Reviewed by Steven Kiernan
Stars the voices of Alyssa Milano, Jamie Kennedy, Kathy Griffin, Wayne Knight,
Michael Clarke Duncan, Malcolm McDowell, George Segal, Diedrich Bader | Written by Sean Roche
UK certification U | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 72 minutes | Directed by Davis Doi
Remember the original illustrated story, Dinotopia? It was set on an isolated island where humans and talking dinosaurs lived hand in, um, hand (foot? claw?). The combination of gorgeous oil paintings with a Victorian-era adventure story became a worldwide bestseller and spawned numerous, lesser, spin-offs. This animated feature is one them.
It starts out in modern suburban America. Orphaned tween Kex (we know he’s cool because he skateboards and has an ‘x’ in his name) leaves home to seek adventure, stows away on a freighter and arrives on Dinotopia. He meets some dinosaurs, finds the family he never had, and solves some problem with a lost MacGuffin (the ruby sunstone) and an evil so-and-so trying to take control of Dinotopia.
With a decent-enough line up of voice actors, the least we could ask for here would be a fun romp for kids with enough going on above their heads to keep parents vaguely interested. It doesn’t even provide that. Instead, we get a straight-to-DVD Disney-style plotline in which the titular dinosaurs could be replaced with any weird and wacky creatures. The realism of the original stories distinctly absent, plus it’s way too cutesy. He may have a skateboard and spiky blonde hair, but Kex is only like Bart if he was born an Osmond instead of a Simpson.
There’s a reason why reference books on dinosaurs were always on loan from my school library. It’s the same reason why the Jurassic Park franchise was so huge. Audiences of all ages love to ponder how humans would co-exist with the Earth’s previous tenants. If they turned out to be as annoying as the prehistoric reptiles in this film, best they really are extinct.
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