Dinosaur
Animated
Starring DB Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Hayden Panettiere, Samuel E Wright
Directed by Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag
Written by Walon Green and Thom Enriquez
Score by James Newton Howard
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1, enhanced for 16:9
Sound: DTS
Disney, 2000: minutes
While still a mere egg, Aladar the dinosaur is separated from his family. He is brought up by some friendly lemurs. Then a gigantic meteor falls, causing massive devastation. Aladar, the lemurs, and many dinosaurs set off in search of the Nesting Grounds, where they hope to find safety.
As far as plot goes, this is traditional Disney territory. There are some fairly brutal scenes (dinosaurs fighting) and some moments that are rather intense for what is presumably meant to be a children's movie. Of course, there's ample precedent for that, from Bambi through Sleeping Beauty to Lion King. Parents, you have been warned.
The quality of animation is absolutely beyond belief. The picture is more detailed and vivid than in many live-action films. As a technical achievement, Dinosaur is a landmark: it's worth seeing for the quality of animation alone.
Special features of the DVD
The Special Edition of the film could not be paused or viewed frame-by-frame. I hope that this is a technical foulup and not a foretaste of nuisances to come from Disney. Lighten up, guys!
The Special Edition comes with many, many extra features. The first DVD (the one with the movie) has some interesting material on how some individual scenes were developed. I haven't seen anything from the second disc, but it seems to have a vast assemblage of items, including abandoned scenes, animation tests, and audio track development.
DVD picture
Unsurpassable. Presumably the DVD was mastered directly from the full digital original.
DVD sound
Excellent.
Internet Movie Database links