Dinosaur
(2000/Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B+ Extras: C Feature: C
Steven
Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993) was
such a huge hit and technical groundbreaker that a dinosaur-mania also followed
that included its huge sequel in 1997 and dozens of other films, TV shows,
documentaries and even a few animated projects.
The most ambitious and expensive attempt to catch the wave was at the
end of the cycle when Disney and Michael Eisner decided to gamble $200 Million
dollars for an ambitious computer animated project simple entitled Dinosaur. It was not a huge hit, but it was popular
enough to break even.
Taking
its cue from a groundbreaking sequence in their 1940 classic Fantasia, the project would revisit the
rise and fall of the largest creatures to ever roam the earth, complete with a
narrative and usual story of a child displaced from some from of parental
protection and face the “scary” outer world.
Though fairly good here, we have seen this before. The real attraction here is and remains the multi-layered
animation that was more of a unique event in its time, but still a big curio
now, especially in high definition Blu-ray.
Co-directed
by Eric Leighton (who did visual effects work on Robocop 2 and the recent King
Kong) and Ralph Zondag (who previously directed the wacky We’re Back!
A Dinosaur’s Story and was an animation director on The Land Before Time), all the work
here is a real labor of love, with serious commitment that shows. This is even when
Nine
writers worked on the project, while D. B. Sweeney, Alfie Woodard, Ossie Davis,
Max Casella and Juliana Margulies are the main known voice actors. Also, in a plus for the film, there are no
songs. In any animation, that can get
tired quickly, but the creators decided to go a different route and that is
another reason it may have some of the fans it does. If you have not seen it, you should check it
out once to see if it is for you. One
thing is certain. It is a one-of-a-kind
production we will never see again.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is pretty good for its age, especially
considering how quickly most computer animated features become dated. The color schemes were always meant to be a
bit muted, but it always worked against it.
Some of it looked dated on arrival back, but this version reveals
details and aspects of the animation only professional theatrical DLP
projectors could have shown before. That
makes for one-of-a-kind digital HD viewing and animation too boot. Though simpler in its animation, the incredible
trailer for Disney’s other non-Pixar animated feature Chicken Little due on Blu-ray from the demo disc being shown in
home theater stores all over is even more amazing. Both are a strong sign of more goodies to
come from The House Of Mouse in their legendary forte.
The sound
is here in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 that are fine, but no match for the
uncompressed PCM 5.1 48kHz/24-bit mix, which shows how much money and time was
put into the sound design. This is more
like it for the format, which has sported many 48kHz/16-bit mixes, but nothing
on this level. It may not be a sonic
match for the better SACDs and Blu-rays, but its clarity, mix with some
character and punch is impressive even when the film is not. It will be an audio demo for this format for
a long time to come, including for its bass and soundfield. James Newton Howard’s score is not bad
either.
Extras
include an analysis of the comet impact sequence dubbed The Monster Cloud, Louie Schwartzberg’s Origins short (both in HD) and an audio commentary track with
visual effects supervisor Neil Krepela, digital effects supervisor Neil Eskuri
and co-directors Zondag & Leighton.
Obviously, Disney has more extras in the vault, but considering this is
a 25GB disc, that is an impressive amount of performance and value added
features. That makes Dinosaur an early demo favorite
everyone will be talking about!
- Nicholas Sheffo
