Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 1993. That movie is "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story".
Yes, guys, similar to a few other movies I've covered for this series, I never actually got a chance to watch this back when I was a kid. In fact, the first time I ever heard about it was probably around 10-15 years ago. I *may* have recalled it airing briefly on TV once before, but I never actually watched any of it. Luckily for me, I managed to find a copy of this movie for under $5 at one of my local video stores. So, needless to say, it was a pretty good deal.
So now that I'm finally getting a chance to watch this thing, I should probably tell you what little I do know about it. Well, I know it has something to do with dinosaur's, just basing off the title. And somehow, someway, they end up getting transported from the past to the present. I also know Steven Spielberg is one of the executive producers of this movie, and I also know this movie is based off a children's book with the same name. Whether or not it's actually accurate to the book is something I can't say. I've never read it, obviously. But then again, I'm not one of those sad bastards who demands for perfect accuracy to the source material, like how most people are with nowadays. So, make of that what you will.
Beyond that, guys, I have almost no idea what to expect from this thing. I'm hoping for it to be decent, however, it could also just show it's age and wind up being a pile of shit. But again, I have no idea if that's the case or not. The only way I am gonna find out is thing is watchable at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story".
5 minutes later
So this bird just realized that the person he's been talking to is actually a dinosaur. But instead of actually being surprised by the fact that he's seeing a living, breathing dinosaur, he instead asks why he's playing golf. Odd, because if it were me, I would ask why the hell is a dinosaur still alive, despite the fact that dinosaurs have been extinct for ages, *then* I would ask how the hell does he know how to play golf. But hey, perhaps that's just me.
2 minutes later
All right, guys, I just learned a very valuable lesson today. If you want to make a dinosaur talk with our language, all you have to do is feed it cereal...OK. I would like to know how exactly feeding a dinosaur cereal would make it talk, but since I don't make cereals, I would be the wrong person to ask this.
4 minutes later
So...let me if I understand this. This old guy created a "wish radio" so that he can hear the wishes of children from any time period. Ignoring the origins of this radio for a moment, if he can hear the wishes of these children, how exactly is he suppose to be granting them with his flying time machine? Is it his day job to just go back through certain points of time to find what these children are wishing for so that he can grant them it? I already have a *bunch* of questions, guys, and I'm not sure if any of them is actually gonna get answered.
12 minutes later
Wait, so the reason why Louie decided to run away to join the circus was because his mother was giving him kisses in public? What fucking sense does that even make?! OK yes, it's a little embarrassing, but I don't really think it's worth running away for, especially to join the circus of all things! God, that is just a dumb fucking reason, you know what I mean?
16 minutes later
OK, I have a bit of a dumb question here, and I know it's probably not gonna get answered, but I want to ask this. So our two main protagonists just signed some sort of contract with their blood to Professor Screweye's circus, and their dinosaur friends just arrived moments after they "signed" the contract. If they know he's dangerous and everything, then what's stopping them from just taking the contract away from him and ripping it apart? If you do that, then I'm pretty sure there's no more reason for them to stay, right? It would make the most sense to me. But then again, I'm probably putting too much logic into a children's film, and I have this strange feeling that they're not gonna do the sort of thing I just suggested. Calling it now.
14 minutes later
You know, guys, I probably should've picked this up the first time Professor Screweyes did this to the kids, but apparently, his screwed-up eye gives him the power to mind control his victims. That's actually sorta cool...and yet, I have to ask how the hell was he able to obtain these sorts of powers? I'm really curious about that now. However, if I attempted to put more logic into this movie, then I don't think it would be good for my head, so I may as well just roll with it, I guess.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. So...where to begin with this one? Well, I guess I can say that the movie isn't really all that bad, but it's not exactly a great film, either. It's just sort of average at best. Now if I had seen this back when I was a kid, I would've loved it. I mean, what kid didn't like dinosaurs? I mean, it's possible that you could find those sorts of children, but you would be hard-pressed to actually find them. However, being that I'm seeing this movie now as an adult, I don't really feel that kind of nostalgia here unless if I had actually watched the film back when I was growing up. So perhaps that's just my own fault for not seeing this movie sooner.
But anyway, rather than me delving on the what ifs, let's just dive right into this review, shall we? I'm gonna start with the writing. And the first thing I need to get out of the way is that this movie is almost immune to logic. You may have noticed from my reactions that I kept asking questions about things that didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. Like the wish radio that Captain Neweyes has that allows him to hear the wishes of all the kids from different time periods, or how his cereal is able to make the dinosaurs seem smarter once they talk, or how exactly Professor Screweyes has the ability of mind control and how did he get these powers? It's stuff like that which is never explained, and I don't really think this movie was aiming for the smarter crowd here. It's clearly meant to entertain younger audiences, and in that concept, it does it's job fine enough. Now mind you, the movie does have it's share of problems, which I will get more into in a moment. But unlike another children's film I covered in the past, which was "Candy Land: The Great Lollipop Adventure", the logic issues here don't bother me as much. Where with the Candy Land movie, the logic issues existed because the characters in that thing were all idiots. And while there are instances of idiocy here, it's not to a point where I feel angered about it. So I just wanted to get that out of the way first before I start talking about my issues with the film in general.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let me start getting into the issues that I have with the movie. Now while I'm able to overlook most of the minor issues that I mentioned earlier, the one loophole that still nags at me the most is when after the kids sign the contract for Professor Screweyes' circus. Like I mentioned earlier, as soon as Professor Screweyes starts to show the kids around his dark circus, the dinosaurs show up to try and warn the kids about how bad of a person Screweyes is suppose to be and that they should get out of there. To which Professor Screweyes retorts saying that they signed a contract with their blood, meaning that they can't leave the circus for a very long time. Mind you, he's still holding the contract, so why didn't any of the dinosaurs just grab Screweyes and take the contract from him by force so that they can rip it apart, thus the kids don't have to be contractually obligated to stay at the circus? It doesn't really make that much sense, especially when you consider that they follow him into one of his tents where he has these magical tablets that he forces the kids to take which temporarily turns them into monkeys. And unless the dinosaurs stay in their place and take the tablets that turns them back into rampaging monsters, then Professor Screweyes can't rip the contract and let the kids go. All of that eventually ends up happening, so the kids can be let go. But honestly, this whole thing could've been avoided if the dinosaurs actually just got a hold of Professor Screweyes and forcefully took the contract from him and ripping it apart. On the other hand, considering that they're technically 'smarter' now, I guess maybe they had too much of a conscience to do something like that. I don't know if that's the case or not, but it is something that did kind of bother me a bit.
