torsdag 31. desember 2015

"Dinosaur"; Disney's Brief Venture Into The(ir) "Land Before Time"

Hi folks! Welcome to my My Own Personal Nerdy Disney and Animation Scrutinizing Analysis blog. A blog where I'm analyzing several Disney films, Disney or Animation in general! These entries are just meant to be my analyses. Not reviews or statements. Just fun analyses! Though I'll make some personal remarks now and then, the content of these entries are meant to be depicted objectively. They're made for entertainment purpose only and the pictures/clips are copyright Disney or other companies. 

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This entry was originally written when we got Pixar's first venture into the dinosaur territory. So I thought I could synergize with this entry about Disney's previous dinosaur movie. Which was simply called Dinosaur.


Yes, it's the opposite of comfortable to have that many dinosaurs inside of my eye. What did you expect? :)


In many ways, dinosaurs have always been perfect creatures to depict in movies. Due to the fact that they're extincted creatures who don't exist on this planet anymore (whether it's unfortunate or fortunate it's debatable, haha) and therefore can be easily brought to life on film. Perhaps that's what triggers people's fascination for them. For being exotic and rare creatures who's extincted from this planet today. It wouldn't be an understatement to confirm that movies about dinosaur are rarely know for elaborate and complex plotlines (for obvious reasons). But they've still been regular re-visitors in cinematic history and TV shows.



At least I can have this
Jaw open... for a minute :)














A Short Dinopedia

You'll be surprised if you'll survive this walk :)
One particular task with most dinosaur movies is to make the dinosaurs look as real and believable as possible. An daunting task, but a interesting one. Yet dinosaurs have appeared in different mediums and often in animation.
Don Bluth and Steven Spielberg's The Land Before Time is among the well-known features about dino's (which has turned into a vast, extended franchise). And you don't need a reminder of what a huge phenomenon the Jurassic Park franchise has been! Now we've gotten a reboot with the franchise. 2015's Jurassic World became one the most grossing films at the time. And it's sequel grossed $ $1,308,467,944 millions to date! Even the successful Ice Age-franchise had dinos in their third movie (despite some reservations from members by the crew).
We're Modern Family, the dino versions :)
Of course dinosaurs have been regulars on other animated TV shows, Like Denver The Last Dinosaur, which was about a lost dinosaur living with current humans. And speaking of which, let's not forget the stereotype of dinos and cavemen existing together in the same time period. As evident in the unknown The Flintstones (yes, note the sarcasm, folks ;)



We're the dysfunctional One Direction and
 we don't know why we are so! :)




Of course dino-movies have a long history prior to these features, starting with the short Gertie the Dinosaur in 1914. But we're not having a dino movie encyclopedia here, are we? ;) But at least dinosaur are perfect for stop motion, animatronics and last, but not least CGI. The CGI in the original Jurassic Park received a lot of praise for it's CGI during it's time. And the use of CGI have improved a long way since. Yet CGI was actually used for this feature that we're going to discuss.







History of Disney`s Dinosaur
 
Dinosaur was unique at the time for having CGI characters against real backgrounds. Though it was initially conceived as a stop motion picture. It was uptil then the most expensive film ever made from Disney, at $127.5 million dollars!
It's no understatement to say that Dinosaur was Disney's first big film for the millennium. But it was never included among the canon list, until it was mysteriously added almost a decade later to make Tangled the 50th feature (way to mess up your list, Disney).
As with most post-Aladdin films, Dinosaur had a summer release. But it was also a rare CGI feature without Pixar at the time. Disney merged with the studio The Secret Lab to have their own equipment (though Disney originally wanted to rent George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic IML for the job). While hesitating at first, Disney wanted to differentiate their dinosaurs from Pixar by giving them their own look.



I'm so cute that you'll forget that I could chew you when I grew up ;)



Final Reputation

Unfortunately Dinosaur haven't stood the test of time. While it was far from a flop financially (grossing §349,822,765 Worldwide), it's general reception was lukewarm from critics. The same could be said about the public, who didn't warm up to the movie. Which is probably the reason why has become somewhat semi-forgotten today.






 
 
But what hampered Dinosaur from being a so-called classic?









First Theory: Comparisons to The Land Before Time


Of course he doesn't look like me, I cloned him! :) Duuh :)
Yes, I'm curious if you're an actual gorilla or an costume :)














Reasons For The Simple Storyline/Discarded Ideas

No, we're not those
from The Lost World :)
 
 











 
 
 
Second Theory: The Dinosaurs Talking
 
Another criticism is how general audiences were repulsed by the dinosaurs actually speaking. Well, that complaint is legit enough. Especially due to how naturalistic and realistic they look. Which pretty much could be said about the rest of the film. The pantomime opening was put as a trailer. Which was a conscious choice, to replicate The Lion King buzz. The teaser captivated (and frightened) moviegoers, but obviously gave them false expectations about the movie. And therefore disappointed them.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
My Own Opinion About the Speaking Dinosaurs/Some Trivia and Scrutiny


Personally I was never repulsed by the dialogue! For some reason I thought it worked Though it's remakarble how in true Disney fashion (and once again), the protagonists/good dinosaurs are given dialogue. While the predators and certainly the Carnotaurus (who were originally scavengers) are "mute" and naturalistic (kudos for not choosing Tyrannosaurus Rex this time!) But fortunately the voice actors never overshadows the characterizations in this movie (the ruthless Kron was voiced by The Little Mermaid's Samuel E. Wright, who played Sebastian).
Originally the film was conceived as being completely pantomime. And afterwards having an Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey-route with the characters, by having their voices in the background without having the characters actually talking. But the crew never found it compelling.
Several people (and scientifics) were also outraged by the inclusion of the lemurs in the same time period as dinosaurs. Why actually having lemurs at all is in an interesting question. But it was a conscious choice from the get-go (but remarkably enough Tarzan broke that rule as well, since it had lemurs and they only live in Madagascar).



