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Dinotopia
Studio: Artisan
Year: 2002
Rated: NR
Film Length: 240 minutes
Aspect Ratio: Full Frame
Breathe Deep. Fly High!
After Dinotopia premiered on ABC television
last May, a co-worker of mine was a bit disgruntled
that the miniseries had talking dinosaurs in
it, but he said his kids enjoyed it anyway. Thus,
when I received my screener copy for review, I was
a little skeptical about what I was about to watch,
never mind the fact that Dinotopia lasts for
four hours.
This was another one of those moments when I went
into a movie with low expectations and came out of
it on a sugar high. Dinotopia is pretty darn
entertaining!
From Robert Halmi who gave us such grand-scale
productions as The 10th Kingdom, Gulliver’s Travels,
The Odyssey and Merlin brings us the
grandest mini-series production of them all.
Dinotopia was made on a budget of $85 million,
with the effects costing $20 million alone.
Frank Scott (Stuart Wilson) and his two teenage
sons, Karl (Tyron Leitso) and David (Wentworth Miller)
are flying high above the Caribbean sea when the
plane goes down in the water. Karl and David
survive only to find themselves castaways on a
strange remote island.
The first person they encounter on this island
is Cyrus Crabb (David Thewlis), an archeologist
who takes them into town where humans and dinosaurs
peacefully co-exist. Karl and David are constantly
at odds as David becomes peacefully in tune with
his surroundings and Karl only wants to find a means
to go home.
The most wonderful person they meet in their
travels is Marion (Katie Carr), who seems to be
in touch with the dinosaurs around her. She
takes the two boys to the spectacular capital,
Waterfall City. It is there that they meet her
father, Mayor Waldo (Jim Carter). The two boys
enroll in the capital's academy so they can learn
to be Dinotopians. David enrolls in the sky patrol
as Karl works in the hatchery caring for his
newborn dino.
Within the city they meet Zippo, a talkative
Stenonychosaurus who quickly takes a liking to the
boys. But all is not well in the world of Dinotopia.
The sun stones, which provide the life force of
Dinotopia are starting to fail. The city may soon
plunged into darkness and chaos and open for
attack from unfriendly dinosaurs.
In order to save the Dinotopia, the boys must
embark on a dangerous journey that leads them to
the underworld. Along the way they must decide
who can be trusted and who can not.
How is the transfer?
It's a shame that such a beautiful film with
its gorgeous landscapes and set designs is thrown
away in a full-frame presentation. One must
remember however, that Dinotopia was made
for television and the public would probably not
have readily accepted 4 hours of black bars. Go
figure!
What we have is a gorgeous full-frame transfer
that virtually has no flaws. Picture is bright,
crisp and detailed. Colors are wildly vivid from
the lush greens of the island to the sets and
costumes that make up the eye-stunning Waterfall
City. Flesh tones are accurate -- including those
on the "scaly" creatures.
Another unfortunate circumstance of a TV miniseries
is the fact that we only get Dolby 2.0 surround.
Don't despair, however, as this is a very active mix
that makes up for its shortcomings. For starters,
the rears do a nice job of supporting Trevor Jones'
elaborate score. Then there's the effects that never
seem to go silent with an abundant amount of sounds
that feature dinosaur grunts, flyovers and the howling
winds of Canyon City. The LFE channel even seems to
get its share of the action by providing the low bass
rumblings of dinosaur footsteps. Though the sound
is not as directionally distinct as I would have
wanted from a 5.1 track, I think many will be
satisfied with how well this 2.0 track performs.
Special Features
Dinotopia arrives in a deluxe 2-disc
set. The 240 minute film is split amongst the
two DVDs with the first half of the film ending
quite abruptly at about 2 hours on Disc One.
Artisan has packed Disc Two with a large
amount of added material that is sure to please
adults and kids alike. Let's look at it....
