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Review
Archives
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Today's
Date is:
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Dinosaur:
Collector's Edition
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Reviewed
by: |
Justin
Sallows |
| Genre: |
Sci-Fi |
| Video: |
Anamorphic
1.85:1 Widescreen |
| Audio: |
Dolby
Digital 5.1, DTS |
| Language: |
English,
French |
| Subtitle: |
English
|
| Length: |
1hrs
22mins |
| Rating: |
PG
|
| Release
Date: |
January
30, 2001 |
| Studio: |
Disney
|
| Commentary:
|
2:Director
and effects supervisors; Producer and production team |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
|
13
(1-8 min.) |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
3
Trailers, 4 TV Spots |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
6
|
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
Production
Notes, storyboards, production art, 14 effects and alternate
scene vignettes, 7 sneak peeks, puzzle, game, dinopedia, 3 easter
eggs, posters, audio mix demo, progression reels with commentary,
multi-angle progressions, turnarounds |
| Cast
and Crew: |
D.B. Sweeny,
Julianne Margolize, Della Reese, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis |
| Screenplay
by: |
Written by:
Walton Greene |
| Produced
by: |
Pam Marsden |
| Directed
By: |
Eric Leighton
and Ralph Zondag |
| Music: |
James Newton Howard |
| The
Review: |
Although
it was not critically lauded at the time of its release, I really
like Dinosaur. Although the integration of CG dinosaurs with
a live action backplate is not as photorealistic as Jurassic
Park or even Walking with Dinosaurs, it is believable. You forget
that they are combined elements just as you would an effects
heavy action film. The story, while somewhat lightweight, is
compelling enough for us to forget for an hour and a half that
dinosaurs are extinct. The film begins with a sweeping journey
of an egg as it is fought over by dinosaurs and swept up by
Pteronodons. Eventually it lands on a small island populated
by lemurs. The orphan (a Disney staple) iguanodon Aladar's raised
by the primates. When the great meteor strikes the earth it
decimates the island and Aladar is forced to flee with a small
band of his "family". They join a band of various dinosaurs
as they trek to the breeding grounds. On this journey Aladar
bumps heads with the determined and brusk leader Kron and finds
love in his sister. He also befriends two aging dinosaurs who
are constantly pulling up the rear. If one were to inject politics
into the film, Aladar is the consumate liberal that believes
they all can make it together by helping the weaker animals,
and Kron the conservative that only believes in the survival
of the fittest. It's this conflict that's at the heart of the
story as they are each determined to exercise their individual
ideals. The herd is torn between the two until the finale with
the two Carnotaurs that have been tracking them catch up. While
these themes are somewhat simplistic, they do hold the film
together in a coherent narrative that we can identify with in
our every day lives. The acting is good and never over the top
as this type of fare runs the danger of doing. It's the sheer
look of the film that impresses the most. The sweeping vistas
give Dinosaur a size and scale that's fitting. The characters
themselves are a little cartoony and characterized, but overall
very successful in their realization. You would think that a
movie so dependent on the alignment of multiple elements would
have a "locked-off" look to it, but Dinosaur is very fluid,
zipping the camera around, even running between the legs of
a racing Carnotaur. This is an experience that bears several
viewings to take in all it's beauty. The score is also very
powerful, particularly in the stampede sequence. During the
lemur pairing ritual, the Lion King roots of the composer are
evident. Dinosaur is a successful venture that you should not
deny yourself. |
| Image
and Sound |
Let me put
it simply, Dinosaur is the best looking DVD I've ever seen.
The colors jump off the screen. The blacks are pitch black with
no artifacting to be found. The contrast is so excellent your
TV will almost fool you into thinking it's an HDTV. I can't
wait to actually get one because this DVD must look like a window
into the Cretaceous! I can't say enough glowing things about
it. Keep in mind that there was no film involved because it
was just loaded from the computers at Disney. There isn't the
slightest hint of grain, dust or dirt anywhere. This is the
new standard of DVD. Let's hope others follow in Disney's footsteps.
The audio is superb and very involving. Split-surround effects
are evident and the score thunders through all channels. The
dialogue is crisp and clean. The sound effects were all created,
so there was no possibility of noise during the production that
could have degraded it's quality. An extremely impressive transfer
all the way around. One note. I had a Samsung DVD-909 that refused
to play this disc. I was so angry I bought a new player that
day (Toshiba SD2300) that had no problems. I have heard that
Disney is aware of this flaw that affected some customers but
I don't know exactly what they're doing about it. |
| The
Extras |
Complimenting
this fantastic transfer is a bevy of supplements to keep you
busy for hours on end. On disc one, you will find 7 sneak peeks(trailers)
of various Disney projects including Atlantis, The Hunchback
of Notre Dame II, and the really cool-looking Atlantis game.
