We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993)

Directors:

Phil Nibbelink
Simon Wells

Writers:

John Patrick Shanley (writer)
Hudson Talbott (book)

Release Date:

24 November 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

A Dinosaur Adventure For The Whole Family

Plot:

Captain New Eyes travels back in time and feeds dinosaurs his Brain Grain cereal, which makes them intelligent and non-violent...

Plot Keywords:

Dinosaur | Museum | New York City | Circus | Friend

Cast

John Goodman	...	Rex (voice)
Blaze Berdahl	...	Buster (voice)
Rhea Perlman	...	Mother Bird (voice)
Jay Leno	...	Vorb (voice)
René Le Vant	...	Woog (voice)
Felicity Kendal	...	Elsa (voice)
Charles Fleischer	...	Dweeb (voice)
Walter Cronkite	...	Captain Neweyes (voice)
Joey Shea	...	Louie (voice)
Julia Child	...	Dr. Bleeb (voice)
Kenneth Mars	...	Professor Screweyes (voice)
Yeardley Smith	...	Cecilia (voice)
Martin Short	...	Stubbs the Clown (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
J.D. Daniels	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Larry King	...	Himself (voice)

Runtime:

64 min | 72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | DTS

Certification:

UK:U | Australia:G | Iceland:L | South Korea:All | Germany:6 | USA:G | Brazil:Livre

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

In the stampede after the crowd discovers the dinosaurs are real, at the point where Louie says, "Meet you in central park, now run," a caricature of Steven Spielberg with an Amblin Logo Baseball Cap and Jurassic Park Logo T-Shirt appears briefly on the left hand side as part of the crowd running towards the camera.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Macy's Parade is going in the wrong direction.

Quotes:

Dr. Bleeb: They're not here. I missed them again because of my endless, shameless lateness. No matter, we'll rendezvous. We'll rendezvous.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Brazil (1985)

Soundtrack:

Roll Back The Rock (To The Dawn Of Time)

A somewhat charming, but strange animated feature.

After the huge success of Jurassic Park, Amblum Entertainment knew that making an animated movie about talking dinosaurs would certainly be a smash hit. Unfortunately, this movie only took in less than 10 million dollars in the USA, and got mostly poor reviews. I can see why the reviews were bad. This is a strange cartoon, and sometimes, for little kids (who this is geared towards), this can be really scary.

With the scarce running time of 72 minutes, or 65 without end credits, this flick moves at a brisk speed. It has to introduce the protagonist kids, Louie, the street wise tough kid, with a soft side just dying to get out, and Elsa, the sweet little girl who sounds oddly similar to Lisa Simpson. The dinosaurs have to be introduced, including how they became smart and nice, and what they're doing in New York city, and who brought them there. It has to scare the little kids with the evil Dr. Screweyes, a circus ringmaster who has a screw for an eye (hence the name), and fears the dark. There's much more to the plot too, including a dinosaur circus, which might scare toddlers to death, and an amusing scene where the dinosaurs walk through a parade singing a catchy tune.

The animation is quite good in this film, about as good as Disney animation was at the time. The characters are likable, including the dinosaurs, all voiced by television actors, led by John Goodman as Rex, the T-Rex. The story is strange, involving rival brothers, Captain Neweyes, and Professor Screweyes. Neweyes created a cereal to make the dinosaurs less realistic and more cartoony, and Screweyes invented a potion that reverses the effect, which works on any being (including humans). Like many cartoons, this is both corny and cheesy, and parents will be looking up at the ceiling or staring blankly elsewhere to avoid the effects of the corny writing. Kids won't care.

Overall, this is an okay movie, but will scare little kids. Parents won't like it, because unlike Disney, Amblum is only catering to the little kids needs, not the parents.

My rating: ** 1/2 out of ****. 72 mins. G.