a wall to reveal a path straight into the breeding ground. Eema spots that the usual entrance has been blocked off, prompting Aladar to find Kron and the rest of the herd. Aladar finds one of the dead herd members and he knows that he's not far from the herd and his love Neera.

Kron, Neera and the herd are on the other side of the blocked off entrance, Kron ordering that the herd climb impossibly over the wall. Aladar arrives Neera can't believe that he is alive. Aladar tells Kron and suggests the route through the caves due to a sheer drop on the other side that would kill the herd, which Kron objects to and accuses Aladar of stealing his role as leader. The two fight until Neera steps in and defends Aladar, deciding to go with him and the herd through his route. The surviving Carnotaur appears, causing the herd to go into a panic. Aladar convinces the herd that the only way they can survive is by standing together. They fend off the Carnotaur and get past it, but the Carnotaur then notices Kron, who had refused to follow Aladar, and decided he would climb the wall to get to the nesting grounds. The Carnotaur begins to chase Kron down. Neera notices this, and rushes to try to aid her brother, soon followed by Aladar. In the fight that ensues, Kron is fatally wounded by the Carnotaur. Aladar forces the Carnotaur onto a cliff edge that collapses, sending it plummeting to its death. Neera comes to Kron but it is too late. The herd reaches the breeding ground, led by Aladar. Aladar and Neera have children as well as the rest of the herd, and the lemurs find more of their kind.

Cast

• D. B. Sweeney as Aladar, a brave and compassionate Iguanodon who's been adopted into a family of lemurs and does what he can to make sure that the old and weak aren't left behind during the herd's migration. He serves as the main protagonist of the film.
• Alfre Woodard as Plio, a lemur (Coquerel's Sifaka) matriarch who cares for her family.
• Ossie Davis as Yar, a lemur patriarch whose occasional gruff demeanor is just a front covering his more compassionate interior. He is the father of Plio and the grandfather of Suri and Zini.
• Max Casella as Zini, Aladar's stepbrother and wisecracking sidekick. Suri's older brother and Plio's son.
• Hayden Panettiere as Suri, Aladar's stepsister, Zini's little sister, Plio's daughter and Yar's granddaughter.
• Samuel E. Wright as Kron, an Altirhinus leading a herd of dinosaur survivors who is characterized by a strict adherence to social Darwinist theory. He believes in survival of the fittest, which repeatedly clashes with Aladar's merciful manner.
• Peter Siragusa as Bruton, Kron's domineering right-hand assistant. He is betrayed and left for dead by Kron, and ultimately gives his life to kill one of the Carnotaurs to save Aladar, the lemurs, and the weak dinosaurs.
• Julianna Margulies as Neera, Kron's sister, who ends up falling in love with Aladar because of his compassionate ways.
• Joan Plowright as Baylene, an elderly and dainty Brachiosaurus (technically a Giraffatitan due to her identification as B. brancai)
• Della Reese as Eema, a wizened, elderly and slow-moving Styracosaurus, and Url's companion.

Throughout the film, Velociraptor and Carnotaurus make appearances, but are not given voices. Early on, a carnotaur attack precipitates the events that lead to Aladar's adoption by Plio and the lemurs. Later on, a group of velociraptors chase Aladar down and later stalk the herd until they are scared away by a pair of Carnotaurs, who consistently stalk the herd in their search for food. The first carnotaur was killed by Bruton, who sacrified himself to save Aladar and the others during a cave-in. The second and last one was killed during a fight with Aladar on a top of a cliff, where it starts to break under its weight, causing it to fall to its death. There were also other creatures that appear and don't speak like other Iguanodon and Styracosaurus, Oviraptor, other Ankylosaurus, Struthiomimus, Pachyrhinosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Microceratops, Brontosaurus, Stygimoloch and other creatures like Ichthyornis, Koolasuchus, Pteranodon, Icarosaurus and various birds.

Production

The film was originally supposed to have no dialogue at all, in part to differentiate the film from The Land Before Time, with which Dinosaur shares many plot similarities. Michael Eisner insisted that the movie have dialogue in order to make it more "commercially viable." Coincidentally, a similar change was made early in the production of The Land Before Time, which was originally intended to feature only the voice of a narrator.

Pop singer/songwriter Kate Bush reportedly wrote and recorded a song for the film but due to complications the track was ultimately not included on the soundtrack.^{[citation needed]} According to HomeGround, a Kate Bush fanzine, it was scrapped when Disney asked Bush to rewrite the song and Bush refused; however, according to Disney, the song was cut from the film when preview audiences did not respond well to the track. In Asia, pop singer Jacky Cheung's song Something Only Love Can Do, with versions sung in English, Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, was adopted as the theme song for the film.

The Countdown to Extinction attraction at the Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park was re-named and re-themed to the movie, and is now known as DINOSAUR. The storyline was always intended to tie in with the movie, considering the usage of a Carnotaurus as the ride's antagonist and Aladar as the Iguanodon that guests rescue from the meteor shower and take back into the present, seen wandering the Dino Institute in Security Camera footage seen on monitors in the attraction's unloading area.

Reception

Reviews were fairly good earning a 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, with 79 reviewers praising the film, and 42 criticizing it. Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four praising the films "amazing visuals" but criticizing the decision to make the animals talk, which he felt cancelled out the effort to make the film so realistic. "An enormous effort had been spent on making these dinosaurs seem real, and then an even greater effort was spent on undermining the illusion" was his final consensus.

Box office

The film was a box-office success, since its United States take of $137,748,063 covered its production and marketing costs. The film was eventually accepted overseas earning $212,074,702 for a worldwide take of $349,822,765.^[3]

Other media

Disney Interactive released a tie-in video game on the Dreamcast, PlayStation, PC and Game Boy Color in 2000.

References

External links

• Dinosaur at the Internet Movie Database
• Dinosaur at Allmovie
• Dinosaur at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Dinosaur at Box Office Mojo