The other issue I had with the movie are the characters. Specifically, I'm talking about our two main child characters, Louie and Cecilia. I feel like for both them, they kinda get shafted when it comes to their development. Of the two, Louie is probably the worse off from it, because the reason why he leaves to go join the circus is because his mom apparently gives him kisses in public. And that's somehow suppose to be humiliating for him enough to go 'screw it! I'm gonna run away to join the circus!' It really makes no logical sense to do this because, again, while it sounds a little embarrassing to have his mother giving him kisses in public, it really is a dumb motivation for him to run away like he did. OK sure, his wish was that he wanted a friend, but it's still a really weak motivation for him to go through with all this is what I'm saying. And as for Cecilia, she honestly is the more interesting character of the two, because she has more of a layer of depth to work with. Basically, she's the neglected child because her parents are always away all the time and that she never gets to see them. You really do feel for her character, and it would've been a lot more interesting too if it was more focused on her rather than adding Louie to the picture, mostly because he's really kind of bland and boring. The other characters are also not that great, with maybe the one lone exception being Professor Screweyes. He really is an intriguing villain in concept, where he just runs a circus that scares people and that he has mind control powers. That, to me, sounds really awesome. And without going into spoilers, the ending involving him is rather...dark. Cool, but pretty dark, especially for a children's film. But otherwise, he is somewhat more of a cookie-cutter villain overall.
Beyond that, guys, the writing here isn't really that great. As a children's film, it's fine for what it is. But as a whole, it's almost immune to logic, and if you try to think about it too hard, then you're most likely not gonna be able to enjoy this movie. Now as much as I'm able to kinda rail on the writing, I can't really rail against the acting, because the acting is actually really good here. The most notable ones I could make out were John Goodman, Yeardley Smith, and Martin Short. Goodman usually does really good voice-work, so it was pretty natural for him to voice someone like a dinosaur. Yeardley Smith is mostly known as the voice of Lisa Simpson, and it was pretty easy to decipher her voice since it's pretty much the same voice she provides for Lisa Simpson. And as for Martin Short, well, believe it or not, this is actually one of his more tolerable performances in terms of his voice-work. After listening to him as B.E.N. from "Treasure Planet", this was definitely much better. Mostly because he's not in the movie for that long, and it's much less annoying as well. Granted, I understand that's not saying very much, but it's at least something. And as for everyone else, well, like I said, the acting here is pretty solid, and they all had something to work with their given roles. So I gotta give props to all of the cast members here. They really did an awesome job with their roles.
Animation here is also another big positive I can definitely give this movie. The animation in this movie is really good. But then again, it was also produced by Amblin Entertainment's animation studio, which is also responsible for producing movies like "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West" and "Balto". So it would make sense for the animation to look this good. Granted, there may have been one moment where Cecilia's eyes widened in a shot and it looked really off-putting to me, but it's only for one scene and you never see something like that again afterwards. The rest of the animation though, is really smooth and the color pallets are utilized really well, too. There is a little bit of CG involved here as well, and that's just mostly for stuff involving buildings. It's admittedly not that bad, at least for 1993 standards. So at least there is that. But overall, guys, the animation here is mostly great, and I can't add anything more to that.
Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music, at least in terms of it's score anyway, is pretty good. The only song in the movie that I actually do remember is "Roll Back The Rock". Which admittedly, I didn't even know that it was a song which was originally sung by Little Richard. But I will say that after getting a chance to listen it a little bit during the beginning of the closing credits, Richard's version was actually really good. Mind you now, Goodman's version is perfectly fine, as well. However, I don't consider John Goodman to be a great singer. So it's just something you have to take for what it's worth. But regardless, both songs are fine. I just prefer Little Richard's version over John Goodman's on a personal level.
Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story"? Um...kind of. Like I said earlier, if you either have kids in some capacity, or if you have some sort of nostalgic feelings for it, then I would say go for it. It's really cheap to find a copy nowadays, and if you have a little over an hour to spare, then by all means, go ahead and check it out. You might actually end up really liking it. However...seeing as how I never had any nostalgia for it to begin with, what with me watching this thing for the first time for this review and all, I don't see myself ever watching it again. And that's kind of a shame because I do think that if I had seen it when I was a kid, then I would've loved and I would've seen it many times over, flaws and all. I've done that with many films such as "Rock-a-Doodle", the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie, and "Doom" to a lesser extent. But I can't say the same for this one. This movie, for me anyway, is just OK. It's not really awful, but it's not really something worth going back and re-watching again. At least for myself, anyway. But hey, at least I didn't have to spend too much on this, so I guess that counts for something, right? Anyway...you know what, since I just mentioned "Rock-a-Doodle" a moment ago, I'm gonna go and re-watch that again. It's been a little while, so I'm gonna go and re-watch that next, because I have more fond memories of that movie, and it's a personal favorite of mine from Don Bluth. So I'm gonna go do that next after I get done typing this review up.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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