I tried so hard to sing You'll Be in My Heart that he wanted to hear more, I fell asleep :)



My Own Theory About it`s Dismissal/Rating

Perhaps Dinosaur came at the wrong time. Perhaps audiences weren't
truly ready for a Disneyfied dinosaur movie. Perhaps Dinosaur never really resonated enough with an audience to spell them. Perhaps also due to Dinosaur can be perceived as neither fish nor fowl; Being too scary for kids and too simplistic for adults (though of course this could be subjective).
Don't mistake me for El Toro ;)
Despite it having it's puns and wisecracks (especially Neera's line; "That children, is known as a Jerkasaurous"), it's wasn't praised for them, either. 
Dinosaur is rooted and steeped in Disney's famous and pivotal components. But it was Disney's first film in fifteen years to receive a PG rating since The Black Cauldron (one that The Hunchback of Notre Dame deserved as well).
Despite being quite cute and fluffy, Dinosaur is not particularly too syrupy either. It's dark, gloomy and even explicit at times! More than expected, actually! Even the happy ending has a bittersweet feel to it (due to that we know what happened to dinosaurs at the end). Though it would be easy to label the happy ending as too Disneyfied and contradicting with history, the creators claimed that the movie was about how the dinosaurs adapted and survived the meteor strike. And how it was the beginning of the end of the dino era (though not all of the species in the movie lived in the same time period).



We didn't know how to build a sandcastle, so therefore this result! Blame our thumbs! :)




 What Dinosaur Received Praise For: Visuals

I'm not letting him watch The Jungle 
Book more from now on :)
The components Dinosaur did receive praise for, were it's visuals and music. There's no denial that Dinosaur is
visually a strikingly gorgeous film. Even many years later, the animation hasn't aged badly. And it seamlessly integrates the characters with the backgrounds (at least most of the time). At least the integration between characters and backgrounds are better in Dinosaur than it was on the other delayed dinosaur flick, Pixar's The Good Dinosaur (though it was fully in CGI). Released 15 years later, The Good Dinosaur had realistic backgrounds, yet jarringly cartoony character designs which felt more out of place than it would on an Ice Age flick (Sorry for being snappy, guys, but I found this blend jarring). The Good Dinosaur turned out to be Pixar's first commercial disappointment, after the brief success with Inside Out.
The most impressive about Disney's Dinosaur's visuals is how much detail and care were given to the skin to the dinosaurs. It's impressive and it's possible to see the ripples on their skin. As well as the fur to the cute lemurs, modeled after real sifaka lemurs. An entire new computer system was made for the fur. But the lemurs weren't the only inaccuracy, as grass was present in The Nesting Grounds sequences.



 



 






Music
 
The score was written by James Newton Howard. Dinosaur was a rare Disney animated feature at the time to not have any songs at all, not even the end-credit single. Though Howard initially wanted to place a few songs in certain places (the Courtship and the Aftermath), they never quite worked within the movie. Kate Bush had originally written a song that was excluded, because it didn't resonate with audiences. Disney asked her to rewrite the song and Bush refused. Though Dinosaur was far from Disney's first non-musical film ever made, it certainly began the new trend of non-musicals which Howard would successfully score for in the future (as Atlantis The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet).
The eclectic score itself, while being loud and boisterous at certain
parts, is actually quite well made and pull of the right strings. But a head-scratching part of the soundtrack is the inclusion of Lebo M! It was actually a conscious choice by Chris Montan, to give the score some flavor to some sections! Though the intention was to not replicate a The Lion King feel, the chants still have an African feel to it. It's may be an odd compromise, but still not something mismatched either (despite that the crew were apprehensive about it at first).










Epilogue

Despite it's shortcomings, Dinosaur has grown to become a guilty pleasure of mine. My love for the film has grown since I initially saw it. I consider it to be an odd, but genuinely good film with great visuals, score and various  memorable scenes. While I was initially underwhelmed by the movie for all it's aforementioned flaws, the film has happened to grow on me, nonetheless.
The characterizations, while not being unforgettable, are neither awful. The aforementioned opening has been praised by critics, along with the meteor strike.
It`s been the first Disney film since Fantasia to feature dinosaurs. And at least they`ve managed to make the dinosaurs look realistic. And yes, it's pretty fair to call this film as semiforgotten. Whether that staple is truly fair or not is up to you to decide. The same with whether the movie is truly comparable to Pixar's The Good Dinosaur. But at least it didn't ended up of being a blatant copy of Disney's Dinosaur. While Dinosaur may not be the big crowdpleaser, it's memorable on it's own right. So if you want to visit Disney's version of Jurassic Park, then give it a try ;)



This time it started with an egg, though Walt would hate me for using this phrase ;)



References;
Dinosaur Collectors Edition DVD.
Dinosaur - The Evolution Of An Animated Feature (Jeff Kurtti)
Starlog Special Edition; Dinosaur.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030203052904/http://www.animated-movies.net/Dinosaur.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130623/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/
http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/history-of-dinosaur-movies.php 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/jurassic-world/history-of-dinosaurs-in-cinema/ 
https://www.google.no/?gws_rd=ssl 
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4406&p=.htm
Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs Blu Ray