Dinosaur

The computer-animated film Dinosaur is a rollercoaster ride through the world of the prehistoric reptiles. The story is exciting but predictable, so for long stretches the film survives on being spectacular and good-looking.

By chance a dinosaur egg ends up far away from its parents, and the dinosaur Aladar is raised by small lemurs. A meteor shower destroys the lemurs' island, and Aladar saves only his closest lemur family. They come ashore in a strange place, where Aladar for the first time meets members of his own species, who are on their way to the lush nesting grounds, but the road is long and hard. Time and again a dinosaur succumbs, and what is worse, a pair of bloodthirsty, gigantic predators are hot on their heels. Aladar refuses to leave the weak behind, and in the end he and some others actually find a new route to the nesting grounds, one that the old male Kron cannot get to.

The film is most effective when the animals are animals and do not look all too human and speak English. Fortunately there is relatively little dialogue in the film. There is simply too much Disney in it when the animals talk to each other. Then a few jokes absolutely have to be fired off as well.