At this point, I am just powering through Disney’s animated feature films so that I will not have to look at another one ever again, until the next release, of course.  It is simple.  I go on Disney+, I navigate to the Disney specific section, and I start scrolling through the selections under “Walt Disney Animation Studios.”  As I go through them, I mentally check them off: done, done, done, oh, I have not reviewed Dinosaur (2000).  Choice made, it is on with the show.  This one is a little weird, at least in light of recent advancements in animation.  I am sure this seemed like a good idea as it was being produced in the late 1990s.  It looks odd today.  Anyway, here you go.

Somewhere on primeval Earth, a nest of Dinosaur eggs is disturbed by a rampaging predator known as a Carnotaurus.  If the breed name is not enough of a descriptor, think Tyrannosaurus Rex but with two horn-like protrusions on either side of its head.  The eggs belong to the Iguanodon species, which seem to be the cows of the day.  One of the eggs is not damaged by the resulting stampede, but is rather fought over by a variety of scavengers.  It goes on an adventure through the Jurassic Age (or whatever period this is supposed to be) before improbably ending in a conspiracy of lemurs.  That is what you call a group of the Madagascar primates, by the way.  The first thing the inhabitant of the egg sees when it hatches is the face of Plio (voiced by Alfre Woodard).  Against her father, Yar’s (voiced by Ossie Davis), best wishes, Plio takes in the newly born male Iguanodon, naming him Aladar (voiced by D. B. Sweeney).  Soon, Yar and the rest of the conspiracy realize that Aladar is an herbivore, and adopt the Iguanodon as one of their own.  He remains with them despite growing up to be several times their size.  He takes this difference in stride, helping out his adopted family and friends as best he can.  This includes Zini (voiced by Max Capella), who is having trouble finding a partner during the lemurs’ mating ritual.  They are all about to have something bigger to worry about than striking out with the ladies.  As the night is winding down, a giant meteor crashes into the planet nearby, setting off a massive and devastating shockwave.  I kept thinking this is meant to be the one that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, but having watched the whole film, I am not sure.  As for the blast, Plio, her daughter Suri (voiced by Hayden Panettiere), Yar, and Zini climb onto Aladar’s back as he sprints in hopes of finding safety.  They all jump into the water, with these five being the only ones to survive from the island.  Upon making it to shore, they discover a barren landscape devoid of seemingly all vegetation and water.  It does have predators, though.  As they wander, they find they are being stalked by a number of Velociraptors.  Once more they are running for their lives.  What saves them is stumbling upon a herd of other dinosaurs, most of which are Iguanodons.  While there is safety in these numbers, they are led by a merciless fellow Iguanodon named Kron (voiced by Samuel E. Wright).  He makes it clear that they need to keep moving, and any stragglers will get left behind and probably eaten.  Aladar’s confusion over what it is happening leads him to the back of the herd where he meets a few new friendly, er, faces.  These are the ones that also have trouble keeping the pace.  They are all headed for their fabled nesting grounds where they hope to escape the brutal terrain that looks to be spreading.  Kron is annoyed with Aladar’s insistence on helping the weak, and is threatened when Kron’s sister, Neera (voiced by Julianna Marguiles), shows an interest in Aladar.  Further, Aladar preaches a message of cooperation, particularly when he manages to find some much-needed water along their route.  Instead, Kron wants to have the strongest members of the pack get the first drinks.  He also gets the heard going, despite the need for added rest, when he believes there are Carnotaurus’s nearby stalking them.  Neera goes with her brother, while Aladar stays behind to watch over his lemur family and new friends.  This small band ends up finding shelter in a cave during a rainstorm, joined by the equally despotic right, um, claw to Kron, Bruton (voiced by Peter Siragusa).  Bruton is won over by Aladar’s commitment to teamwork, so much so that he stays behind to fight off a pair of Carnotaurus’s that come sniffing around their shelter while the others escape.  A further obstacle is overcome by them working in concert when they find their way blocked at the end of the cave by fallen rocks.  On the other side are the idyllic nesting grounds, a land apparently untouched by the devastation.  A fresh problem arises when they notice that the usual path into this area is dammed by boulders, and impossible to climb.  Aladar takes it upon himself to catch up with the others and show them the alternative route.  When he does so, unsurprisingly Kron wants nothing to do with the upstart and a fight commences.  Kron is shocked when Neera stands between them, enticing the others to follow Aladar.  They also stand their ground with a Carnotaurus, which sees Kron struggling up the rocky face and decides to go after their easy target.  Aladar and Neera go to help, succeeding in pushing the predator off a cliff, but not before it kills Kron.  They are sad, but Aladar and Neera are able to return to the nesting grounds where we end with them welcoming in a fresh batch of eggs.

Recently, I watched and reviewed Tarzan (1999), which has some interesting parallels with Dinosaur (2000).  For example, both main characters are raised by species other than their own.  This is fine.  Yet, there is an idea that came from the era in which Tarzan was originally written (1912) that is all over Dinosaur, and that is survival of the fittest.  In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scientific racism stated that only the strongest (and whitest) people were able to be at the top of society.  These theories get more evil when concepts like eugenics came along, which introduced selective breeding to get rid of certain undesired races.  As odd as this might sound, Aladar stands for the opposite of these ridiculous notions.  This is, and has always been, the stance of the Catholic Church as well.  It largely explains the pro-life movement.  A fetus is a person, though one that cannot fend for itself.  Using the logic of people (or dinosaurs, if you insist) like Kron, such a thing should be cast aside and left for dead.  Aladar takes the view that any practicing Catholic should in wanting to help those in need.  He does so selflessly, too, when at one point it means being left behind by Neera.  This decision is made, though without intellectualizing it like I am, because all life, no matter how fleeting it might be, is precious, has a purpose, and should be protected.  This includes the aging dinosaurs that Aladar stays with to hopefully coax them on to the nesting grounds.

In the introduction to this review of Dinosaur, I referred to it as being “a little weird.”  Talking about pro-life issues in a film about pre-historic beasts is strange enough by itself.  What I also found off-putting is the use of computer-generated animation on top of live-action backgrounds.  I am sure this looked a lot cooler in 2000 than it does in 2023.  As for the story, it is as bland as those images appear today, though nothing objectionable.