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Dinosaur
Buena Vista Pictures


9.2

based on 32 reviews
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based on 5 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG for intense images

Starring Julianna Margulies, D.B. Sweeney, Joan Plowright, and Ozzie Davis

Set at the end of the dinosaur period when the killer comet arrives, the film deals with the legacy the dinosaurs leave for the emerging mammals and the planet.

GENRE(S):	Family/Kids
WRITTEN BY:	John Harrison Robert Nelson Jacobs
DIRECTED BY:	Eric Leighton Ralph Zondag
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 30, 2001 Video: January 30, 2001 Theatrical: May 19, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	82 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

For sheer bravura film making, for creating a cartoon world with real air, flesh, blood and the exhilarating cycle of fear and escape, Dinosaur is tops.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Throughout the history of film, nothing turns campier faster than dinosaur movies. This one will have a much longer shelf life than most.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Doesn't offer anything to adult viewers as thrilling, as shivery, as satisfyingly primal as Steven Spielberg's intricate predator choreography in the original ''Jurassic Park.''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Too bad they didn't skip the gags and one-liners, along with the songs, and go the distance in making this an authentic dinosaur world.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An eye-popping visual spectacle that serves up a vivid picture of what the planet might have looked like when reptiles ruled the Earth.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's a visually stunning film. For every kid everywhere, and for every adult still a kid at heart, the dinosaurs are the thing, and here, finally, Disney does justice to our dreams.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It offers a grim view of prehistoric life: Carnivores slaughter herbivores, though we're spared most direct shots of this violence.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

An undeniable and, indeed, unprecedented technical feat that's a feast for the eye, Dinosaur is less easy on the ear.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

For all the eyepopping splendor and in-your-face reality, this film leaves the viewer unsatisfied and feeling a little cheated out of compelling drama.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I was entertained, and yet I felt a little empty-handed at the end, as if an enormous effort had been spent on making these dinosaurs seem real, and then an even greater effort was spent on undermining the illusion.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An expensive demonstration that all the spectacular effects in the world aren't enough to make a great film - but it's worth seeing for that stunning half-hour alone.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

Parents should note the PG rating. There's little bloodshed, but several fight scenes, lots of loud roaring and some overwhelming special effects sequences could vex younger viewers.

TNT RoughCut Susannah Breslin

Does exactly what it should: Take the wee ones on a vicarious trip through an adventure both visually terrifying and emotionally thrilling at the same time.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

As luxuriant and intoxicating as a theme park ride; more remarkably, it feels like a real movie.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Of course, you expect talking animals in a Disney cartoon; you just may not initially realize that Dinosaur is the three-dimensional equivalent of one.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Dinosaur amounts to 80 minutes of discouraged Cretaceous trudging, punctuated by the occasional fight or stampede and one pyrotechnic coup: a truly thrilling meteor shower.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

If you've seen more films in your life than you have fingers, much of it will be forgotten by the time you floss the last popcorn skin from between your teeth.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Unfortunately, disappointingly dull, a lumbering Bore-us-saurus of a movie.

Film.com Robert Horton

A truly stunning technical experiment.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Fossilized script spoils effects.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

The script is pure Disney formula. Dinosaur offers next to nothing in the way of variation.

Film.com Sean Means

A cool movie and a must-see for anyone who wants to see the next stage in computer-generated animation. But it could have been so much more.

LA Weekly Gerg Burk

There are plenty of gorgeous real-life vistas for adults to look at while stuffing popcorn in their ears to avoid the oversignifyin' music and the hurtin' dialogue.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

In story terms, Dinosaur lays an egg.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A technical amazement that points computer-generated animation toward the brightest of futures, it's also cartoonish in the worst way, the prisoner of pedestrian plot points and childish, too-cute dialogue.

TV Guide Steve Simels

An old-fashioned dinosaur opera, in the worst sense of the term. An obviously formulaic effort, designed more as a cash machine than a piece of cinema.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The occasional big moments are stunning, and kids from the ages of, say, 6 years to 6 years and 3 days will love it. Anyone younger will be scared; anyone older, bored.

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

Offers jaw-dropping visuals, but its troubling images of violence may cause this revolutionary effort to miss the evolutionary boat.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This movie's story must have been computer generated along with its animation.

Time Richard Schickel

Maybe kids will like the movie; their lust for dinolore appears to be insatiable. But the rest of us will yearn for Robin Williams' giddy goofing in "Aladdin."

Salon.com Michael Sragow

"Bambi" meets "Godzilla": Disney goes for the goo in a by-turns gory and sappy new epic of computer-generated images.

Dallas Observer M. V. Moorhead

May find it hard to sit without embarrassment through this bizarre mixture of paleontology, preposterous anthropomorphism, and fuzzy-headed New Age myth-making in which the only thing missing is the show tunes. Thank God for small favors.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michelle P. gave it a 10:
One word: Beautiful.

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Dinosaur Buena Vista Pictures

Dinosaur
Buena Vista Pictures