Evolution: The Making of Dinotopia is hosted
by everyone's favorite "scaly", Zippo. Divided into
several chapters that covers everything from story to
cast to production, we begin with Executive Producer
Robert Halmi who talks of the challenge of bringing
a film that interacts humans and dinosaurs to the
screen. Actors Tyron Leitso, Wenworth Miller and
Katie Carr talk about the premise of the miniseries
as well as their individual characters. We go to
the Jim Henson Creature Shop where Technical Director
Verner Gresty holds up the highly sophisticated
animatronic #26 dinosaur. As we take a look at how
this creature was created from mold, we can't help
but marvel at the radio controls that operate this
puppet, making it seem so realistically alive. We
are soon brought to the tremendously huge set of
Waterfall City as Production Designer Walter
Martishius talks about his challenges of shooting
this film sometimes 60 feet high in the air just
to cover a shot of a dinosaur. We watch as an army
of painters and carpenters put together this immense
set. Visual Effects Supervisor Michael McGee takes
us through the advanced methods of combining a
computer on the set with camera movements to
accurately combine the animated dinosaur elements
with its real-life surroundings. How do you get
to play ping-pong with a dinosaur? "Zippo" Animator
Quentin Miles takes us from the dinosaur's virtual
models to mike sessions where his voice was added.
This is a rather complete and informative featurette
that comes off as enjoyable.
(length: approx. 18 minutes)
We go to the famous Abbey Road Studios for An
interview with Music Composer Trevor Jones. Here
we learn why the composer prefers a big symphony in
scoring film as opposed to synthesizer music. The
priority in creating music for a large-scale movie
about dinosaurs is by somehow being able to draw the
audience into believing the created world. You can
watch how this is done as a camera moves through a
symphony of musicians who are performing a beautiful
passage from the film. We learn that Trevor also
created the scores for Gulliver's Travels and
Merlin. Trevor sums up this piece by talking
about how difficult it can be for composing for an
effects film like this where there are never completed
images to reference and most of what he is creating
is done out of reading the script and relying on his
imagination.
Want to know how the initial T-Rex attack on Karl
and David was conceived? Watch the storyboards
in a window that plays above the final footage of
the film.
This is really cool! When you click on Dinosaur
Encyclopedia, a friendly female voice prompts
you to select from a group of 9 Dinosaurs. When
you select your creature, you are brought to its
own individual screen where you get vital statistics
on the dinosaur. Select HEAR ME to hear how that
animal sounds. Kids are going to have a great time
with this feature.
Don't be surprised when your child starts writing
you secret messages in footprint code. You may have
to reference the Saurian Alphabet to decipher
the complete letter and numeric alphabet of Dinotopia.
Travel Through Dinotopia with the aid of
your female guide and a 3D computerized map that
lets you select any area of the island. When you
make your selection, narrated video footage gives
you all the vital stats on that selected area. This
is another cool feature that kids will enjoy browsing
through.
A very short animated photo gallery cleverly
takes you through stills of some of the most
memorable moments of the film.
(length: under 2 minutes)
Two Deleted Scenes are presented here. The
first deleted sequence was probably the film's
original opening as we see David and Karl trying
to get through airport security with the bottle
of Jack Daniels they bought for their father's
birthday. This scene establishes how wealthy the
boys father is, as they are picked up outside the
airport in a limo. The second deleted scene has
a very bored Karl inquiring about night life on
Dinotopia only to be offered a jigsaw puzzle in
exchange. Both scenes are fairly short and don't
add anything to the film.
(length: approx. 5 minutes)
In addition to the mini-series trailer, there
are also trailers included for Jack & the
Beanstalk, Snow White, Stranded and Snow
Queen. There is also a promotion for the
Hallmark Channel.
A Cast Biography gives us background on
the film's three young stars while a Filmmaker
Biography not only gives us information on
the primary filmmakers, but Framestore and the Jim
Henson Shop as well.
An included preview of Game Boy's Dinotopia:
The Timestone Pirates also includes a few tips and
tricks for players.
Here's another nice game for the kiddies....In
26's Maze Game you must help the dinosaur
locate the 3 sun stones hidden inside a maze. As
you find each stone, you go to the next level of
the maze. Find all 3 sun stones and you get
treated to some classic film footage.
Finally, the DVD-ROM features a few
goodies such as a Dinotopia Trivia Game, a
Skybox Pilot game, a sound gallery and even
access to the film's production storyboard.
Final Thoughts
I had so much fun with Dinotopia. It's
an exciting adventure that has all the elements
of Jurassic Park, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and
The Wizard Of Oz all rolled into one film.
Forget about the talking dinosaurs -- it's a
small price to pay for a beautiful and highly
adventurous miniseries that I never expected to
see on television. With beautiful set designs
and top-notch special effects (the dinosaurs look
extremely convincing), Dinotopia can easily
be your DVD utopia.
At an online price of under $15, this is a must
buy DVD -- especially for the fact that Artisan
has really put together extra material that will
keep the dinosaur-hungry kids playing with their
remotes for hours.
Release Date: Now