Under Special Features you can examine Dinopedia, an encyclopedia
of the dinosaurs seen in the film. There is a puzzle, Dinosearch,
and a game called Aladar's adventure. This is kind of a neat
first-person Myst-type game where you must find missing dinosaurs
and water while dodging the hungry Carnotaurs. The break-through-the-wall
ending is a little frustrating but keep at it. Lastly on disc
one (aside from the commentaries, is the Film Fact Fossil Dig.
These are 14 vignettes that offer added insight into specific
sequences, even an alternate ending. These can be accessed individually,
via the scene selection menu, or with an icon that you can choose
to have pop up at the appropriate time in the film a la The
Matrix's white rabbit feature. On disc two you really get into
the belly of the beast. A deluge of sections appear on a menu
simulating a computer screen. There are seven main sections
for Development, Creating the Characters, The Production Process,
Music & Sound, Abandoned Scenes and Publicity. Each of these
sections have 3-5 subsections and some of these have subsections.
Put all together, you will have an in depth overview of the
making of Dinosaur. Development kicks off with 4 different test
and presentation reels no doubt used to impress the brass and
jazz the crew. They are entertaining and give a peek at how
the idea progressed. Originally Aladar had a beak, as real Iguanodons
did which is shown in these early reels. It's pretty obvious
the beak had to go. Throughout this disc are several still galleries
that preserve dozens and dozens of storyboards and production
art. The first is found in development as they try to establish
the look and feel of the film. Also in development is the first
of 3 easter eggs! Just click the T-Rex skull to see this 6 minute
clip introduced by Walt himself! It is perhaps the first bit
of animation ever shown to a captive audience. It's kind of
a vaudeville act with a live actor interacting with a cartoon
dinosaur named Gerty. The next section, Creating the characters
contains two 7 min clips regarding the creation of the dinosaurs
and one 7 minute clip about the lemurs. These are accompanied
by many stills of production art. The Production process pertains
to bringing it all together. From location scouting to the inserting
of the CGI characters. An 8 minute featurette talks about this
and a 4 minute one refers to the "Monster Cloud" effect in particular.
Also in this section is a multi-angle demonstration of the progression
from story reel, to rough animation and to the final composite.
Following this are three 4 minute sequences of same only with
commentary instead of multi-angle. This section also contains
the second easter egg, Outtake Errors. These are computational
flaws that occurred during rendering. A curious if pointless
feature. Music and Sound contains two 3 minute clips and an
audio mixer which lets you discover how a sequence sounds with
any combination of music, dialogue and sound effects. There
are 6 abandoned scenes in the next section in various stages
of development. All are interesting if decidedly unneeded for
the story. Of particular interest is a sequence where Aladar
rescues his grandfather from crocodiles while the herd crosses
a river. Of most interest in the Publicity section is the final
easter egg. Recycle Rex is a 12 minute educational cartoon about
the joys of recycling. A cute feature, if somewhat out of place.
WHEW! Now that's a packed set! I found all these supplements
informative and fun. My one beef is the still sections because
it took a few sections to blow up the picture once you selected
it. Then you have to wait a couple more once you go back to
the menu of thumbnails. Note: When I viewed these with my Samsung,
the player would refuse to return to the menu once a picture
was selected. |
| Commentary |
Well if
you still want more after all that there's plenty. Not one,
but two commentaries are available. I don't know how they fit
them on the disc with two 5.1tracks, DTS and the above mentioned
features. Both tracks fill in the blanks left by the supplements,
and in some cases repeat them. Although these were very informative,
they were a little stiff for me. These guys are all real computer
geeks and they don't pull punches when talking up the specs.
I think all the people involved with both commentaries worked
very close together, because they almost say the same things.
Where one would track be talking about a scene that just went
by, the other would just be starting on a current one, so you
could literally flip between them like changing a channel and
not really be able to tell the difference.At times it feels
like they're reading stereo instructions they are so detailed.
I'm sure that will be right up some people's alley though, it
just got a little boring for me. |
| Final
Words: |
Wow, what
a set! This is what DVD is all about. An excellent transfer
with involving split-surround sound, and enough supplements
to choke a horse! You won't get through all this in one sitting
unless you have one of those blow-up hemorrhoid things! Plan
on spending the weekend with this baby. I understand Disney
is going to make their box sets even better in the future starting
with Snow White at the end of 2001. I'm crossing my fingers
The Lion King is next. If they are anything like this then I'll
be first in line. |
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